iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Information Age @information-age.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

The AI boom is driving major price hikes for consumer electronics as AI chipmakers take first dibs on critical memory hardware. 📈 Read more, including thoughts from RMIT University's @olegzendel.bsky.social and UNSW's @suekeay.bsky.social: ia.acs.org.au/article/2026...

ia.acs.org.au

Why the price of RAM is skyrocketing

Rising costs being 'passed through to customers'.

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ADM+S Centre @admscentre.org.au · 21/10/2025

What happens when Google stops sending you to websites & starts answering questions itself? In this podcast episode ADM+S researchers Ashwin Nagappa, Oleg Zendel & Sara Al Lawati discuss what the future of search means for all of us bit.ly/48zWDK9 #GoogleSearch #AIMode

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ADM+S Centre @admscentre.org.au · 14/10/2025

Researchers from the Australian Search Experience examine a crucial aspect of the information ecosystem: information producers and their reciprocal relationship with search engines Read more bit.ly/4n41xme #SEO #GenAI #SearchEngines

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Johanne Trippas @jtrippas.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

🌟Really excited to share the fourth Strategic Workshop on Information Retrieval (SWIRL) report published in SIGIR Forum! Paper 👉🏻 www.johannetrippas.com/papers/tripp... More info 👉🏻 sites.google.com/view/swirl20... #SWIRL2025 #SIGIR2026 #IR #GenAI #Research #CHIIR2026

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ADM+S Centre @admscentre.org.au · 21/07/2025

A team from the ADM+S at RMIT University has taken out first place amongst 70 teams across 27 countries in the LiveRAG Challenge at SIGIR 2025, showcasing world-class innovation in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technologies admscentre.org/3IBFe8Z

admscentre.org

ADM+S team wins global LiveRAG Challenge at SIGIR 2025 - ADM+S Centre

Researchers from ADM+S at RMIT University have taken out first place in the LiveRAG Challenge at SIGIR 2025, showcasing world-class innovation in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technologies.

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Maik Fröbe @maik-froebe.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Do not forget to participate in the #TREC2025 Tip-of-the-Tongue (ToT) Track :) The corpus and baselines (with run files) are now available and easily accessible via the ir_datasets API and the HuggingFace Datasets API. More details are available at: trec-tot.github.io/guidelines

Dory from finding nemo with the quote: "I remember it like it was yesterday. Of course, I dont remember yesterday."

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

arxiv cs.IR @arxiv-cs-ir.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Kun Ran, Shuoqi Sun, Khoi Nguyen Dinh Anh, Damiano Spina, Oleg Zendel RMIT-ADM+S at the SIGIR 2025 LiveRAG Challenge arxiv.org/abs/2506.14516

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Oleg Zendel @olegzendel.com · 18/06/2025

Excited to share that my amazing RMIT ADM+S team – @damianospina.com, Kun Ran, @shuoqisun.bsky.social, and Dinh Anh Khoi Nguyen – are global finalists in the #SIGIR #LiveRAG Challenge! I'm incredibly proud of everyone and what we've achieved. What a fantastic journey! 🎉

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Oleg Zendel @olegzendel.com · 14/05/2025

My first media interview, a great experience! I really enjoyed the conversation with @jtrippas.bsky.social from @rmitcomputing.bsky.social and Ellen Phiddian from @abcnewsbot.bsky.social. Thanks for the thoughtful discussion and the opportunity to share insights!

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ADM+S Centre @admscentre.org.au · 14/05/2025

Are search engines getting worse—or is it time to rethink how we search? ADM+S researchers Oleg Zendel, Ashwin Nagappa & Johanne Trippas share insights on search quality, AI & what it means for how we find trustworthy information online @olegzendel.bsky.social @ashwinnag.bsky.social bit.ly/3F8sx44

bit.ly

Is Google search getting worse? Maybe what we want from it has changed

Has the simple search become less useful in a world of low-information, SEO-optimised sites, and often faulty AI summaries? Are there better ways to navigate the web?

