Investigate various ways to apply information technology (IT) to enhance, facilitate, and enrich information processing, management, and transfer. Devise a dynamic information retrieval (IR) system that learns from user interactions and adapt its strategies to accommodate the information needs of individual users. Explore methods of combining different retrieval approaches, sources of evidences (text, hyperlinks, classification structures, user statistics), and interactions (user-system, system-data) to enhance information discovery on the Web.
I would like to extend my dissertation research, which explored fusion of text-, link-, and classification-based retrieval methods, into the arena of interactive retrieval and user data mining. I believe fusion can also be a valuable tool for Digital Library (DL). Thus, I would very much like to explore application of fusion approaches to the areas of topic distillation, interactive classification, and ultimately virtual collection development, where a DL system not only populates topic areas but also gives them structure (micro and macro) and then learns from its interactions with the user to refine the "virtual collection development" process.
My professional interests coincide closely with my research interests. I would like to continue my research, which will involve both grant acquisitions to fund the research and publications to validate it. Since I am a believer in developing practical systems based on theory, I would like to apply findings from my research to building IT solutions in real world situations. I feel that such undertakings would create exciting opportunities for collaboration across disciplines as well as between academia, industry, and government.
As new breakthroughs occur, the job markets change, which in turn change the educational demands and needs. I look forward to getting involved in establishing and maintaining a curriculum, where students can develop a broad perspective of Information and Library Science and at the same time learn to apply today's information technology to solve real world problems.
I strongly believe in the integration of teaching, research, and application. Such integration can serve as a mechanism to maintain intellectual vitality as well as a conduit to accelerate the pace of advances in information science and technology. I also feel that closer linkage between academic community and the industry would be to their mutual benefit. Consequently, I would love to be a part of a team that is willing to take on new challenges and responsibilities to bring together learning, research, and industry to create many exciting opportunities for creativity, innovation, and collaboration.
