The annual ACM Recommender Systems conference (RecSys Conference) is described as the “premier international forum for the presentation of new research results, systems and techniques in the broad field of recommender systems.” In late September, Dr. Sole Pera joined a unique mix of 500 researchers from academia and industry and presented posters accepted by the prestigious conference, which highlight the work currently being at Boise State in the area of recommender systems. These posters, which showcase the quality of research done by Dr. Pera and her students, included:
- “A Recommendation-Based Book-Exchange System Without Using Wish Lists” (Drs. Sole Pera and Dennis Ng)
- “Recommendations to Enhance Children Web Searches” (Shahrzad Karimi and Dr. Sole Pera)
- “Exploiting Reviews to Guide Users’ Selections” (Nevena Dragovic and Dr. Sole Pera)
Dr. Pera noted the thrill and immense sense of pride she felt as she was able to present not only her own but most importantly, her students’ work and the fact that it received great feedback. Gathering feedback from peers in both the academic and industry spheres provides an invaluable benefit, a complete perspective on the problems they’re trying to solve in the recommendation domain.
Dr. Sole Pera with Stacey, Jeff, and Sean from relEVENTcity at RecSys (Vienna)
Industry expert participation included participants from Google, Linkedin, Netflix, Amazon, TripAdvisor, and Pandora but also notable, Boise industry got in the mix with local startup relEVENTcity doing a demo at one of the RecSys workshops “Tourism Recommender Systems.” Dr. Pera serves as an advisor to relEVENTcity and encouraged them to attend RecSys.
Having relEVENTcity’s work demonstrated at the conference, along with the research being done at Boise State, was a great opportunity to showcase Boise’s industry and academic presence within the recommenders community and the natural interaction that takes place between the two here.
More about relEVENTcity: As the b|launched 4.0 winner in the spring of 2015, relEVENTcity was awarded $20,000 in seed funding to help them progress towards a beta launch in the fall. relEVENTcity is a new technology that recommends events based on the user’s interests. The team includes Sean MacLachlan, Jeff Heath, Stacey Donohue, and Kara Anderson.
Student Posters:
