I did my PhD research at the Information and Language Processing Systems (ILPS) group of the Intelligent Systems Lab Amsterdam (ISLA) of the of the University of Amsterdam. My supervisors were Maarten de Rijke and Jaap Kamps.
PhD Thesis
My thesis is entitled Focused Information Access using XML Element Retrieval. In the thesis I explore how search engines can give additional support to users who are searching a collection of long documents. In such cases the search engine should not only point the user to the appropriate documents but also point the user to the appropriate locations within the documents. I show how this additional support can be realized using XML element retrieval. The core of the thesis involves exhaustive evaluation of XML element retrieval methods.
The thesis is accessible in summarized form and pdf format.
The public defense took place on Thursday December 14th 2006 in the Kleine Aula of the University of Amsterdam (Doelenzaal). Here is a small video clip from the defense (created by Erik TKS).
PhD Research
My main research topic was XML element retrieval. During my time in Amsterdam I was however involved in more research activities than actually fit into my final dissertation. Below you will find a pointers to descriptions of some of my research activities: