DM: Standard test suites/benchmarking

[Eric Schmidt]

Hi folks... I'm looking for some advice,

I am in currently working on an undergraduate thesis project dealing 
with
the evaluation of data mining tools.  To evaluate these tools I would 
be
interested to know if there is any collection of standard test suites
(data sets) which might be used.  I have found the collection of data 
sets
at www.kdnuggets.com.  This listing is great, but overwhelming - It is
very hard to tell which of these data sets would be useful for 
evaluating
software packages.

I would appreciate any advice on which data sets to use and where
to find these sets.  The problems could be simple or complex, but I am
specifically interested in data sets which are representative of
certain "types" of statistical problems, or data sets which are
considered classic examples.  Also, if I am looking in the wrong 
direction
here, let me know as well.

Please respond with any hints or advice you might have on the data 
sets I
might use for testing data mining tools.

Thank You in Advance,
Eric Schmidt
University of Virginia
Systems Engineering
Class of 1998