Syllabus/Schedule - ISU535 Information Retrieval - Spring 2004

Professor Futrelle

Access the official NU Calendar here in HTML or in PDF format.

THIS SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO REVISION AT ANY TIME AND NOT EVERY DETAIL OF THE REVISIONS WILL BE HERE, BUT INSTEAD DESCRIBED IN CLASS OR THROUGH EMAIL TO THE COURSE MAILING LIST (AND THEREFORE ALSO ARCHIVED).

Week 1. January 7, 8

Introduction to the topic. Indexing of text. Stop words, inverted indexes. Read Chapter 1. Read Sec. 8.2 about inverted indexes.

Week 2. January 12, 14. Class on the 15th in 202 Snell Library

Attendance will be taken at the Library class on Thursday, since it is important that everyone understands how to take advantage of the online Library resources.

Week 3. January 21, 22. NO CLASS Monday January 19th

13 of the 17 SIGIR paper assignments were made. We began discussion of the important first parts of Chapter 2. By next Monday, read Chapter 2 up to, but not including, Sec. 2.5.4.

Week 4. January 26, 28, 29

This week we'll finish the assigned material in Chapter 2 and focus then on Chapter 3, Retrieval Evaluation. Reading you should do: For Wednesday the 28th, read through to the end of Sec. 3.2.1. For Thursday the 29th, read all of Sec. 3.3.1 on TREC.

Week 5. February 2, 4, 5

SIGIR paper assignment due on Monday, beginning of class, including marked up hardcopy. Assignment details here. Quiz #1 will be on Monday the 2nd also, covering the Boolean and Vector models. Details here.

Week 6. February 9, 1, 12

 

Week 7. February 18, 19. NO CLASS Monday February 16th

 

Week 8. February 23, 25, 26

Read Bush's Memex paper by the 23rd. Read the "Challenges" paper by the 26th.

SPRING BREAK WEEK. Mon-Fri, March 1-5

Week 9. March 8, 10, 11

Read Gray's "What next?" paper by the 8th.
MIDTERM EXAM ON THE 11th. Info here.

Week 10. March 15, 17, 18

One page description of your project plans due emailed by midnight (end of the day) on the 17th. (15% of project credit). See the Project Page for details.
Reading for this week: Chapter 10, focusing on visualization. There's lots of good material on this topic on the web too.

Week 11. March 22, 24, 25

Two page description of your project plans due emailed by midnight (end of the day) on the 25th. It should not include much of your previous one-page report but should focus on new and refined material. (20% of project credit)

Week 12. March 29, 31. April 1

Your projects are due at the end of this week, by midnight (end of the day) on the 4th.

Week 13. April 5, 7, 8

Projects, in final or near final form due emailed by midnight (end of the day) on the 4th. (55% of project credit)

Week 14. April 12, 14. Reading day the 15th. Start of Final Exams, 16th.

Last chance to mail in your revised project, if necessary, by midnight (end of the day) the 13th. (10% of project credit, or if you hand in nothing at this time, the handin on the 4th will count for 65%)

Monday the 19th is a holiday. Final Exams continue, 20th-23rd.

The final exam for this course will be at 1pm on Wednesday the 21st.

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