The City University London (City)

School of Informatics - Information Science, School of Arts - Journalism

City University was founded in 1894 and now hosts more than 21000 students and 2100 staff from 156 countries. The Centre for Interactive Systems Research (CISR) has 20 years’ experience of R&D in search algorithms and technologies. We are a centre within the School of Informatics and collaborate with the Centre for Human Computer Interaction and Design within our School on relevant projects. Research is based on funding from EU-IST, EPSRC (UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), TSB (UK Technology Strategy Board), AHRC (UK Arts & Humanities Research Council), Microsoft, and Mitre. Members of the group have also acquired funding previously from Nuffield, and Vodafone Foundation. The School has had over 3million Euros of EU FP funding over 2006-2009. CISR has links with Microsoft Research Cambridge, and Google Labs Zurich.

CISR considers the interactivity of systems but also the importance relevant, engaging, and high quality content in these. It has had a very user-centred approach to search system design, development, and evaluation. CISR has had a flagship search algorithm elements of which have been incorporated in many current web search engines. It is based on probabilistic retrieval. Main research areas at CISR include: web log analysis, personalisation, collaborative search, user information needs, user studies, human information behaviour, context learning algorithms for search, context-aware applications, ambient, mobile, and context-sensitive technologies. Examples of multimedia search include music and photo image retrieval in addition to hybrid approaches involving text.