Imbalanced datasets have been a unique challenge for machine learning, requiring specialized approaches to correctly classify the minority class. Financial fraud detection involves using highly imbalanced datasets with a class imbalance of up to .01% frauds to 99.99% regular transactions. It is essential to identify all frauds in financial fraud detection, even if some classifications' precision is low. I developed a random forest assembly that separates fraudulent transactions into tiers of precision. With this approach, 96% of fraudulent transactions are identified, showing an 8% increase in recall when compared to standard approaches. 59% of fraud classifications' precision increases by 10% up to 98% by optimizing several random forests on different fitness functions. These models are then combined to act as a sieve with increasing tolerance for low precision classifications. The effectiveness of random forest for financial fraud detection is also improved through feature extraction techniques. Random forest is weak at detecting patterns between interdepended features. This problem is address through unsupervised feature extraction. I will demonstrate a new random forest architecture PCA-embedded random forest, which increased random forest performance.
","abstract_html":"<p>Imbalanced datasets have been a unique challenge for machine learning, requiring specialized approaches to correctly classify the minority class. Financial fraud detection involves using highly imbalanced datasets with a class imbalance of up to .01% frauds to 99.99% regular transactions. It is essential to identify all frauds in financial fraud detection, even if some classifications' precision is low. I developed a random forest assembly that separates fraudulent transactions into tiers of precision. With this approach, 96% of fraudulent transactions are identified, showing an 8% increase in recall when compared to standard approaches. 59% of fraud classifications' precision increases by 10% up to 98% by optimizing several random forests on different fitness functions. These models are then combined to act as a sieve with increasing tolerance for low precision classifications. The effectiveness of random forest for financial fraud detection is also improved through feature extraction techniques. Random forest is weak at detecting patterns between interdepended features. This problem is address through unsupervised feature extraction. I will demonstrate a new random forest architecture PCA-embedded random forest, which increased random forest performance.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Gardner, Charles"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Computer Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Dan lo","Dr. Yong Shi"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-12-16T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-12-16T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:43:42Z","subjects":["Random Forest","PCA","Imbalanced data","Assembly","Financial Fraud","Data Science"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cs_etd/40","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Dan lo","Dr. Yong Shi"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Gardner, Charles"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2020-12-16T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Computer Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Random Forest","PCA","Imbalanced data","Assembly","Financial Fraud","Data Science"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cs_etd/40"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Imbalanced datasets have been a unique challenge for machine learning, requiring specialized approaches to correctly classify the minority class. Financial fraud detection involves using highly imbalanced datasets with a class imbalance of up to .01% frauds to 99.99% regular transactions. It is essential to identify all frauds in financial fraud detection, even if some classifications' precision is low. I developed a random forest assembly that separates fraudulent transactions into tiers of precision. With this approach, 96% of fraudulent transactions are identified, showing an 8% increase in recall when compared to standard approaches. 59% of fraud classifications' precision increases by 10% up to 98% by optimizing several random forests on different fitness functions. These models are then combined to act as a sieve with increasing tolerance for low precision classifications. The effectiveness of random forest for financial fraud detection is also improved through feature extraction techniques. Random forest is weak at detecting patterns between interdepended features. This problem is address through unsupervised feature extraction. I will demonstrate a new random forest architecture PCA-embedded random forest, which increased random forest performance.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Classifying Imbalanced Financial Fraud Data Utilizing Enhanced Random Forest Algorithm"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Dan lo","Dr. Yong Shi"],"dc:creator":["Gardner, Charles"],"dc:date.available":["2020-12-16T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Imbalanced datasets have been a unique challenge for machine learning, requiring specialized approaches to correctly classify the minority class. Financial fraud detection involves using highly imbalanced datasets with a class imbalance of up to .01% frauds to 99.99% regular transactions. It is essential to identify all frauds in financial fraud detection, even if some classifications' precision is low. I developed a random forest assembly that separates fraudulent transactions into tiers of precision. With this approach, 96% of fraudulent transactions are identified, showing an 8% increase in recall when compared to standard approaches. 59% of fraud classifications' precision increases by 10% up to 98% by optimizing several random forests on different fitness functions. These models are then combined to act as a sieve with increasing tolerance for low precision classifications. The effectiveness of random forest for financial fraud detection is also improved through feature extraction techniques. Random forest is weak at detecting patterns between interdepended features. This problem is address through unsupervised feature extraction. I will demonstrate a new random forest architecture PCA-embedded random forest, which increased random forest performance.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cs_etd/40"],"dc:subject":["Random Forest","PCA","Imbalanced data","Assembly","Financial Fraud","Data Science"],"dc:title":["Classifying Imbalanced Financial Fraud Data Utilizing Enhanced Random Forest Algorithm"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Computer Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:43:42Z"}