Faculty of Computer Science
Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg
Germany
: andreas.nuernberger@ovgu.de
: http://www.dke.ovgu.de/findke/en/

Keynote Title:
Collaborative Exploration: Methods to Support Collaborative Searching and Sensemaking

Abstract:
Analyzing and exploring large object collections or retrieving specific information from it are tasks we frequently perform. While individual searching is for many common information needs already well supported by existing search technologies, collaborative information seeking is still a challenging issue for many reasons. One major challenge is to ensure the smooth exchange of search related information within the team of users seeking information. This imposes strong requirements on visualization and interaction to enable user to easily trace and interpret the search activities of other team members and to jointly make sense of gathered information in order to solve the initial information need. In this talk, I will first point out underlying issues and motivate how exploratory search processes can be supported by user adaptive technologies. Then I will motivate specific requirements on search technologies with a focus on collaborative professional search, review existing work and pointing out major challenges.

Short Bio:
Andreas studied computer science and economics at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, received his Ph.D. in computer science from the Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany in 2001 and changed then to UC Berkeley, CA and worked for two years as postdoctoral researcher on adaptive soft computing and visualisation techniques for information retrieval systems. In 2003 he joined the University of Magdeburg as assistant professor for information retrieval and in 2007 he was called to a chair of a tenured professor for 'Data and Knowledge Engineering' at the same university. Andreas was visiting researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia, visiting professor at Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris and he is an Emmy Noether Fellow of the German Science Foundation (DFG). In his research, he is currently focusing on the development of interactive systems for information retrieval and organization while exploiting most recent technologies from information retrieval, machine learning, human computer interaction and companion technologies.