8th Russian Summer School in Information Retrieval (RuSSIR 2014)

The 8 Russian Summer School in Information Retrieval (RuSSIR 2014) was held on August 18-22, 2014 in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia. The school was co-organized by the National Research University Higher School of Economics and the Russian Information Retrieval Evaluation Seminar (ROMIP). The RuSSIR school series started in 2007 and has developed into a renowned academic event with solid international participation. Previously, RuSSIR took place in Yekaterinburg, Taganrog, Petrozavodsk, Voronezh, Saint Petersburg, Yaroslavl, and Kazan. RuSSIR courses were taught by many prominent international researchers in IR and related areas. Nizhny Novgorod is a beautiful historical city located about 400 km east of Moscow. The city lies on the confluence of the Volga and the Oka rivers. The population of the city is about 1.3 million people. The 16 century Kremlin is the central historic citadel of the city. Nizhny Novgorod is the birthplace of a prominent Russian 20 century writer Maxim Gorky, whose quote “Science is the sublimest madness of the humankind” was printed on school t-shirts. Rostislav Alexeev (1916–1980), Russian inventor and designer of hydrofoils and ekranoplans, also lived and worked in Nizhny Novgorod. A picture of “Raketa” hydrofoil was printed on school bags.