The proliferation of massive data sets brings with it a series of special computational challenges. This "data avalanche" arises in a wide range of scientific and commercial applications. With advances in computer and information technologies, many of these challenges are beginning to be addressed by diverse inter-disciplinary groups, that indude computer scientists, mathematicians, statisticians and engineers, working in dose cooperation with application domain experts. High profile applications indude astrophysics, bio-technology, demographics, finance, geographi cal information systems,...