About the Authors
Dr. Anasse Bari holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science with a focus on Data Mining from George Washington University. He is an entrepreneur and a Fulbright scholar. Dr. Bari is a clinical assistant professor of computer science at New York University, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He was previously professor of computer science at George Washington University where he was awarded the computer science Professor of the Year award in 2014, and was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for his nomination for the United States Professor of the Year Award.
Anasse has over ten years of experience in designing large-scale software applications and engineering analytics frameworks under different platforms for both the public and private sectors.
Dr. Bari has recently worked closely with leadership of the World Bank Group for many years as a data scientist where he was leading enterprise data analytics projects. Dr. Bari was the recipient of the World Bank Spot award for his extraordinary efforts in service of the organization. While at the World Bank, he attended an executive design thinking program at Stanford University. Dr. Bari is a renowned speaker and his research has been focused on predictive analytics, data mining, and information retrieval. He is the author of several research publications published at peer-reviewed venues on data mining with practical applications in financial analytics, social network analytics, bioinformatics and text mining.
Anasse lives in Manhattan in New York City.
Mohamed Chaouchi has a master’s degree in computer science from the George Washington University. He has over 15 years of experience in software development and project management in the public and private sectors.
He is an application architect and technical lead, responsible for building software applications with high business impact and visibility. His technical expertise includes service-oriented architecture, web services, and application security.
Mohamed has extensive experience working with management and IT leadership, participates in information technology governing boards, and represents his division at inter-organizational conferences.
Mohamed has conducted extensive research using predictive analytics and data mining in both the health and financial domains. He has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals in cancer research and ocean-data integration.
He is also an inventor of an issued patent for a data-mining platform to analyze cancer development.
Mohamed currently lives in Kensington, MD, with his wife Jennifer and his son Zacharia.
Tommy Jung holds a bachelor's degree in computer science. He is an entrepreneur, investor, and consultant. He spends most of his time building software and analyzing data.
Tommy has over 15 years of professional experience in technology. He has worked extensively on natural language processing and machine learning in his days at a speech recognition company and then turned his focus to web applications, optimization, and analytics. He was the head of operations at UmeVoice, where he played various roles inside the organization, including operations, engineering, and marketing. He has also worked at several Fortune 500 companies as a software engineer or consultant. His expertise encompasses predictive analytics, data mining, natural language processing, web development, A/B testing, database marketing, search engine optimization, and search engine marketing.
While not working, Tommy enjoys playing chess face-to-face with his daughters, online with his friends, and sometimes elsewhere (he may pick up a game or two on a downtown bench). He currently lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and two young daughters.
Dedication
Dr. Anasse Bari: I dedicate this book to my parents Rachida Bargach and Ali Bari, and to my siblings Nima and Mounir Bari.
Mohamed Chaouchi: This book is dedicated to my wife, Jennifer, my son Zacharia, and my parents, Fatima El Bote and Mohamed Chaouchi.
Tommy Jung: This book is dedicated to my daughters, Tiffany and Victoria. To Tiffany, thanks for keeping me on track with my chapters and always thinking about me. To Victoria, thanks for keeping me company late at night (way past your bedtime!) and making me laugh.
Author's Acknowledgments
We were able to write this book thanks to the help and support of the great people at John Wiley & Sons. Thank you to Susan Spilka for getting the conversation started. Thank you to our acquisition editor Amy Fandrei, whose idea it was to write this book, and for her guidance, support, and encouragement. We greatly appreciate the support and advice of our project editor, Pat O’Brien, who kept us on target throughout the writing of the book.
Thank you to Barry Childs-Helton for his valuable edits, and to Dr. Smita Rajpal Kachroo, and Keith McCormick for their technical review. We are grateful to Steve Hayes for helping us whenever we needed it. And thanks to all the other members of the Wiley team that we did not have direct contact with and who have helped produce this book.
Dr. Anasse Bari: My thanks and deepest appreciation goes to Professor Abdelghani Bellaachia of the George Washington University who introduced me to, and sparked my interest in, data mining since day one of my doctoral degree. His guidance and ingenuity has profoundly influenced me as a scientist. I would also like to thank Jennifer Fulton for providing invaluable insights and extensive revisions, and José Pablo Cambronero and Usayd Casewit for their helpful reviews. I would like to thank my dear friends the Casewit family, Elvina Kamalova, Daron Bedrosyan, Adil Abaz, and Amine Chergui, for their support. I would also like to thank my co-authors (and friends) for their dedication and hard work that enabled us to meet all deadlines.
Mohamed Chaouchi: I would like to thank my beloved wife, Jennifer Fulton, for being my first sounding board, asking me great questions, and providing invaluable suggestions. And my amazing son, Zacharia: You are my source of joy and my inspiration for everything!
I would like to also thank my co-authors (and friends) for their effort and commitment to this project.
Tommy Jung: I would like to thank my beautiful wife Jenine, and kids Tiffany and Victoria, for always making each day special. Thank you again for giving up some of our precious weekend family time to allow me to write this second edition. Thanks for always being by my side and encouraging me to write. I would like to thank my parents, Michael and Holly Jung, for always encouraging me to make a difference, to work hard, and to take on new challenges with open arms. I would like to thank my father and mother in-law, Jerry and Joellyn Gor, for being there for my kids when Jenine was on business travel and I needed some extra time to do some writing. I would like to thank my brother Jimmy Jung for his ideas and feedback. If he can understand what I wrote, then anyone can (of course, we brothers never tease each other).
I’d like also to thank my co-authors (and friends) for being so easy to work with. It’s always a pleasure to work with you guys in every capacity.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
Project Manager: Pat O'Brien
Technical Editor: Keith McCormick
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Project Editor: Tamilmani Varadharaj
Cover Image: wongwean/Shutterstock