PROFILING A POPULATION OF EXAMPLES IN A PRECISELY DESCRIPTIVE OR TENDENCY-BASED MANNER

1 . A computer-implemented method for profiling a population of examples, the method comprising:

creating, by a computer system, a rule collection comprising a plurality of rules, wherein each rule describes a respective corresponding sub-population of the examples according to a conjunction of a plurality of feature-value pairs; and

generating, by the computer system, a precisely descriptive profile by performing a search process on the rule collection to identify a rule that either maximizes or minimizes a value of a user-specified target feature in the respective corresponding sub-population.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the search process is implemented using a beam search algorithm.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the search process is implemented using a Monte Carlo search algorithm.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the search process maximizes a utility measurement for each rule in the plurality of rules.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the utility measurement is based on a deviation (above or below) of the user-specified target feature in the respective corresponding sub-population from the mean value of the user-specified target feature in the population of examples.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the utility measurement is further based on a weighted function of the value corresponding to the user-specified target feature and a sub-population count proscribed by the rule.

7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the utility measurement is the magnitude of the Z-score of the respective corresponding sub-population, implicitly defining a weighting between population count and a target feature deviation from the mean.

8 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the utility measurement includes a constraint selected from (i) a first constraint that the respective sub-population must include a minimum number of population members or (ii) a second constraint that the respective corresponding sub-population must comprise a minimum percentage of the population.

9 . The method of claim 1 wherein the number of feature-value pairs in the plurality of rules is bounded by a user-specified parameter.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

prior to creating the rule collection, performing a pre-processing process on the population examples comprising:

identifying a plurality of ordinal features included in the population of examples which correspond to the user-specified target feature;

dividing the plurality of ordinal features into a plurality of bins according to corresponding feature values; and

performing a condition creation process for each rule comprising:

identifying a subset of the plurality of bins having a significant deviation from the mean value of the population with respect to the user-specified target feature, and

combining ordinal features included in the subset of the plurality of bins.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the pre-processing process further comprises:

identifying a plurality of nominal features included in the population of examples; and

during the condition creation process for each rule, combining the plurality of nominal features into disjunctive subsets of the population of examples.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises an iterative process comprising:

removing a particular sub-population covered from by the precisely descriptive profile from an example collection; and

repeating the search process on remaining examples in the example collection to generate a second precisely descriptive profile.

13 . A system for profiling a population of examples, the system comprising:

a database configured to store a rule collection comprising a plurality of rules, wherein each rule describes a respective corresponding sub-population of the examples according to a conjunction of a plurality of feature-value pairs; and

a plurality of processors configured to generate a precisely descriptive profile by performing a search process on the rule collection to identify a rule that either maximizes or minimizes a value of a user-specified target feature in the respective corresponding sub-population.

14 . A computer-implemented method for profiling a population of examples, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, a user-specified target feature;

determining, by the computer system, a performance measurement for each example in the population with regards to the user-specified target feature;

identifying, by the computer system, a sub-population of the examples based on the performance measurement determined for each example, wherein the sub-population comprises one of (i) highest performers with respect to the user-specified target feature or (ii) lowest performers with respect to the user-specified target feature;

determining, by the computer system, a population mean value for the user-specified target feature across the population;

identifying, by the computer system, feature-value pairs from the sub-population that deviate from the population mean value by more than a predetermined threshold value; and

displaying the identified feature-value pairs.

15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

performing similarity-based clustering on the sub-population to generate a plurality of mutually exclusive sets;

for each mutually exclusive set, determining a first deviation value indicative of a degree to which the mutually exclusive set deviates from the population mean value with respect to the user-specified target feature; and

displaying the first deviation value associated with each of the plurality of mutually exclusive sets.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

for each mutually exclusive set in the plurality of mutually exclusive sets, determining a second deviation value indicative of a degree to which the mutually exclusive set deviates from other members of the plurality of mutually exclusive sets with respect to the user-specified target feature; and

displaying the second deviation value associated with each of the plurality of mutually exclusive sets.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of mutually exclusive sets are produced hierarchically on the sub-population.

18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the similarity-based clustering produces a quasi-optimal number of mutually exclusive sets by an iterative process comprising:

creating a new set; and

successively adding clusters to the new set until the new set does not significantly differ from one or more prior sets.

19 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the computer system comprises a plurality of processors and the similarity-based clustering is performed in parallel.

20 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the computer system comprises a plurality of processors and each processor is configured to operate on a subset of the population in order to identify examples in the subset of the population meeting predetermined performance criteria.

21 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the computer system comprises a plurality of processors and each processor is configured to determine cohort deviation values over successive slices of the population in parallel.

22 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

identifying, by the computer system, a plurality of cohorts in the population related to the user-specified target feature;

identifying, by the computer system, additional feature-value pairs from the plurality of cohorts that deviate from the population mean value by more than the predetermined threshold value; and

displaying the additional feature-value pairs.

23 . A system for profiling a population of examples, the system comprising:

a network interface configured to receive a user-specified target feature;

a plurality of processors configured to:

determine a performance measurement for each example in the population with regards to the user-specified target feature,

identify a sub-population of the examples based on the performance measurement determined for each example, wherein the sub-population comprises one of (i) highest performers with respect to the user-specified target feature or (ii) lowest performers with respect to the user-specified target feature,

determine a population mean value for the user-specified target feature across the population, and

identify feature-value pairs from the sub-population that deviate from the population mean value by more than a predetermined threshold value; and

a display configured to present the identified feature-value pairs.