An introduction to the theories and techniques used to construct search engines. Topics include search interfaces, traditional retrieval models (e.g., TF-IDF, BM25), modern retrieval techniques (e.g., neural reranking and retrieval), search engine evaluation, and search applications (e.g., conversational IR, enterprise search). Students will also review current IR research topics, and complete a group project in which they will design and execute experiments for search engine components.
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites
Undergraduate (CSCI 536): CSCI-331 or equivalent courses. Students may not take this course and CSCI-636.
Graduate (CSCI 636): Completion of MS bridge courses or equivalent (e.g., PhD student status), including familiarity with basic computer science concepts. Students who have taken CSCI-536 may not also take this course.
Lectures (Spring 2023): Tuesday and Thursday 2:00pm - 3:15pm (James Gleason Hall (GLE) Room 3139). Lectures will be both in-person and over Zoom. Lectures will be recorded and be available through the Zoom link in MyCourses.
RIT Attendance Policy. Attendance requirements are described in RIT Policy D0.4.0 Attendance. Some key details:
- Students are expected to attend all classes on-time.
- Students must make arrangements in advance of absences in order to fulfill course requirements.
- Students do not need to file excuses for absences.
- Instructors are not required to maintain attendance records, but must report prolonged absences to the student's advisor or department.
Illness. In the event of illness, whether COVID-19 or any other, students should continue to notify faculty directly that they will need to be absent and when they anticipate being able to rejoin the class. Per Policy D04.0 – Attendance, students are still responsible for fulfilling normal course requirements during their absence. Students are not required to provide details about or documentation related to health-related absences.
Rescheduling an Exam. Exams and final projects completed during exam week cannot be made up except for real emergencies in which case proper documentation (like a doctor's note) will be required. Oversleeping, cars that don't start etc. do not constitute a valid excuse. Please see RIT's Academic Senate Final Examination Policy for related questions.
1. Students will describe the basics of search interface and search engine architecture and design. (Assignments, Quizzes)
2. Students will select appropriate techniques to address information retrieval problems. (Assignments and Projects)
3. Students will apply performance evaluation methods for information retrieval. (Assignmnts, Quizzes, and Projects)
4. Students will apply information retrieval techniques. (Projects)
5. Students will summarize modern information retrieval techniques verbally and in writing. (Projects and Research Paper Summaries)
Contact information, for the instructor and TA are available through the Contact page.
There is also a class discord account; details will be provided in MyCourses.
Office Hours: Office hours will be held in-person in Prof. Zanibbi's office (GOL 3551) and over zoom (see the Contact page for times). Zoom links are available through MyCourses. Office hours will not be recorded.
Class discord (online chat): Please use the discord channel to ask clarifying questions about assignments and course material, and for general discussion about the course. The instructor and TA will try to respond within 24 hours. Do not use the discord channel for anything other than discussions about the course with your instructor, TA, and classmates.
Email: The instructor and TA will try to respond to emails within 24 hours. However, email received on Friday afternoons and weekends may not receive a reply until the following Monday. Also, questions about assigned work sent on the day it is due may not be answered before the deadline.
Late Quizzes: Late MyCourse quiz completions will receive a grade of 0 unless permission to submit late has been granted by the instructor before the quiz deadline.
Late Assignment, Paper Summaries & Proposals (During Term, Before Exams): Late submissions will be accepted up to 1 week after the deadline with a 10% penalty.
Final Exam and Final Project Deliverables (During Exams): No late submissions will be accepted for the final project deliverables during the Exam period.
Grades in MyCourses. To help students follow their progress in the course, all grades will be posted on MyCourses, including an automatically updated final grade based on completed work, along with class averages and grade distributions for all graded items.
Computer Programs. All submitted programs must be (easily) executable on CS department Linux machines assigned to students. More details on allowed libraries etc. will be given with each assignment; what is allowed for some may not be allowed for others.
Grade Adjustments. All grades may be questioned within one week after graded work is returned. Discuss any grading concerns that you have with the instructor, and not the TA.
** Grading Criteria **
For full points, deliverables in the course including question answers, code, presentations and write-ups must be:
(1) Correct and complete (i.e., all parts of a question are answered with no errors and no omissions),
(2) Justified if an explanation is asked for,
(3) Clear (i.e., understandable with a reasonable effort), and
(4) In the requested format, including both the forms of answers (e.g., not providing bullets when prose is asked for), and file types (e.g., providing a PDF as asked, versus providing a Word file). All homework, both written and code, must be submitted as instructed (usually, through MyCourses).
Expectations and resources for programming assignments and project implementation will be provided through MyCourses. Key details include:
Version Control: Using version control tools such as git (optionally with web interfaces like GitHub etc.) is recommended, but not required. If there are RIT-specific web interfaces, these are preferred. Code created for the course should be private (i.e., not freely available online), and remain so after the course has been completed.
Code and Plagiarism. Students are welcome to discuss their programming assignments (including at a whiteboard, for example), but code should never be directly shared between students, and definitely not copied from other students or resources online -- perusing online documentation, StackExchange, etc. is fine. Copying rather than writing code eliminates the opportunity to deepen your understanding and notice new things by working through the implementation yourself.
|
Component |
Weight |
|---|---|
|
10 Weekly Quizzes (Lowest 2 Quizzes Dropped) |
10% |
|
4 Assignments |
40% |
|
3 Research Paper Discussions |
15% |
|
Project Proposal (Group) |
10% |
|
Final Group Project |
25% |
Quizzes (10%). 10 quizzes will be given out weekly beginning in Week 2 of the semester. Quizzes will be available through the "Quizzes" link in MyCourses. Students are permitted to retake a quiz as many times as they like, and will receive the highest score that they receive across these attempts before the deadline. The lowest two quiz grades will be dropped.
Assignments (40%). 4 assignments will be given, beginning in Week 3 of the semester. The assignments will involve a combination of writing and programming questions; students are expected to follow submission instructions as provided in the assignments carefully. Students in CSCI 636 (graduate level IR) will complete additional questions for assignments.
Research Paper Discussions (15%). Beginning in Week 4, we will discuss three research papers in-class, and students will submit their own summaries of a specific aspect of the paper in writing.
Final Project (35%). Instead of an exam, students will complete a group project at the end of the semester. This project includes a proposal due in Week 10 of the semester (10%), a final report and code (20%), and a short 5-10 minute presentation during the exam slot (5%). Students will work in groups of 3. Students in CSCI 636 (graduate level IR) will have additional requirements for the project.
Final Letter Grades. Final letter grades will be assigned using the following ranges:
|
Grade Range (%) |
Letter Grade |
|---|---|
|
93+ |
A |
|
90-92 |
A- |
|
87-89 |
B+ |
|
83-86 |
B |
|
80-82 |
B- |
|
77-79 |
C+ |
|
73-76 |
C |
|
70-72 |
C- |
|
60-69 |
D |
|
< 60 |
F |
Please make yourself familiar with the RIT policies designed to keep us safe during the current pandemic. Expectations for both students and all RIT community members are available online here.
If you require accommodations, please let the instructor know so that we can be of assistance.
RIT ADA Statement (from MyCourses). The Disability Services Office is dedicated to facilitating equitable access to the full RIT experience for students with disabilities. We value disability as diversity and work in collaboration with campus partners to foster a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive campus community.
Any RIT student with a permanent or temporary disability can register and request accommodations with the Disability Services Office. Accommodations are determined on a case-by-case basis via a student-centered process, taking into account what is most appropriate and reasonable for an individual student. Visit www.rit.edu/dso to learn more.