02.08.2023

Teaser image to

MCML Researchers With One Paper at KDD 2023

29th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data (KDD 2023). Long Beach, CA, USA, 06.08.2023–10.08.2023

We are happy to announce that MCML researchers are represented with one paper at KDD 2023. Congrats to our researchers!

Main Track (1 papers)

A. Beer, A. Draganov, E. Hohma, P. Jahn, C. M. M. Frey and I. Assent.
Connecting the Dots — Density-Connectivity Distance unifies DBSCAN, k-Center and Spectral Clustering.
KDD 2023 - 29th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. Long Beach, CA, USA, Aug 06-10, 2023. DOI GitHub
Abstract

Despite the popularity of density-based clustering, its procedural definition makes it difficult to analyze compared to clustering methods that minimize a loss function. In this paper, we reformulate DBSCAN through a clean objective function by introducing the density-connectivity distance (dc-dist), which captures the essence of density-based clusters by endowing the minimax distance with the concept of density. This novel ultrametric allows us to show that DBSCAN, k-center, and spectral clustering are equivalent in the space given by the dc-dist, despite these algorithms being perceived as fundamentally different in their respective literatures. We also verify that finding the pairwise dc-dists gives DBSCAN clusterings across all epsilon-values, simplifying the problem of parameterizing density-based clustering. We conclude by thoroughly analyzing density-connectivity and its properties – a task that has been elusive thus far in the literature due to the lack of formal tools.

MCML Authors
Anna Beer

Anna Beer

Dr.

* Former Member

Link to website

Philipp Jahn

Database Systems and Data Mining

Christian Frey

Christian Frey

Dr.

* Former Member


02.08.2023


Subscribe to RSS News feed

Related

Link to When Clinical Expertise Meets AI Innovation – with Michael Ingrisch

25.06.2025

When Clinical Expertise Meets AI Innovation – With Michael Ingrisch

The new research film features Michael Ingrisch, who shows how AI and clinical expertise can solve real challenges in radiology together.

Link to Autonomous Driving: From Infinite Possibilities to Safe Decisions— with Matthias Althoff

23.06.2025

Autonomous Driving: From Infinite Possibilities to Safe Decisions— With Matthias Althoff

The new research film features Matthias Althoff explaining how his team verifies autonomous vehicle safety using EDGAR and rigorous testing.

Link to ERC Advanced Grant for Massimo Fornasier

20.06.2025

ERC Advanced Grant for Massimo Fornasier

Massimo Fornasier was awarded ERC Advanced Grant to develop advanced algorithms for solving complex nonconvex optimization problems.

Link to ERC Advanced Grant for Albrecht Schmidt

18.06.2025

ERC Advanced Grant for Albrecht Schmidt

Albrecht Schmidt receives ERC Advanced Grant for research on personalized generative AI to support memory, planning, and creativity.

Link to Better Data, Smarter AI: Why Quality Matters – with Frauke Kreuter

11.06.2025

Better Data, Smarter AI: Why Quality Matters – With Frauke Kreuter

In our new research film, Frauke Kreuter explains how data quality shapes fair, reliable, and socially responsible AI systems.