Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Objectives At the completion of this subject students should be able to understand the special characteristics of systems for the storage and retrieval of unstructured data; appreciate the underlying principles and especially the standards that apply to document retrieval systems; and use, as a developer, a text retrieval system to create a small information retrieval database.
Synopsis This subject aims to provide students with a knowledge of the technology of information retrieval systems. Topics taught include: an outline of the information retrieval problem; functional overview of information retrieval; deterministic models of information retrieval systems; conventional Boolean, fuzzy set theory, p-norm and vector space models; text analysis and automatic indexing; standards for text markup; automatic query formulation; system-user adaptation and learning mechanisms; intelligent information retrieval; retrieval evaluation; review of new theories and future directions; hands-on experience with a working experimental information retrieval system.
Assessment Examination (2 hours): 60% + Two practical assignments: 40%