Research interests
Alan Smeaton's research has always been around the topic of information retrieval (IR) and has covered the application of natural language analysis to IR, fast implementation of IR, IR from spoken databases, IR from hypertexts, IR across different languages (text documents) and IR from image and video databases. His current research is around information retrieval from very large collections of digital video, video analysis and computer vision, lifelogging and use of technology in education. This latter topic includes using student data footprints to predict course outcome and using student data to address issues of student wellness and student wellbeing.