Susan Dumais
Encyclopedia
Susan Dumais is a Principal Researcher in the Context, Learning, and User Experience for Search (CLUES) Group of Microsoft Research
and an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington Information School
.
Before joining Microsoft in 1997, Dumais was a researcher at Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies
), where she and her colleagues conducted research into what is now called the vocabulary problem in information retrieval
. Their study demonstrated, through a variety of experiments, that different people use different vocabulary to describe the same thing, and that even choosing the "best" term to describe something is not enough for others to find it. One implication of this work is that because the author of a document may use different vocabulary than someone searching for the document, traditional information retrieval
methods will have limited success.
Dumais and the other Bellcore researchers then began investigating ways to build search systems that avoided the vocabulary problem. The result was their invention of Latent Semantic Indexing
.
In 2006, Dumais was inducted as a Fellow
of the Association for Computing Machinery
. In 2009, she received the Gerard Salton Award
, an information retrieval lifetime achievement award. In 2011, she was inducted to the National Academy of Engineering
for innovation and leadership in organizing, accessing, and interacting with information.
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research is the research division of Microsoft created in 1991 for developing various computer science ideas and integrating them into Microsoft products. It currently employs Turing Award winners C.A.R. Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Charles P...
and an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington Information School
University of Washington Information School
The Information School at the University of Washington is an undergraduate and graduate school that offers BS, MLIS, MSIM, and PhD degrees...
.
Before joining Microsoft in 1997, Dumais was a researcher at Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies
Telcordia Technologies
Telcordia Technologies, formerly Bell Communications Research, Inc. or Bellcore, is a telecommunications research and development company based in the United States created as part of the 1982 Modification of Final Judgment that broke up American Telephone & Telegraph...
), where she and her colleagues conducted research into what is now called the vocabulary problem in information retrieval
Information retrieval
Information retrieval is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web...
. Their study demonstrated, through a variety of experiments, that different people use different vocabulary to describe the same thing, and that even choosing the "best" term to describe something is not enough for others to find it. One implication of this work is that because the author of a document may use different vocabulary than someone searching for the document, traditional information retrieval
Information retrieval
Information retrieval is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web...
methods will have limited success.
Dumais and the other Bellcore researchers then began investigating ways to build search systems that avoided the vocabulary problem. The result was their invention of Latent Semantic Indexing
Latent semantic indexing
Latent Semantic Indexing is an indexing and retrieval method that uses a mathematical technique called Singular value decomposition to identify patterns in the relationships between the terms and concepts contained in an unstructured collection of text. LSI is based on the principle that words...
.
In 2006, Dumais was inducted as a Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of the Association for Computing Machinery
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
. In 2009, she received the Gerard Salton Award
Gerard Salton Award
The Gerard Salton Award is presented by the Association for Computing Machinery SIGIR every three years to an individual who has made "significant, sustained and continuing contributions to research in information retrieval"...
, an information retrieval lifetime achievement award. In 2011, she was inducted to the National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
for innovation and leadership in organizing, accessing, and interacting with information.