  In this paper we promote the use of Support Vector Machines (SVM) as a
machine learning tool for searches in high-energy physics. As an example for a
new- physics search we discuss the popular case of Supersymmetry at the Large
Hadron Collider. We demonstrate that the SVM is a valuable tool and show that
an automated discovery- significance based optimization of the SVM
hyper-parameters is a highly efficient way to prepare an SVM for such
applications. A new C++ LIBSVM interface called SVM-HINT is developed and
available on Github.
