Information Retrieval (IR) is the discipline that studies computer-based search tools. The course is divided into two parts. The first part provides the foundations of IR. The second part provides hands-on experience with new applications of IR. The foundations part addresses basic concepts like indexing, matching, relevance; it addresses approaches to IR, such as controlled versus uncontrolled terms, manual versus automatic indexing, exact matching versus ranking, query by example, relevance feedback, etc.; it addresses mathematical models of IR such as boolean retrieval, probabilistic retrieval, language models, logical models; and it addresses applications of IR like multimedia retrieval and of course web search engines. In the second part of the course, the students participate actively in research done at the University. Each student will choose a system module and/or problem, and will implement and/or research possible solutions. Problems can be practical or theoretical or both, and address all parts of IR systems, including the interface. Depending on the kind of problem chosen, there are requirements on other courses the student has to have followed. Solutions can be tested using data from international evaluation activities such as the Cross-Language Evaluation Forum (CLEF), the Text REtrieval Conference (TREC), and the Initiative for the Evaluation of XML Retrieval (INEX) in which the university is one of the major players. In this second part, the time schedules for the lectures will be used to set up a discussion forum in which all participants actively exchange their ideas, progress, and problems.

Prerequisite