Danai Koutra
 
CV

Education

  • Carnegie Mellon University, USASep. '10-present
    PhD in Computer Science, Computer Science Department
    • Area: Data Mining and Machine Learning
    • Advisor: Prof. Christos Faloutsos
  • National Technical University of Athens, GreeceSep. '05-July '10
    Diploma, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (5 yr.)
    • Division: Computer Science
    • GPA: 9.82/10.00 (Summa Cum Laude - ranked 1st)
    • Diploma Thesis: Approximate sequence matching with MapReduce
    • Supervisor: Prof. Timos Sellis
  • Arsakion-Tositsio Ekalis, Greece'93-'94 & '95-'05
  • Coopersale and Theydon Garnon C E Primary School,'94-'95
    London, England

Work Experience

  • Mentoring Yu Gong (Masters student) ,Sept. '12-present
    for her Masters project with the CMU DB group on brain graph mining.
  • Carnegie Mellon University, Graduate Research with
    Christos Faloutsos
    ,Fall '10-present
    Currently, I am working on graph summarization, graph similarity, graph matching, compression, anomaly detection in graphs (using graph analytics or tensors), and data modeling. I have also worked on belief propagation on large heterogeneous graphs, and analysis of P2P data. I am interested in developing scalable algorithms for data mining tasks, and applying machine learning algorithms (e.g., belief propagation) in large, time-evolving graphs in order to find patterns and outliers. My goal is to develop algorithms that help "understanding large graphs".
  • Research Intern at IBM TJ Watson Research Center,May-August '12
    I interned at the Social Networks Analytics Group, and my mentor was Hanghang Tong. My work was on graph matching for data mining applications. Result: 1 paper under preparation, filing 7 patents.
  • Mentoring Jay-Yoon Lee (Masters student) ,May-August '12
    for his summer project with the CMU DB group on anomaly detection.
  • Mentoring Cheng Chang (senior student) ,May-August '12
    for her summer project with the CMU DB group on graph mining.
  • Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS) & National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)Spring '10
    I conducted research for my diploma thesis.

Teaching Experience

  • Teaching Assistant for the course "Artificial Intelligence: Representation and Problem Solving" (15-381/undergraduate)Fall '12
    Instructors: Ariel Procaccia and Emma Brunskill. Carnegie Mellon University. designed the webpage
  • Guest Lecture for Multimedia Databases and Data Mining (15-826) Spring '12
    Carnegie Mellon University.
  • Teaching Assistant for the Graph Analytics Workshop September '12
    Carnegie Mellon University.
  • Guest Lecture on Sorting and Query OptimizationSpring '12
    for Database Applications (15-415).
    Instructor: Christos Faloutsos. Carnegie Mellon University.

Invited Talks

  • University of Maryland, March '12
  • University of Athens, Greece, January '12

Conference and Journal Reviews

  • WWW, Knowledge and Information Systems (KAIS)

Grant Proposals

  • Helped with NSF Proposal "Know Thy Enemy: Data Mining meets Networks for Understanding Malware Dissemination" (Jan. '12), the abstract proposal "What's weird in this tera-scale graph?: Cloud-y" Anomaly Detection" for the HP Labs' Innovation Research Program (Jan. '12), and a white paper on Social Networking (May '12). "

Graduate Coursework

Finished with the Ph.D. program course requirements!! :D

Other Ph.D. Requirements

  • Writing Skills (will complete in Fall '12)
  • ITA Test (Spring '11)

Awards and Honors

  • Award from the Technical Chamber of Greece for ranking 1st among the students of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), 2012.
  • Thomaideio Award - awarded to the top student graduating from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), 2011
  • Kondoulis Award - awarded to the top student graduating from National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), 2011
  • Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) for ranking 1st in the 1rst-2nd-5th year and 2nd in the 2nd year among the students of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (>500), NTUA, 2005-2010 (5yr.)
  • Karydogianni Award for excellent performance - awarded to students of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the School of Mechanical Engineering (>3,500), NTUA, 2005-2010 (5yr.)
  • Christos Papakyriakopoulos Award for ranking 1st in Mathematics among the students of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NTUA, 2006-2007
  • Award from the General Secretariat for Youth for ranking 1st among the students of Arsakion-Tositsio Ekalis School, 2004-2005
  • Award from the Hellenic Mathematical Society for excellent performance in "Thalis" math competition, 2000-2001, 2001-2002 (2 yr.)
  • Filekpedeutiki Society Scholarship for ranking 1st among the students of Arsakion-Tositsio Ekalis School, 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005 (6 yr.)
  • Award from the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs for ranking 1st among the students of Arsakion-Tositsio Ekalis School, 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005 (6 yr.)

Technical Skills

  • Programming Languages: C, Java, Pascal, Prolog, SML, PHP, SQL, UNIX shell scripting, Python, Pearl, PLC Automation (STL, Ladder)
  • Platforms: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux and other UNIX variants
  • Tools: Virtutech Simics, Matlab, Mathematica, PSpice, Mathcad, GnuPlot, Siemens Step 7 (PLC Automation)

Hobbies

swimming, fitness fusion, biking, hiking, canoeing, windsurfing, traveling, cooking, ski, tennis, dancing, reading