Information Retrieval and Text Mining (DAT640)

The course offers an introduction to techniques and methods for processing, mining, and searching in massive text collections. The course considers a broad variety of applications and provides an opportunity for hands-on experimentation with state-of-the-art algorithms using existing software tools and data collections.


Course description for study year 2025-2026. Please note that changes may occur.

Facts

Course code

DAT640

Version

1

Credits (ECTS)

10

Semester tution start

Autumn

Number of semesters

1

Exam semester

Autumn

Language of instruction

English

Offered by
Time table

View course schedule

Content

NB! This is an elective course and may be cancelled if fewer than 10 students are enrolled by August 20th.

  • Text preprocessing, indexing
  • Representation learning (word embeddings)
  • Text categorization
  • Search engine architecture
  • Retrieval models (vector-space model, probabilistic models, learning to rank, neural models)
  • Search engine evaluation
  • Query modeling, relevance feedback
  • Web search (link analysis)
  • Semantic search (knowledge bases, entity retrieval, entity linking)
  • Conversational information access
  • Transformers and large language models

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

  • Theory and practice of concepts, methods, and techniques for managing and analyzing large amounts of text data.

Skills:

  • Process and prepare large-scale textual data collections for retrieval and mining.
  • Apply retrieval, classification, and clustering methods to a range of information access problems.
  • Conduct performance evaluation and error analysis.

General competencies:

  • Understanding of the strengths and limitations of modern information retrieval and text mining techniques. Being able to identify promising business applications, participate in and lead such projects.

Required prerequisite knowledge

None

Exam

Project work and written exam

Form of assessment Weight Duration Marks Aid
Project work 1/2 Letter grades
Written exam 1/2 4 Hours Letter grades All aids are permitted - it is not permitted to collaborate / get help from other people in working with the exam task

The project is a combination of individual and group assignments. The project groups are set up by the course instructor. There is no re-sit option on the project. If a student fails the project, they have to re-take this part next time the course is lectured.Digital written exam.Both assessment parts must be passed in order to achieve an overall grade in the course.

Course teacher(s)

Course coordinator:

Krisztian Balog

Course teacher:

Petra Galuscakova

Course teacher:

Krisztian Balog

Head of Department:

Tom Ryen

Method of work

6 hours of lectures/lab exercises each week.

Overlapping courses

Course Reduction (SP)
Web Search and Data Mining (DAT630_1) 5

Open for

Computer Science - Master of Science Degree Programme
Exchange programme at Faculty of Science and Technology

Course assessment

There must be an early dialogue between the course supervisor, the student union representative and the students. The purpose is feedback from the students for changes and adjustments in the course for the current semester.In addition, a digital course evaluation must be carried out at least every three years. Its purpose is to gather the students experiences with the course.

Literature

Search for literature in Leganto