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LBSC 796/INFM 718R
Information Retrieval Systems
Fall 2007
Project Plan Assignment

Student-designed projects can be either research-oriented (leading to an academic paper) or operationally oriented (leading to a complete working system). Students who elect to design their own project should meet with the instructor no later than September 28 (and preferably much earlier) to discuss their ideas. They will then be required to prepare a complete project plan with milestones comparable to those specified for team projects and to submit it by the due date for this assignment.

Instructor-designed project are operationally oriented. Students who elect to be assigned by the instructor to a project team will need to turn in answers to the questionnaire below by the due date of this assignment. Project team assignments will be announced at the start of the next class session.

Project teams formed by the instructor will typically include 6 students with the following principal roles:

1. Search system design and implementation (2 students)
2. User experience design and implementation (2 students)
3. Batch evaluation design and batch evaluation (1 student)
4. Interactive evaluation design and interactive evaluation (1 student)

1. Build a system that supports use of the "State Department Cables" collection that was recently released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) by historians.
2. Build a system to help high school students make sense of the transcripts from the Apollo moon landing missions by helping students find references in the enormous collection of technical documentation and oral history interviews that is available that explain events and technical terms that they want to learn more about.
3. Build a system to help the university's public relations office rapidly respond to media requests for comments from faculty members on events for which the have particular expertise by taking advantage of papers and Web pages in which faculty members write about topics in which they have expertise.

1. What would be your first and second choices for a project (selected from the three listed above)?
2. What would be your first, second, and third choices for your principal role on your project team (selected from the four listed above)?
3. Briefly describe your computer programming background, including and programming languages that you know. This need not be extensive -- even a course in high school is worth mentioning.
4. For MLS students, have you completed LBSC 650? LBSC 750?
5. Any other comments that you wish to have considered.