SMU professors win major awards at international data mining conference
Professors Lim Ee-Peng and Zhu Feida from the School of Information Systems were recognised at the recent Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD) Awards.
Two Professors from SMU’s School of Information Systems were honoured with awards at the 23rd Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD). Held this April in Macau, the PAKDD is one of the leading international conferences in this field, and all the papers published for PAKDD are peer-reviewed by a committee of international researchers in data mining. Typically, less than 30 percent of these papers are accepted.
The Chair of the PAKDD Awards Committee, Professor Jaideep Srivastava, said at the event: “This is the very first time that faculty from the same institution have received both these awards in almost 25 years of history, and should be considered a significant milestone. It speaks volumes about the quality of not only the faculty, but also of SMU and the programme these faculty members are part of.”
Associate Professor Zhu Feida: PAKDD Early Career Award
Associate Professor Zhu Feida’s research focuses on data mining, AI, and blockchain technology, with an emphasis on their business, financial and social innovation applications. He won the PAKDD Early Career Award, which recognises individuals who have shown exceptional promise to become a star in their field. This is Professor Zhu’s second award from PAKDD; he received the Best Student Paper Award from the conference in 2007.
He says: “It is hugely encouraging for me to continue in my efforts to integrate research, education and industrial collaboration, to explore and empower the value of data intelligence for the benefit of business, financial and social innovations.”
Professor Zhu was previously a founding director at the Pinnacle Lab for Analytics with China Ping An Insurance Group at SMU, which focused on social media and mobile data mining and analysis for the finance industry. The lab has developed customised application platforms powered by big data engines for Fortune 500 companies from various industries.
He has registered more than 30 patents and published over a hundred peer-reviewed research papers at leading international conferences, and one of his current research projects is titled SYMPHONY, and it is a blockchain-based protocol which aims to enable transparent and privacy-conscious data usage which will benefit individual users and data consumers alike.
Professor Lim Ee Peng: PAKDD Distinguished Contributions Award
Professor Lim Ee Peng received the PAKDD Distinguished Contributions Award, given to individuals who have established an international reputation through their scholarship, and organisational and service contributions to the field.
He says: “Other than sharing this honour with my research collaborators and students who have made my research journey an exciting one, I hope to continue promoting more knowledge discovery and data mining research, education and technology development in Asia Pacific, so as to support innovation and adoption for improving societal well-being.”
A Lee Kong Chian Professor of Information Systems and Director of the Living Analytics Research Centre at SMU, Professor Lim has always been interested in making his research relevant to the trend of data usage in business and social applications. He has identified three key challenges faced by businesses and societies today: unstructured content, multiplicity of data sources, and distillation of knowledge from data.
