Breaking the Deadlock: Simultaneously Discovering Attribute Matching and Cluster Matching with Multi-Objective Simulated Annealing

In this paper, we present a data mining approach to challenges in the matching and integration of heterogeneous datasets. In particular, we propose solutions to two problems that arise in combining information from different results of scientific research. The first problem, attribute matching, involves discovery of correspondences among distinct numeric-typed summary features (“attributes”) that are used to characterize datasets that have been collected and analyzed in different research labs. The second problem, cluster matching, involves discovery of matchings between patterns across datasets. We treat both of these problems together as a multi-objective optimization problem. A multi-objective simulated annealing algorithm is described to find the optimal solution. The utility of this approach is demonstrated in a series of experiments using synthetic and realistic datasets that are designed to simulate heterogeneous data from different sources.