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Information Retrieval
Introduction
The active, internationally renown Information Retrieval group has strong expertise in structured document retrieval and business information domains,
leads a worldwide evaluation project (INEX), and builds on its own commercial software, HySpirit, for developing specialised search tools for
applications including e-commerce, financial service portals, computer crime detection as well as patient management in medical fields. Research
topics include multimedia, XML, MPEG-7 and Web retrieval, knowledge-based uncertain reasoning, formal models and theories, integration of
database and information retrieval technologies (probabilistic SQL), personalisation, document clustering and summarisation, evaluation of retrieval
systems, information seeking, computational linguistics and natural language processing. Results from these research investigations are being applied in
the context of business search solutions, distance learning, digital libraries, the semantic web, music retrieval, and interactive digital TV.
Since its establishment in 2002, the group has attracted funding from EU, EPSRC, Royal Society, Library and Information Commission, and British Council, for research projects, such as INEX for the evaluation of XML retrieval systems in a digital library setting; SAVANT for the integration of personalisation techniques within an interactive digital TV domain and on a range of user devices (PDA, Tablet PC, TV); OntoWeb for developing search facilities based on RDF and XML technologies for the Semantic Web; QUEST, FOCUS I and FOCUS II for investigating efficient and effective structured document retrieval methods. Before joining Queen Mary, members of the IR group have been actively involved in many EU projects: FERMI (formalisation and experimentation on the retrieval of multimedia information), EuroSearch (a multilingual European federated search service), and EuroGatherer (a personalised information gathering system); and the working group MIRO (multimedia information retrieval), MIRA (evaluation of interactive multimedia information retrieval systems).
The group has strong links with the international IR community and with industry in Europe. Apriorie Ltd is a spinout company that builds on the commercialisation of the HySpirit retrieval platform. The group is a founding member of the London Knowledge Management Network and a member of the UK Multimedia Knowledge Management Network. Regular seminars, with distinguished guests, support the group's research and networking activities. The specialised, research-led Masters course in Information Management exploits the expertise within the group, while members also contribute to other advanced Masters programmes in the Department. In the past couple of years the group has grown significantly attracting an increasing number of PhD students and researchers.