PACE Data Mining Boot Camp 1 (April 15-16, 2015)
 
FAQ’s

Certification
We provide certificates of completion for each one of the Boot Camps and can provide a certificate of completion for the series upon request if required.

Cancellation Policy: In order to best serve our attendees, SDSC’s PACE has a firm cancellation policy. Cancellations or changes must be made in writing at least 10 days prior to the first day of class and credit will be issued to your original form of payment. Within 10 days only credit will be given. Credits must be used within one year from the start date of the canceled program. Students who are no shows will not be eligible for a credit and may not reschedule.

Directions
The San Diego Supercomputer Center is located on the campus of UC San Diego.  Boot Camps are held at SDSC’s Synthesis Center E-B143/144. This room is located just off the east lobby, behind the stairs to the right. From the Hopkins Parking Structure you would exit on Hopkins Drive (to the east), head south to the next building and take the stairwell into SDSC’s lobby.
http://www.sdsc.edu/about/Visitorinfo.html

Actual street address is:
10100 Hopkins Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0505
Phone: 858-534-5000
Google maps (although it identifies the location just south of our building): https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Food
The Boot Camp program provides a continental breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack and drinks. Selection includes vegetarian options throughout. Please contact paceinfo@sdsc.edu if other dietary requirements are needed.

Laptop Required
The Boot Camps are designed as hand-on courses and do require that you bring a laptop with administrative privileges and wireless connectivity. Wireless is available to all attendees through SDSC and UC San Diego networks.

Preparation
Boot Camp 1 &2: Please install both R and Weka software prior to your arrival.
R Studio (statistical programming language)
Follow “download RStudio Desktop”
http://www.rstudio.com/ide/download
and
WEKA (data mining software)
Follow “Download” link on left hand side of home page: http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/
Download the Stable book 3rd ed. Version

Remote Participation

Remote participation is not available at this time for the Boot Camp series.

Recommended Reading
Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, Third Edition
Witten, Frank, Hall

Requirements or Prerequisites
If you are considering Boot Camp 1 we recommend basic familiarity with statistics and personal computing, but by no means do you need to be a statistician or computer scientist. You will need to be able to navigate around your personal computer, and either have the ability to install or have software installed for you in advance, by your IT staff if there are security considerations.  We will be using WEKA and R software in the hands on portion of the bootcamp, but you do not have to have any prior knowledge with the software. The tool will be presented as part of the program.

Do I have to take BC1 in order to take BC2?
  No.  However, Boot Camp 1 and 2 are designed to be taken in a series. BC1 provides a hands on introduction to Data Mining, including theory, tools (Weka and R), data preparation techniques and predictive methods. BC2 builds upon what was learned in BC1 to include more complex techniques, methods and scaling.  This hands-on course emphasizes advanced learning techniques including Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Text Mining, Collaborative Filtering, Bayesian Networks and Temporal Data Mining.

Wireless Access
Wireless is available through SDSC and UCSD networks at all training locations.