Explanatory Data Analysis

Insights from data

Dr. Matthijs van Leeuwen, group leader
Dr. Matthijs van Leeuwen
Associate professor
Group leader

The EDA group at LIACS, headed by dr. Matthijs van Leeuwen, develops algorithms and theory that enable domain experts to describe data and predict using interpretable patterns and models.

We focus on exploratory data mining and interpretable machine learning. The goal of the former is knowledge discovery, i.e., to gain new insights from data, whereas the goal of the latter is to make intelligible, data-driven predictions. Regardless of the objective, we aim for algorithms that are accurate, principled and reliable, and can be guided by the analyst (in order to exploit prior knowledge).

Our research builds on the state of the art in information theoretic data mining (e.g., using the minimum description length (MDL) and maximum entropy principles), statistical pattern mining, and interactive data exploration and analytics. More broadly speaking, our research can be situated in the fields of data mining, machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence (AI).

We often work on interdisciplinary projects, as we strongly believe that this leads to interesting, fundamental data mining and machine learning problems for which the solutions we propose have the potential to positively impact society.

News and updates

Welcome Francesco!

1 September 2022

Dr. Francesco Bariatti has joined the group as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Francesco!

Dr. Hugo Proença

26 October 2021

Hugo has successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Hugo Proença!

Congratulations!

6 August 2021

Congratulations to Atish, Floyd, and Milou, who successfully defended their MSc/BSc thesis projects!

Dr. Sarang Kapoor

14 June 2021

Sarang has successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Sarang Kapoor!

Group changes

1 April 2021

We welcome Atish, Eric, and Milou to the group, while congratulations go to Siri and Michiel for successfully defending their theses!

Two new PhD students

2 November 2020

Two PhD students have joined the EDA group working on the Digital Twin research programme. Welcome Ioanna and Zhong!

EDA is part of

LIACS
Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science

SAILS
Society Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences

Leiden University
Leiden, the Netherlands

CLAIRE
CLAIRE Research Network