Last semester we built a prototype mediator which takes a user query and poses it to a variety of different data sources. In the worst case,... Show moreLast semester we built a prototype mediator which takes a user query and poses it to a variety of different data sources. In the worst case, it is as good as existing metasearch engines. Example query: “What are the three best restaraunts in Chicago?” Metasearch would search for the word “three” Mediator would identify appropriate sources to answer the question, such as a database of restaurant information. Sponsorship: IIT Collaboratory for Interprofessional Studies Project Plan for IPRO 334: Tagging XML Data for our Mediators for the Fall 2000 semester Show less
This IPRO is being run as part of the IIT Information Retrieval Lab. This is one of the only labs in the country dedciated to next generation... Show moreThis IPRO is being run as part of the IIT Information Retrieval Lab. This is one of the only labs in the country dedciated to next generation search engines. Team members will learn all about search engines and will help build one different from existing search engines. Current web search engines only search unstructured data (web documents). A lot of data is available that is structured (weather, census, sports, etc.). A search engine that could search both structured data and text would be able to answer questions such as "show me the top three restaurants in Chicago" without simply looking for the word "three." Previous IPRO teams have been building a Java-based metasearch engine. Numerous issues have arisen. How do we identify which data source will be best for the query? What is the best user interface for the system? For Spring 2002, the team will extend the search engine to include more sources. The team could really use the talents of non-computer science students to help test the system and improve the user interface. Sponsorship: IIT Internal R&D in conjunction with the Ed Kaplan Entrepreneurial Studies Program Project Plan for IPRO 356: Intranet Mediators for the Spring 2002 semester Show less
