“KDD Summer School – Data-Driven Intelligence” was Successfully Held in Southwest Jiaotong University

      The “2017 KDD Summer School – data-driven intelligence”, hosted by ACM SIGKDD China Chapter (KDD China) and organized by Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), was successfully held in SWJTU (Jiuli Campus) from 22 to 24 July 2017. The summer school was supported by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education. Professor Qiang Yang (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) and Professor Zhihua Zhou (Nanjing University) were the Honorary Presidents of the Summer School. Professor Yu Zheng (Microsoft Research) was the Academic Director. Professor Tianrui Li (SWJTU) was the Organization Director. A number of well-known scholars were invited to deliver lectures on the basic algorithms and advanced applications of data mining. All the authors of KDD 2017 accepted papers from China were invited to share their work. Hundreds of students all over the country attended and enjoyed this summer school together.

      The opening ceremony of summer school was held in the morning of July 22. Professor Yu Zheng, the Secretary General of KDD China, an adjunct professor of SWJTU, presided the ceremony. Professor Wengui Zhang, the Vice President of SWJTU, delivered the welcome speech that he warmly welcomed the arrival of scholars and students on behalf of SWJTU, and stressed the significance of this summer school for the research on big data in China. Then, Professor Xiaofan Wang, the Vice Director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education, expressed his heartfelt thanks to all the scholars and students. He hoped to host more such academic activities in Sichuan in the future. Professor Zhihua Zhou, the Honorary President of the Summer School, introduced ACM SIGKDD and KDD China, and showed the previous academic activities organized by KDD China. Professor Tianrui Li, the Organization Director of the Summer School, introduced the School of Information Science and Technology, SWJTU together with the key lab of Cloud Computing and Intelligent Technology (CCIT). Finally, Professor Li expressed a warm welcome to all the scholars and students to participate in this summer school, and wished all the student can benefit from the three-day study.

      This Summer School, “Data-Driven Intelligence”, focuses on current research on artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data. The organizers invited Professor Bing Liu (AAAI/ACM/IEEE Fellow) from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Professor Philip Yu (ACM/IEEE Fellow) from Tsinghua University, Professor Qiang Yang (AAAI/IEEE/AAAS/IAPR Fellow) from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Professor Enhong Chen (Recipient of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars) from University of Science and Technology of China, Professor Yu Zheng (ACM Distinguished Scientist) from Microsoft Research, Dr. Guirong Xue (the Founder of Tianrang Network Technology Co. Ltd), Professor Minling Zhang (Young Yangtze River Scholar of Ministry of Education) from Southeast University, Associate Professor Peng Cui (First Young Talent of China Association for Science and Technology) from Tsinghua University to deliver lectures. In addition to the above well-known scholars, 13 researchers who were the authors of KDD 2017 accepted papers from China shared their work to more than 200 students. Moreover, the organizers specially set up a Poster Session of KDD 2017 papers, which provided a face-to-face opportunity for students to communicate with the top conference authors.