Team 2 for End Users

A huge collection of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) has valuable information. However, accessing the information from these documents has proven to be challenging as the process is mostly manual. We propose to build a unique Information Retrieval System that will support searching, ranking, browsing, and recommendations for a large collection of ETDs. The system indexes the digital objects related to the ETD, like documents, chapters, etc. The user can then query the indexed objects through a carefully designed web interface. The web interface provides users with utilities to sort, filter, and query specific fields. We have incorporated machine learning models to support semantic search. To enhance user engagement, we provide the user with a list of recommended documents based on the user's actions and topics of interest. A total of 57,130 documents and 21,537 chapters were indexed. The system was tested by the Fall 2022 CS 5604 class, which had 28 members, and was found to fulfill most of the goals set out at the beginning of the semester.