Most research on data mining, with its focus on commercial domains, emphasizes the role of data and relies on AI representations like rules and decision trees. In this talk, I review work in an older paradigm - computational scientific discovery - that often draws on domain knowledge to constrain search and that relies on formalisms invented by the scientific community like equations, structural models, and reaction pathways. In addition, I report on two efforts that adopt this approach to knowledge discovery in scientific domains. One project aims to improve an existing process model of the Earth's ecosystem using environmental data from satellites and ground stations. The other focuses on constructing regulatory models for photosynthesis using temporal data from DNA microarrays. In both cases, knowledge interacts with data to constrain the search process and the resulting models are cast in notations familiar to domain scientists. I claim that this paradigm holds great potential for adding to our scientific knowledge and I encourage other researchers to take this approach.
This talk describes joint work with Vanessa Brooks, Steve Klooster, Andrew Pohorille, Chris Potter, Kazumi Saito, Mark Schwabacher, Jeff Shrager, and Alicia Torregrosa.