College of Saint Benedict & Saint John's University 

Imad Rahal

 
                                                                                    

Assistant Professor, PhD
Department of Computer Science

211 Peter Engel (Old) Science Center
College of St. Benedict | Saint John's University
Collegeville, MN 56321-3000
Tel: (320) 363-2837
Fax: (320) 363-3202
Email: 
irahal[AT]csbsju.edu

 

Short Biography:

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the College of Saint Benedict | Saint John's University.  I finished my Ph.D. in Computer Science from North Dakota State University (NDSU), Fargo (yes, the cold Fargo!) in July of 2005. My dissertation work focused on Data Mining (Association Rule Mining to be specific). In August 2003, I earned my M.S. Degree in Computer Science also from NDSU where I pursued research in area of Text Mining. Prior to coming to the USA and enrolling in the graduate program, I graduated summa cum laude (with highest distinction) from the Lebanese American University, Beirut (Lebanon) in February 2001 with a B.S. Degree in Computer Science.

Check out my resume in PDF or MS-Word format

Personal Links:

Photos set 1 and set 2 of my family and myself (BTW, I am married and have a 4-year old son and 1-year old daughter)

 

Fall 2008 Schedule:
 

 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

08:00 - 09:10

Not Available

 

Not Available

 

Dept. Mtg.

Not Available

09:40 - 10:50

Not Available

Office Hours

Not Available

Office Hours

 

Not Available

11:20 - 12:30

CSCI-161 01A

CSCI-161L 02A

CSCI-161 01A

CSCI-161L 02A

CSCI-161 01A

Not Available

01:00 - 02:10

CSCI-161 02A

CSCI-161L 01A

CSCI-161 02A

CSCI-161L 01A

CSCI-161 02A

Not Available

02:40 - 03:50

Office Hours

CSCI-161L 03A

Office Hours

CSCI-161L 03A

Office Hours

Not Available

04:20 - 06:00

 

 

CSCI-217L

 

 

 

My Research:

I have numerous research interests most of which fall in the areas of Data Mining, Databases, Information Retrieval, Text Mining, Machine Learning. Bioinformatics, Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing. Here is a list of my publications

 

Useful Resources:

UCI Machine Learning Data Repository
UCI Knowledge Discovery in Databases Archive
Frequent Itemset Mining Implementations Repository
Some good Data Mining conferences:
ACM SIGMOD, ACM SAC, IEEE ICDM, IEEE ICDE

 

Funny Stuff:

 

Why do computer scientists often mix up Christmas with Halloween? (PS: can 25Dec = 31Oct?)

 

Is Windows a Virus?
No, Windows is not a virus. Here's what viruses do:
1.They replicate quickly - okay, Windows does that.
2.Viruses use up valuable system resources, slowing down the system as they do so - okay, Windows does that.
3.Viruses will, from time to time, trash your hard disk - okay, Windows does that too.
4.Viruses are usually carried, unknown to the user, along with valuable programs and systems. - Sigh.. Windows does that, too.
5.Viruses will occasionally make the user suspect their system is too slow (see 2) and the user will buy new hardware. - Yup, Windows does that, too.
Until now it seems Windows is a virus but there are fundamental differences: Viruses are well supported by their authors, are running on most systems, their program code is fast, compact and efficient and they tend to become more sophisticated as they mature.
So Windows is not a virus.
Worse! It's a bug.
[http://www.coolfunnyjokes.com/Funny-Jokes/Computer-Jokes/Is-Windows-a-Virus.html]


The Less You Know, The More You Make!
"Salary Theorem" states that "Engineers and Scientists can never earn as much as Business Executives and Sales People."
This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two postulates:
1. Knowledge is Power.
2. Time is Money.
As every engineer knows: Power = Work / Time
Since: Knowledge = Power & Time = Money
It follows that: Knowledge = Work/Money.
Solving for Money, we get: Money = Work / Knowledge.
Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.
Conclusion: The less you know, the more you make.
[http://www.coolfunnyjokes.com/Funny-Jokes/Computer-Jokes/The-Less-You-Know,-The-More-You-Make.html]


Still not using the metric system!
How do foreigners feel when they first reach the USA? Short and Fat!!! I used to weigh 90 (Kg) before coming here, all of sudden I got really fat and became 195 (lb) !!! My height was 181 (cm), now I am  5'11'' which feels shorter than ! Well, let’s say too short :-). So how on earth did that happen? 
by an Egyptian friend of mine !

 

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