Welcome to Information Retrieval (IR) course! It is difficult to imagine living without search engines. Availability of big data has necessitated a systematic study of retrieval techniques. Principles and practices of information retrieval have been a focus of both researchers and practitioners alike. This course is not about just search engines. It is about dealing with big data and retrieving information which opens up several interesting applications. This course will introduce students to key parts of IR such as indexing techniques, challenges in query processing and well-known retrieval models.
Familiarity with Java will help in coding with Lucene. You may use your favourite programming language (for assignments) as long as the objectives of the assignment are met. Basic understanding of linear algebra, set theory and probability will be useful in understanding the IR models. However, there are no specific pre-requisites for this course. We will revise the fundamentals wherever necessary.