Information Retrieval (IR) is the theory and practice that underlies technologies such as search engines. It deals with models and methods for representing, indexing, searching, browsing, and summarizing information in response to a person's information need. You should be able to program in Java (or some other closely related language).
Prerequisites: COMPSCI 320 and either COMPSCI 383, 446, or 585, all with a grade of C or better. 3 credits.
This page lists the topics of the course, the textbook, provides an overview of grading, discusses plagiarism and collaboration, and lists the course policies.
This course covers the design and implementation of Information Retrieval systems to solve a variety of problems, using a model based computational framework. The framework is:
This is an applied, programming intensive course.
The following text is required for this course:
Grading
Your final grade in this class will be based upon, projects, quizzes, a midterm exam, and a final exam. The relative contributions of the parts are:
All assignments are due as indicated on the assignment and the Web page. All assignments will be performed on the Moodle site for the class.
Late assignments will be accepted in accordance with University policy regarding excused absences.
Accommodation Statement
The University of
Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing an equal educational
opportunity for all students. If you have a documented physical,
psychological, or learning disability on file with Disability Services
(DS), you may be eligible for reasonable academic accommodations to
help you succeed in this course. If you have a documented disability
that requires an accommodation, please notify me within the first two
weeks of the semester so that we may make appropriate
arrangements.
Academic Honesty Statement
Since the
integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher
education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic
honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the
University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to:
cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating
dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who
has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take
reasonable steps to address academic misconduct. Any person who has
reason to believe that a student has committed academic dishonesty
should bring such information to the attention of the appropriate
course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic
dishonesty not related to a specific course should be brought to the
attention of the appropriate department Head or Chair. Since students
are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted
standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not
normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent
(http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/codeofconduct/acadhonesty/).
Your work must be your own. For anything other than exams, you are welcome to discuss general issues with other students, but the answer, the writing, and the final result that you hand in must be your own effort. Discussing or sharing answers to specific problems is considered dishonest. If you have questions about what is honest, please ask! One suggestion is never to write down anything while you're talking with someone about class work since that will require you to come up with the result again on your own later. You are strongly encouraged to cite your sources if you received extraordinary help from any person or text (including the Web), other than lecture content or the textbook. Computer Science Department policy specifies that the penalty for cheating is (1) a final course grade of "F" and (2) possible referral to the Academic Dishonesty Committee.
For any material you hand in, you must appropriately indicate when you are using work of others. If you use verbatim or only slightly altered text, you must clearly indicate (quotation marks, indented text, etc.) that you are quoting another source and what that source is. If you refer to work done by others, even if you do not quote it, you should include a reference to the original source. It does not matter if that work was published or not: if it is work other than your own, you are obligated to make it clear that you are using that person's work. Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this class. Plagiarism is a type of cheating and will be treated accordingly: the penalty for cheating is (1) a final course grade of "F" and (2) possible referral to the Academic Dishonesty Committee. The campus writing program provides more information about plagiarism.
You may (but probably won't) be using copyright-protected software as part of the class. Federal law and license agreements between the University and various software producers prohibit copying this software for any purpose. Such activity will be regarded as a form of cheating and will be dealt with as such.