WEB BAR 2005
2nd Bertinoro International PhD School
on Advanced Retrieval and Web Mining

29 August - 9 September, 2005
University of Bologna Residential Center
Bertinoro (Forlì), Italy

bertinoro
[ What the School is About
| Registration
| Schedule
| Resources
| Location
| How to Reach Bertinoro
| Important dates
| Participants
| Organization and Sponsorship
| Local Weather Forecast]

What the School is About

This is a course on Information Retrieval and Web Mining consisting of two modules. The first module is taught by Prabhakar Raghavan and follows closely the material that he teaches at Stanford University. The 2nd module is taught by Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi and focusses on machine learning techniques for web mining.

Course Description: Basic and advanced techniques for text-based information systems: efficient text indexing; Boolean, vector space, and probabilistic retrieval models; evaluation and interface issues; Web search including crawling, link-based algorithms, and Web metadata; text/Web clustering, classification, wrapper, information extraction, and collaborative filtering systems; text mining.

Additional talks on related topics such as crawling and compression techniques will be delivered by guests.

The course entails a project, chosen from diverse topics in information retrieval. Several projects assigned during the last-year edition of WebBar developed into scholarly papers presented at international conference and workshops.

How to participate: You can register here. For any inquiries contact the School Director.

Fellowships: A certain number of BICI-Unesco(ROSTE) grants are available.

Schedule

Resources

Location

The meeting will be held in the small medieval hilltop town of Bertinoro. This town is in Emilia Romagna about 50km east of Bologna at an elevation of about 230m.  Here is a map putting it in context. It is easily reached by train and taxi from Bologna and is close to many splendid Italian locations such as Ravenna, a treasure trove of byzantine art and history, and the Republic of San Marino (all within 35km) as well as some less well-known locations like the thermal springs of Fratta Terme and the castle and monastic gardens of Monte Maggio.  Bertinoro can also be a base for visiting some of the better-known Italian locations such as Padua, Ferrara, Vicenza, Venice, Florence and Siena.

Bertinoro itself is picturesque, with many narrow streets and walkways winding around the central peak.  The meeting will be held in a redoubtable ex-Episcopal fortress that has been converted by the University of Bologna into a modern conference center with computing facilities and Internet access.  From the fortress you can enjoy a beautiful the vista that stretches from the Tuscan Apennines to the Adriatic coast.

Important Dates

Arrival: Sunday 28 August, 2005
Departure: Friday 9 - Saturday 10 September, 2005

How to Reach Bertinoro

List of participants

Organization and Sponsorship

School Directors
Alessandro Panconesi, La Sapienza of Rome,   Peter Widmayer, ETH Zürich
Local Organization
Andrea Bandini, Elena Della Godenza, Centro Congressi di Bertinoro
Sponsored by     BICI   Bertinoro International Center for Informatics
     
UNESCO OFFICE IN VENICE - REGIONAL BUREAU FOR SCIENCE IN EUROPE (ROSTE)
    Romagna Acque