Methodologies from machine learning in data analysis and software

Abstract

In the last few decades the rise of computing and telecommunications has flooded the worlds of government, business, medicine and engineering with unprecedented volumes of stored data. These databases provide the raw material for information supply but have been largely impenetrable as potential sources of expert knowledge. Computer-oriented techniques can now be used, however, in integration with established methods from classical statistics to generate rule-structured classifiers which not only make a better job of classifying new data sampled from the same source but also possess the quality of clear explanatory structure. New developments in the computer induction of decision rules have contributed to two areas, multivariate data analysis and computer assisted software engineering. Practical connections between the two are thereby coming to light. This paper reviews some of the more significant of these developments. © 1991 The British Computer Society.