This unit presents students with the theory and practice underlying computerised information retrieval. Topics covered include: history and context of information retrieval systems, retrieval models, Boolean, vector space and probabilistic, evaluation strategies, test collections, web search engines, indexing, content-based multimedia retrieval and relevance feedback.
2 hrs lectures/wk, 2 hrs laboratories/wk
Students will be expected to spend up to a total of 12 hours per week during semester on this unit as follows:·
Campbell Wilson
Michael Niemann
Viranga Ratnaike
Shan He (Dora)
Examination (2 hours): 50%; In-semester assessment: 50%
| Assessment Task | Value | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment 1 - Hello World | 1% | Week 1 |
| Assignment 2 - Tokenization | 4% | Week 3 |
| Assignment 3 - Constructing an inverted index | 6% | Week 5 |
| Assignment 4 - Vector space retrieval | 6% | Week 7 |
| Report | 23% | Week 10 |
| Presentation | 10% | Week 11 |
| Examination 1 | 50% | To be advised |
Monash is committed to excellence in education and regularly seeks feedback from students, employers and staff. One of the key formal ways students have to provide feedback is through SETU, Student Evaluation of Teacher and Unit. The University's student evaluation policy requires that every unit is evaluated each year. Students are strongly encouraged to complete the surveys. The feedback is anonymous and provides the Faculty with evidence of aspects that students are satisfied and areas for improvement.
For more information on Monash's educational strategy, and on student evaluations, see:
http://www.monash.edu.au/about/monash-directions/directions.html
http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/quality/student-evaluation-policy.html
The following lists changes that have been made to the unit. Some of these have been made in response to student feedback, however due to the University's requirements for confidentiality, this feedback is not allowed to be included in the unit guide. Hence some of these improvements will lack context:
Improvements made:
- Demonstration videos will be provided so students can look at material at their own pace.
- Code templates provided for programming assignments and marking criteria modified.
- Unit is available in the Intelligent Systems specialisation
- Assignment deadlines do not co-occur
- Revision classes have been removed
- Modified material on multimedia IR
- Programming assignment specifications simplified
If you wish to view how previous students rated this unit, please go to
https://emuapps.monash.edu.au/unitevaluations/index.jsp
Recommended reading will be provided during the lectures as appropriate.
| Week | Activities | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | This schedule is subject to change, please refer to the Lecturer for updates | Assessment due dates may be subject to change. Any changes will be communicated to you by the Lecturer. |
| 1 | Introduction | Assignment 1 (Hello World) due |
| 2 | Indexing, lexical analyses and the Boolean model | |
| 3 | Vector space model | Assignment 2 (Tokenizing) due |
| 4 | Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) I | |
| 5 | Vector space model II | Assignment 3 (Indexing) due |
| 6 | Web search | |
| 7 | Probabilistic models: Language and topic models | Assignment 4 (Vector Space) due |
| 8 | Relevance feedback and text classification | |
| 9 | CBIR II and multimedia retrieval | |
| 10 | Advanced topics | Report due |
| 11 | Discussion class | Presentations |
| 12 | Evaluation | Presentations |
| SWOT VAC | ||
| Examination period | LINK to Assessment Policy: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/ academic/education/assessment/ assessment-in-coursework-policy.html |
*Unit Schedule details will be maintained and communicated to you via your MUSO (Blackboard or Moodle) learning system.
Faculty Policy - Unit Assessment Hurdles (http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/staff/edgov/policies/assessment-examinations/unit-assessment-hurdles.html)
Academic Integrity - Please see the Demystifying Citing and Referencing tutorial at http://lib.monash.edu/tutorials/citing/
Please ask lots of questions during lectures and tutorials. You won't be assessed on the quality of your questions, but you will get a lot more out of the unit!
Assignment is graded by a computer program, which measures correlation between student answers and expected results. The point of this assignment is for students to familiarize students with the submission system used in the unit. They therefore are expected to complete this task in order to proceed in the unit. The submission system will be set up as such.
Note: special exemptions for people who join the subject late (within the normal first two week enrolment period) will be put in place.
Assignment is graded by a computer program, which measures correlation between student answers and expected results.
Assignment is graded by a computer program, which measures correlation between student answers and expected results.
Assignment is graded by a computer program, which measures correlation between
student answers and expected results.
The report will be assesed on the usual criteria, namely: breadth of literature survey, quality of analysis of literature, and topicality. Appropriate use of the English language will be required.
Quality of presentation and quality of response to questions
It is a University requirement (http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/conduct/plagiarism-procedures.html) for students to submit an assignment coversheet for each assessment item. Faculty Assignment coversheets can be found at http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/forms/. Please check with your Lecturer on the submission method for your assignment coversheet (e.g. attach a file to the online assignment submission, hand-in a hard copy, or use an online quiz).
Submission must be made by the due date otherwise penalties will be enforced.
You must negotiate any extensions formally with your campus unit leader via the in-semester special consideration process: http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/equity/special-consideration.html.
Students may resubmit assignments 1, 2, 3 and 4 any number of times before the due date.
Referencing should follow the IEEE style.
Monash has educational policies, procedures and guidelines, which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University's academic standards, and to provide advice on how they might uphold them.
You can find Monash's Education Policies at:
http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/academic/education/index.html
Key educational policies include:
The University provides many different kinds of support services for you. Contact your tutor if you need advice and see the range of services available at www.monash.edu.au/students. For Sunway see http://www.monash.edu.my/Student-services, and for South Africa see http://www.monash.ac.za/current/
The Monash University Library provides a range of services and resources that enable you to save time and be more effective in your learning and research. Go to http://www.lib.monash.edu.au or the library tab in my.monash portal for more information. At Sunway, visit the Library and Learning Commons at http://www.lib.monash.edu.my/. At South Africa visit http://www.lib.monash.ac.za/.
Academic support services may be available for students who have a disability or medical condition. Registration with the Disability Liaison Unit is required. Further information is available as follows:
Note: We are trialling a new approach in this unit, whereby lectures may be supplemented by video presentations, which will be discussed in the class time.
Note: Damocles (a plagiarism detection system) will be employed for the research report submission.