Fulltime research opportunity: Spring 2008
Frank Tompa
(May 2008 – August 2008)
Description of Duties:
The student will build an application that searches a text collection
and displays the results in an effective fashion. This application will
be used primarily to search a collection of Latin texts comprising the
digitized works of Albertus Magnus based on a late 19th-century printed
edition.
As part of the MARGOT project <http://margot.uwaterloo.ca>, a similar
application was created to allow users to query a collection of
Anglo-Norman texts. The student will begin by preparing the digitized
Albertus Magnus database so that it can be searched using the technology
behind the MARGOT project. As part of this stage, he or she will help to
design suitable tagging to be applied to the materials in the collection
and to write software to insert many tags automatically.
The primary challenge will then be to design a more general framework
that can be easily adapted for searching and browsing any XML text. A
flexible indexing facility and word-frequency list manager should also
be incorporated into the framework. Ideally, for a new text collection,
we can build an application by creating a web-based query form and then
simply plugging it in to our framework. The framework implementation may
be written from scratch or built on existing XML technologies.
The computer science aspects of the work will be supervised by Prof.
Frank Tompa (Computer Science). Meeting the user content and
user-interface requirements of the project will be supervised by Profs.
Bruno Tremblay (Philosophy, SJU) and David Porreca (Classical Studies).
Qualifications:
Suitable candidates must have an A average and should have experience
with creating web-based applications. Proficiency in C and Unix is
required. Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Computer
Engineering enrollment in third or fourth year is preferred. The student
will be required to apply under the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research
Awards Program.
Funding:
The position is jointly funded by CFI and NSERC. The minimum salary
will be $9500 for 16 weeks (May-August 2008), adjusted to reflect prior
experience.
Deadline:
Send your resume and application to Prof. Frank Tompa by January 15;
deadline for NSERC application is January 21.