Cristobal Romero is (associate) Professor of Computer Sciences and Artificial Intelligence in University of Cordoba. His teaching is devoted to computer programming, artificial intelligence, networks in computer science engineering. His research labor is developed as a member of the "Learning and Artificial Neural Networks" (AYRNA) research group, and it is focused on applying data mining in e-learning systems.

Educational data mining (EDM) is an emerging discipline, concerned with developing methods for exploring the unique types of data that come from an educational context. These data come on the one hand from traditional face-to-face classroom environments such as special education, primary education, higher education, etc. and on the other hand from computer-based education as well as web-based education such as learning management systems, web-based adaptive hypermedia systems and intelligent tutoring systems. Learning environments and, more broadly, educational activities (as an example, evaluative activities) accumulate a vast amount of data which is very valuable for analyzing students’ behavior and could create a gold mine of educational data. The contributions given by EDM to education can be various: as examples, from a pedagogical viewpoint EDM can contribute to give insights into the educational processes and to enlight critical points if any. From an engineering viewpoint, EDM can contribute to the effectiveness, personalization and/or adaptivity of learning environments. In the last years, researchers of different areas (such as computer science, statistics, data mining and education) have begun to investigate various data mining methods to help teachers improve e-learning systems.

Critobal Romero has published several papers about Educational Data Mining in international journals and conferences. For example, he has published two important surveys:

• C. Romero, S. Ventura and E. Garca. Data Mining in Course Management Systems: MOODLE Case Study and Tutorial. Computers & Education, 2007 (In press).
• C. Romero and S. Ventura. Educational Data Mining: A Survey from 1995 to 2005. Expert Systems with Applications, 33(1), 135-146, 2007.

He has served as PC member in several research EDM forums including:

• Program Chair of the Workshop Data Mining for Adaptation and Personalization in e-Learning (DMAPL07). July 2007. Japan.,
• Program Chair of the Educational Data Mining Track, Workshop on Data Mining for User Modeling. (UM07). Corfu, Greece. 2007.
• Program Chair of the International Workshop on Applying Data Mining in e-Learning (ADML'07) as part of the Second European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2007) Crete, Greece. 17-20 September.

He was a member of the Program Committee of the First International Conference on Educational Data Mining. Montral, Qubec, Canada, June 20-21, 2008.. And he is the Conference Co-Chairs of the Second International Conference on Educational Data Mining, Cordoba, July 1-3, 2009.