Talk: Past, Present and Future of IR May 22, 2007

The Information Retrieval Specialist Group of the BCS will be holding their AGM and a special 50th Anniversary talk.

Registration
The event isfree, but registration is essential. Drinks, refreshments and a buffet will be provided during the evening. You can book a place on

http://irsg.bcs.org/bcsevent_form.php

BCS 50th Anniversary Talk: Information Retrieval: Past and Future
by Prof. C.J. "Keith" van Rijsbergen

Abstract: In this talk I will try and give a 50 year perspective on theory, practice, education, and experimentation in Information Retrieval.
Information Retrieval has come a long way since the publication of Fairthorne's paper in the first issue of Volume 1, of The Computer Journal, on the 'Automatic Retrieval of Recorded Information'. I will use his published research as my starting point. Since his day, the field has expanded enormously, some would say it has spawned a number of sub-fields, such as text mining, information extraction, web retrieval, etc. Despite this apparent fragmentation I will try and present a coherent account of how the underlying science and technology has advanced, point out some key stages and ideas in the development of the subject.

The Speaker: Keith van Rijsbergen's research has been devoted to information retrieval, covering both theoretical and experimental aspects.
He has specified several theoretical models for information retrieval and seen some of them from the specification and prototype stage through to production. His current research is concerned with the design of appropriate logics to model the flow of information. He has been involved in a number of EU projects and working groups on information retrieval, including Fermi, Miro, Mira, Idomeneus, and more recently K-space. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society of Edinburgh, IEE, BCS, and ACM. In 1993 he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of The Computer Journal, an appointment he held until 2000. He has served as a programme committee member and editorial board member of the major information retrieval conferences and journals. He is the author of a well-known book Information Retrieval, Butterworths, 1979. In 1999, together with Crestani and Lalmas, he published a book entitled Information Retrieval: Uncertainty and Logics. His most recent book is The Geometry of Information Retrieval, CUP, 2004.

Official Website: http://irsg.bcs.org/agm.php