Graduate Studies in Information Retrieval & Human Computation

UT Austin INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LAB Director: Matt Lease, School of Information (also appointed in Computer Science)

The University of Texas at Austin invites applications from talented and energetic prospective students wanting to help shape the future of research in Information Retrieval (IR), Human Computation / Crowdsourcing, and related areas. UT Austin is one of the premier research universities in the US and is located in one of the country's sunniest and most vibrant cities in which to live and work, Austin (see video).

Programs of Study

• School of Information (iSchool): Preserve the past, manage the present, & design the future
  • PhD & Masters
• Department of Computer Science (CS): PhD & Masters
• Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
• Linguistics

Graduate Courses: Information Retrieval · Human Computation and Crowdsourcing

The iSchool moved into a wonderful new building in 2009 (with great labs), and CS also has a beautiful new building.

UT Austin graduate programs are highly-ranked nationally and admission is competitive (e.g., the iSchool is ranked #6 nationally with many funded research projects). UT Austin also promotes diversity in considering applicants coming from traditionally under-represented population groups, including women (cf. NCWIT). International students: see minimum test scores.

Prospective students should apply directly to (one or more of) the programs above, indicating:

• faculty they are most interested in working with
• relevant background (education, experience, skills)
• interest in IR, and any further details about this interest

Admission decisions are made by committee in each program and no promises of admission can be made in advance of application. The primary criterion for acceptance is the applicant's overall strength and ability to excel in the program as a whole as judged on the basis of standard application materials (e.g. letters of recommendation, grades, GRE scores, etc.). Each program's website details its specific application materials and admission criteria.

Highlighted Faculty

UT Austin's faculty regularly collaborate on research across disciplines. Regardless of the selected program of study, students will have the opportunity to work with diverse faculty across the university. Several faculty are highlighted below; visit their webpages to learn more about them and their research.

• iSchool: see 1-page Factsheet on UT Austin iSchool
  • Randolph Bias: Usability
  • Danna Gurari: Computer Vision & Crowdsourcing
  • Jacek Gwizdka: Human-centered IR design and evaluation
  • Matt Lease (also CS-affiliated): IR and human computation / crowdsourcing
  • Edison Thomaz (also ECE-affiliated): Ubiquitous computing & machine learning
  • Yan Zhang: Human-centered IR & health IR
• CS
  • Inderjit Dhillon: Machine Learning (ML) and social network analysis
  • Greg Durrett: Natural Language Processing (NLP)
  • Kristen Grauman: Computer vision
  • Ray Mooney: ML & Natural Language Processing (NLP)
• ECE
  • Suzanne Barber: Social network analysis
  • Joydeep Ghosh: Data Mining
  • Christine Julien: ubiquitous computing (& IR in such environments)
  • Dewayne Perry: IR for Software Engineering (e.g., bug localization)
• Linguistics
  • Katrin Erk: NLP
• Music
  • Bruce Pennycook (also RTF-affiliated): Music IR
  • Russell Pinkston: Music IR

Additional UT Resources

To help facilitate top-notch research, UT Austin offers a variety of programs and resources avaiable to students across the university:

• Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC): High performance computing with over 80,000 CPUs, 5 Petabytes of storage, immersive visualization labs, and over 80 staff members and students.
• The UT Austin Computational Linguistics Lab
• Division of Statistics and Scientific Computation: Additional faculty & students, course offerings, and support available for statistical computing
• Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences: Leads a variety of interdisciplinary programs in computational sciences and information technology (brochure)

Help us shape the future of IR!

Why UT Austin? As a leading research institution in the 21st century, we are driving innovation and tomorrow's technology in IR, but we can't do it without your knowledge, enthusiasm, and dedication. At UT Austin you will have the opportunity to significantly impact theory and practice in developing IR technologies, to bring your own unique ideas and perspective to bear in working with us to design the future. It's an exciting road ahead, and we look forward to having you help us chart its course! Read more about UT Austin & Life in Austin.

About iSchools

• The iSchool Consortium: The iSchools are interested in the relationship between information, people and technology. This is characterized by a commitment to learning and understanding the role of information in human endeavors. The iSchools take it as given that expertise in all forms of information is required for progress in science, business, education, and culture. This expertise must include understanding of the uses and users of information, as well as information technologies and their applications.
• Annual iConference
• Further Reading
  • The Information School Phenomenon. Olson, G. and Grudin, J. Interactions 16, no. 2 (2009): 15--19.
  • Reflections on the future of iSchools from inspired junior faculty. JO Wobbrock, AJ Ko, JA Kientz - Interactions, 2009.
  • Reflections on the future of iSchools from a dean inspired by some junior faculty. M. Pollack. Interactions, Volume 17 Issue 1, January-February 2010.
  • Intellectual Diversity in iSchools: Past, Present and Future. Wiggins, A. & Sawyer, S., iConference 2010.
  • Identity in the I-School Movement. John Leslie King. ASIS&T Bulletin April/May 2006.