Information Retrieval

Course Descriptions:

The course covers introductory concepts on information Storage and Retrieval (Definition, components, kinds of Information Retrieval Systems, the retrieval process etc.); automatic text operation and automatic indexing (term selection, stemming, term weighting, etc); data and file structure for information retrieval ( flat files, inverted files, signature files ), Retrieval Model (Boolean Model, Vector Based Retrieval Model, Probabilistic Retrieval Model); Evaluation of Information retrieval systems (Precision Recall, fallout, generality, E-measure, harmonic mean, User based evaluation etc.), Techniques for enhancing retrieval effectiveness(including relevance feedback, query reformulation, thesauri etc), query languages, query operations, string manipulation and search algorithms, document classification and clustering; Current Issues in IR etc.

Objectives:

The general objective of the course is to let students understand motivation, mechanisms, and potential of Information Storage and Retrieval. In line with this, at the end of the course students are expected to:

1. Know the basic theories and principles of knowledge organization and Information retrieval
2. Understand the process of Information Storage and Retrieval
3. Acquire qualities to study and analyze Information Retrieval Systems designed using various models
4. Be familiar with evaluation issues in Information Retrieval.

Course Content:

• Information Storage and Retrieval (ISR): Basic concepts
• Content (subject) analysis and Representation
• Standardization and Identifying term importance
• Models of Modern IR systems
• Evaluation of information Retrieval System

Current areas of research in Information Retrieval