Combining Evidence from Multiple Searches

At Virginia Tech and PRC Inc. investigations with TREC data have focused on developing and comparing mechanims for combining evidence related to a number of search schemes. Our work with the first CD-ROM has included various indexing, weighting, retrieval, combination, evaluation, and failure analysis efforts. Related work reported elsewhere in the proceedings by Paul Thompson discusses extensions undertaken by PRC Inc. and an evaluation of those results. Futur's work will develop our ideas further, try them out with additional data, and hoefully be evaluated in connection with other work on TREC and TIPSTER