I am senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Technology of the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, UK. Until January 2011 I was member of the Information Retrieval group at the School of Computing Science of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Glasgow. Before I was working in the Information Systems Working Group at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Duisburg-Essen, where I did my PhD about a probabilistic, logic-based framework for information modelling and retrieval based on user annotations.

In Glasgow I was working in the Renaissance project, which is concerned with developing a unified information retrieval (IR) theory based on the Quantum Theory (QT) framework to address the emerging challenges of interactive, context-sensitive and multimodal search. My special interests in this project have been the evaluation of an interactive quantum-inspired IR framework we developed, as well as the integration of the polyrepresentation principle into such framework.

Please also have a look at my CV.

Research Interests

My main research interests are information retrieval, information systems and digital libraries. I have been working on the following topics:

• (Interactive) retrieval models and polyrepresentation inspired by quantum mechanics
• Probabilistic and logic-based IR models, esp. probabilistic Datalog
• Context-based Retrieval based with user annotations
• Interactive Retrieval, Information Seeking & Searching
• Annotation services
• Automatic textual and non-textual Categorization
• Expert Search and Sentiment Classification
• Machine learning and Information Retrieval

Please have a look at the overview of quantum and geometry IR literature I am maintaining.

Publications

My recent publications deal with the evaluation of a quantum-inspired framework for interactive retrieval developed in the context of the Renaissance project, where we apply a subspace representation for documents and queries. In particular I focus on the question how the principle of polyrepresentation can be realised in this interactive framework.

A huge part of my publications was written when I did my PhD, and is therefore mainly about how to exploit user annotations on digital objects (e.g., documents in a digital library) for information retrieval. The result of this work is a probabilistic, logic-based framework called POLAR, which is based on probablilistic Datalog and thoroughly described in my PhD thesis and many of my publications. Other publications deal with automatic categorization (also w.r.t. non-textual facets like sentiments), advisory dialogues and patent retrieval.

Please see the list of my publications.

I recently gave a tutorial about quantum probabilities and quantum-inspired IR at the Autum School of the German IR Specialist Group.

Projects

• At the University of Glasgow:
  • Renaissance - Modelling Information Retrieval processes using the formalism of Quantum Theory
  • INEX Interactive Track 2010
• At the University of Duisburg-Essen:
  • POLAR - Probabilistic Object-oriented Logics for Annotation-based Retrieval (my own PhD project)
  • CLASSIX - Classification and Intelligent Search on Information in XML
  • Initiative for the Evaluation of XML retrieval (INEX)
  • LACOSTIR - LAyout, COntent and STructure in Interactive Retrieval
  • DELOS - A Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries
  • DAFFODIL - Distributed Agents for User-Friendly Access of Digital Libraries
• At Fraunhofer IPSI, Darmstadt:
  • COLLATE - Collaboratory for Annotation, Indexing and Retrieval of Digitized Historical Archive Material
  • BRICKS - Building Resources for Integrated Cultural Knowledge Services
  • SCHOLNET - A Digital Library Testbed to Support Networked Scholarly Communities
  • VIP-Advisor - Virtual, independent advisor for personal insurance and finance risk management

Teaching

I gained teaching experience as a course organiser, teaching assistant and lecturer on undergraduate and postgraduate level in different areas of computer science.

At the University of Bedfordshire I am teaching:

• Advanced IT Strategies and Paradigms (lectures about Information Retrieval, XML and Ontologies)
• Programming and Modelling (Java and UML)
• Data Modelling and Management
• Distributed and Parallel Computing

At the University of Glasgow I taught:

• Distributed Information Management / Internet Technologies
• General Readings in Computer Science

At the University of Duisburg-Essen I held lectures and tutorials in the following courses:

• Information Engineering (course organiser)
• Information Retrieval
• Information Mining
• Modelling Methods in Computer Science

Recently I organised a seminar about geometric and quantum-based information retrieval at the University of Hagen. In the past I organised seminars about the Semantic Web at Fraunhofer IPSI.

Research Related Activities

I am managing editor of the International Journal on Digital Libraries (IJDL). If you are interested in submitting an article about digital libraries and related technologies, or information retrieval in the context of digital libraries, please proceed to our online manuscript submission page. Please don't hesitate to contact me in case you have any question regarding IJDL.

I was the local organisation chair of The European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL 2010) held in Glasgow.

Furthermore, I have been program chair of the information retrieval workshops held at LWA 2009 (in Darmstadt, Germany), LWA 2010 (in Kassel, Germany) and LWA 2011 (in Magdeburg, Germany). This workshop series is organised by the Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval of the German Computing Society. I am also proceedings chair of the Quantum Interaction 2011 symposium in Aberdeen, Scotland.

I am member of the steering committee of the Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval of the German Computing Society. I am also member of the editorial board of the Datenbank Spektrum, the official journal of the German Information Retrieval resp. Database special interest groups.

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