Visiting Professor: Markus Zanker, Free University of Bolzano, Italy

Professor Markus Zanker from the Free University of Bolzano, Italy will visit the Faculty of Informatics in the summer term 2016.

He will give the course "195.064 VU Recommender Systems" in which the scientific underpinnings of the field of Information Filtering and Recommender Systems will be presented. Recommender systems are now largely used, particularly in eCommerce web sites, for easing the information search and discovery processes, and increasing customer fidelity and conversion rates. Starting from basic information retrieval concepts more advanced techniques for information filtering and decision support in recommender systems will be investigated, such as those exploiting contextual information or supporting decisions taken by groups. The students will be provided with a rich and comprehensive catalogue of information search tools that can be exploited in the design and implementation of a specific Web site, such eCommerce or eGovernment applications for travel, tourism or health. Many open issues will be described, motivating and promoting new research activities. At the end of the course every student will produce a research report describing a novel information filtering and recommendation task and illustrating a novel and viable technology for addressing such task.

Dates:
26-29 April: lectures and excercises
31 May and 1 June: lectures and students' presentation

The course is for master and PhD students.