The subject of the course is the study of information retrieval systems based on topic-based search. This course focuses on search engines and how they work. The structure and basic functions of search engines are presented. The process of constructing queries and the techniques that govern it are studied (relativity feedback, query extension / specialization, etc.). Also, the results of classification techniques (clustering, sorting parameters, etc.) are studied. Meta search engines and their operation is discussed. Online navigation-based thematic access systems are presented. We study thematic portals, online directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo Directory

The aim of the course is to investigate the role of the subject in retrieving information.

Week #1: Introduction to thematic access and information retrieval systems

Week #2: Indexing

Week #3: Thesajuri and Subject headings

Week #4: Ontologies

Week #5: Taxonomies

Week #6: Folksonomies

Week #7: World Wide Web

Week #8: System rating metrics

Week #9: Personalized access

Week #10:  Distributed access

Week #11: Knowledge systems

Week #12: Comparative assessment of systems

Week #13: Recap

• Search Engines: Information Retrieval in Practice. Bruce Croft, Donald Metzler, Trevor Strohman. Addison-Wesley, 2009. An introductory book for search engines. Recommended for undergraduate students.
• Modern Information Retrieval. R. Baeza-Yates, B. Ribeiro-Neto. Addison-Wesley, 2011.
• Introduction to Information Retrieval, by Christopher D. Manning, Prabhakar Raghavan & Hinrich Schütze, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Collaboration with students, lectures

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Compulsory individual project