About the Conference Program Chairs
 | Dr. John Elder heads a data mining consulting team with offices in Charlottesville Virginia, and Washington DC (www.datamininglab.com). Founded in 1995, Elder Research, Inc. focuses on investment, commercial and security applications of advanced analytics, including text mining, stock selection, image recognition, process optimization, cross-selling, biometrics, drug efficacy, credit scoring, market timing, and fraud detection. John obtained a BS and MEE in Electrical Engineering from Rice University, and a PhD in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, where he’s an adjunct professor teaching Optimization or Data Mining. Prior to 15 years at ERI, he spent 5 years in aerospace defense consulting, 4 heading research at an investment management firm, and 2 in Rice University's Computational & Applied Mathematics department. Dr. Elder has authored innovative data mining tools, is a frequent keynote speaker, and was co-chair of the 2009 Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining conference, in Paris. John’s courses on analysis techniques -- taught at dozens of universities, companies, and government labs -- are noted for their clarity and effectiveness. Dr. Elder was honored to serve for 5 years on a panel appointed by the President to guide technology for National Security. His book with Bob Nisbet and Gary Miner, Handbook of Statistical Analysis & Data Mining Applications, won the PROSE award for Mathematics in 2009. His book with Giovanni Seni, Ensemble Methods in Data Mining: Improving Accuracy through Combining Predictions, was published in February 2010. |
 | Isaiah Goodall heads the Washington, DC office of Elder Research, Inc., the US’s leading data mining consulting firm, headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia (www.datamininglab.com).
As the director of the DC office, Isaiah heads business development for Elder Research and manages client relationships at several Federal government agencies and private corporations to provide fraud detection, case allocation, and Human Resources analytics. Mr. Goodall also managed a large and very successful warranty fraud detection effort for a world-class consumer electronics firm. Isaiah has spoken about fraud detection and data mining at conferences including Predictive Analytics World (www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com) and the Association of Government Accountants (www.agacgfm.org). Prior to Elder Research, Isaiah co-founded RelayFoods.com, a novel, growing e-commerce company in Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia. Isaiah graduated from Virginia Tech summa cum laude with a B.S. in Business Management. |