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Damiano Spina @damianospina.com · 02/05/2025

Proceedings of the 2025 ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval #CHIIR2025 are now available at the ACM DL: dl.acm.org/doi/proceedi...

https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3698204

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Ingo Frommholz @frommholz.org · 27/03/2025

IRRJ, the Information Retrieval Research Journal, is the new player in the information retrieval publication landscape. The first issue has recently been published. Have a look at irrj.org/index, and don't forget to follow @IRRJ.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy!

irrj.org

Information Retrieval Research

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Oleg Zendel @olegzendel.com · 26/03/2025

Fantastic keynote by Kathy Brennan at #CHIIR2025! Insightful points on UI design at Google moving beyond the 'average user' to truly personalize experiences. Thought-provoking and inspiring

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Oleg Zendel @olegzendel.com · 26/03/2025

@rankun203.bsky.social is presenting his Master's work at #CHIIR2025 in Melbourne. Exploring LLMs to improve query reformulation, showing promising results especially for poor queries. Contrary to prior studies of PRF query expansion, which works mostly for effective queries. Questions time 😄

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Daniel Angus @antmandan.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

There's something quasi-religious about the way some critics of AI declare their total abstinence from it, like a badge of moral purity. You can bet many of the same voices drive cars, eat factory-farmed meat, and otherwise engage with systems that have deep ethical and environmental costs.

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

ARC has “paused” future rounds of grant schemes pending outcomes of its NCGP Policy Review. All schemes previously scheduled to open before 1 July this year will go ahead. But next year’s Laureates, Industry Fellowships & Discovery Indigenous won’t. See table👇 & www.arc.gov.au/funding-rese...

Black text on white background. Screenshot from ARC’s Grants Calendar webpage showing which schemes will go ahead next year (upper bullet points), and which will be “paused” pending the outcomes of the review of the National Competitive Grants Program (lower bullet points). Source: https://www.arc.gov.au/funding-research/ARC_grants-calendar

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Here’s a report by John Ross in @timeshighered.bsky.social on ARC Board’s proposal to change grant schemes ▶️ www.timeshighereducation.com/news/arc-gra... [Free login required] Both @scienceau.bsky.social's & I am worried about opportunities & unintended consequences for early-career researchers👇

Excerpt from the article. Black text on white background with a few links in blue text. Excerpt as follows:
“Under the ARC board’s proposals, most stand-alone fellowships would be replaced by “embedded fellowships” funded through other grant schemes and capped at two years. “Traditional four-year fellowships concentrate a significant amount of funds on a small number of individual researchers,” a discussion paper explains.
Observers fear this could inadvertently deny many ECRs a toehold in academia because current fellowship schemes such as the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (Decra) and the mid-career Future Fellowships are available to researchers without positions at universities.
This could change under the proposals. The discussion paper implies that recipients of embedded fellowships must already be in “the university workforce” – suggesting that ECRs must obtain employment in the sector before gaining eligibility for ARC grants.
That is an “unrealistic” expectation, according to Sharath Sriram, president of Science and Technology Australia. “The assumption is all those who apply are already…in academic roles. That might have been true in the 1990s. It’s not the case anymore.
“There’s no stability of employment for people until they are six, seven years out of their PhDs. Universities often use success in grants and fellowships to determine who to employ.”
A researcher who monitors grant schemes, using the social media handle “ARC Tracker”, was unconvinced that the proposals would improve opportunities for ECRs.
They said changes to fellowship schemes needed to avoid closing “pathways” for young researchers and leaving them “overshadowed by the established group leaders”.
ARC Board chair Peter Shergold acknowledged the fellowship changes as one of the “stings in the tail” of his proposals, but said a primary goal of his reforms was “contributing to the development of the next generation of researchers”.

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Oleg Zendel @olegzendel.com · 17/03/2025

An interesting 🧵 worth having a look at

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Oleg Zendel @olegzendel.com · 16/03/2025

Soaking up (possibly) the last bit of summer this weekend - while wrapping up my reviews!

