“Adulteration has become a major issue in developing countries. In addition, population explosion coupled with urbanisation and changing life styles is leading to many metabolic and degenerative disorders,” outlined Dr. H. Honne Gowda, Director, Department of Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka.

As an invited guest at the National Conference on Applications of Data Mining in Management of Metabolic and Degenerative Disorders, he was addressing nearly 200 delegates who participated from across the country.

The conference was organized by the Amrita School of Arts and Sciences at Mysore.

“Computer technologies provide the best solution for maintaining and handling large amounts of data in health care management,” the invited guest emphasized.

Data mining is a field of study in computer science that makes it possible to extract useful information from a database of medical records. Examining relationships and patterns in datasets helps in gaining new insights and unearthing new medical knowledge.

How science is moving increasingly from hypothesis-driven to data-driven discoveries was expounded on by keynote speaker, Dr. K. P. Soman, Head, Computational Engineering and Networking, Amrita https://www.amrita.edu/news/new-undef-funded-project-women-empowermentishwa Vidyapeetham.

Dr. Soman touched upon the emergence of high performance computing in universities today in his address.

Dr. Prem Nair, Medical Director, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, noted that data management had revolutionized many fields but had not yet made the same impact in the field of medicine.

He also reverentially recalled hos Chancellor Amma had the far sightedness to suggest the introduction of information technology in the Amrita hospital more than a decade ago.

Various plenary sessions enlightened delegates on Alzheimer’s disease, time series analysis, biometrics, biometric sensors, web usage mining and web personalization. The talks focused on opportunities for research scholars in the field of data mining.

In the valedictory session, Sri. G. Madhusudhan, MLC, South Graduate Constituency and Dr. S. Ananth Raj , Executive Secretary, Vision Group of Science and Technology spoke.

The fact that our metabolic disorders are because of our changed eating habits was highlighted again. The Sanskrit dictum, Akala Bhojanam Anarogya Karanam was quoted.

Thirty-five delegates presented research papers. Two best paper awards were announced. Sagar B. from L&T Mysore (guided by Dr. Somashekar Umadi) shared the award with a team of Amrita engineering students Pavan Kumar, Srinath S Kamath, C P Shankar Menon and Pramod S. (guided by Dr. Ganesh Udupa).

“The presentations provided new insights into the concept of data mining,” stated Shruthi, a delegate from Hubli, who attended.

“The deliberations were excellent,” added Dr. Hanumanthachar Joshi, Principal, Sharada Vilas College of Pharmacy, Mysore.

“The event was well organized,” summed up Prof. T. N. Nagabhushan, HoD, Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore.

April 26, 2012
School of Arts and Sciences, Mysore