Introduction and Developments on Support Vector Machines and Classification

Support vector machines (SVM) have become a valuable method for the prediction of two classes. Often, the SVM is the best method to classify the two groups. One of the aims of this workshop is to introduce the technique of support vector machines. Another aim is to discuss the use of kernels to allow for nonlinearity of the predictor variables. This workshop brings together several leading researchers active this area in the Netherlands and two foreign guests, Sarel Steel (Stellenbosch University, South Africa) and Thorsten Joachims (Cornell University NY, USA).