Feature selection in data-driven systems modelling [keynote speaker 1]

Summary form only given, as follows. Feature selection (FS) addresses the problem of selecting those system descriptors that are most predictive of a given outcome. Unlike other dimensionality reduction methods, with FS the original meaning of the features is preserved. This has found application in tasks that involve datasets containing very large numbers of features that might otherwise be impractical to model and process (e.g., large-scale image analysis, text processing and Web content classification). This talk will focus on the development and application of FS mechanisms based on rough and fuzzyrough theories. Such techniques provide a means by which data can be effectively reduced without the need for user-supplied information. In particular, fuzzy-rough feature selection (FRFS) works with discrete and real-valued noisy data (or a mixture of both). As such, it is suitable for regression as well as for classification. The only additional information required is the fuzzy partition for each feature, which can be automatically derived from the data. FRFS has been shown to be a powerful technique for data dimensionality reduction. In introducing the general background of FS, this talk will first cover the rough-set-based approach, before focusing on FRFS and its application to real-world problems. The talk will conclude with an outline of opportunities for further development.