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

ALL RESEARCHERS ❗️Speak up❗️ if you have opinions, critique or ideas on proposed changes to Australian Research Council grants. Discuss & distill ideas, sure, but to be considered you MUST make a submission ▶️ submit.dese.gov.au/jfe/form/SV_... It’s EASY! Answer these questions in the form👇

Screenshot from the ARC Board’s Discussion Paper on the Policy Review of the National Competitive Grants Program (page 33) listing the questions the standard submission form asks you to address. Black text on white background with a heading “Having your say” on dark blue background at the top.

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Captain it’s Wednesday @wednesday.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Captain it's Wednesday

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

The ARC Board has proposed a major shake-up of the National Competitive Grants Program ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/engage-us/co... I've only skimmed so far, but they propose reducing 13 grant schemes to 6, with intent & scope in the table👇 Submissions are being accepted in response until 13 April. Get to it!

Table from page 25 of the proposed restructure of ARC grants. Back text on white background, with the table delineated by a dark blue header row and alternating light and very light blue rows.

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Damiano Spina @damianospina.com · 07/02/2025

The list of accepted papers, workshops, and tutorials for #CHIIR2025 are now online! chiir2025.github.io/schedule.html

chiir2025.github.io

ACM CHIIR 2025

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers. This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Tom Aarsen @tomaarsen.com · 31/12/2024

That didn't take long! Nomic AI has finetuned the new ModernBERT-base encoder model into a strong embedding model for search, classification, clustering and more! Details in 🧵

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

iroldie.bsky.social @iroldie.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

We invite PhD students to submit your work and join us at PhD Symposium @TheWebConf 2025, (www2025.thewebconf.org/phd-symposium). The submission due date is 18 Dec, 2024 (AOE)! We will see you in the beautiful and amazing Sydney down under! #WWW2025 #WebConf2025

www2025.thewebconf.org

International World Wide Web Conference 2025 ( WWW2025 | The Web Conf 2025 )

28 April - 2 May 2025

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ADM+S Centre @admscentre.org.au · 12/12/2024

ADM+S has been awarded $6 million in funding for a new three-year project to collect data on the digital inclusion experiences of First Nations people in urban, regional and remote areas across Australia @Telstra #DigitalInclusion bit.ly/3VDzUFF

bit.ly

ADM+S project funded $6 million to measure First Nations digital inclusion

Funding of $6 million will support a new three-year project led by ADM+S to collect data on the digital inclusion experiences of First Nations people in urban, regional and remote areas across Austral...

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Damiano Spina @damianospina.com · 11/12/2024

Improvised social mixer after a long Day 2! #sigirap2024 #naarm @olegzendel.bsky.social @admscentre.org.au

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Damiano Spina @damianospina.com · 11/12/2024

We managed to squeeze in an improvised quick visit to the State Library of Victoria during the lunch break. #sigirap2024 #naarm #melbourne @olegzendel.bsky.social @admscentre.org.au

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Dana McKay @danachatter.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I'm hiring! if you're a specialist in computing education, and you want to work with a really lovely team, please consider applying: www.seek.com.au/computer-sci...

seek.com.au

Computer Science Jobs in All Melbourne VIC - Dec 2024 | SEEK

Find your ideal job at SEEK with 393 Computer Science jobs found in All Melbourne VIC. View all our Computer Science vacancies now with new jobs added daily!

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Oleg Zendel @olegzendel.com · 10/12/2024

Starting Day 2 of #SIGIRAP2024 with a thought provoking talk on Generative IR evaluation by @iroldie.bsky.social. Tackling some controversial topics is a perfect way to re-energize after last night’s social mixer 😄 @rmitcomputing.bsky.social @admscentre.org.au

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Damiano Spina @damianospina.com · 10/12/2024

Excellent keynote by Peter Bailey from Canva about how to build a more cost-effective online & offline experimentation framework #sigirap2024 #melbourne #naarm @admscentre.org.au @rmitcomputing.bsky.social

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Oleg Zendel @olegzendel.com · 10/12/2024

We've kicked off the #SIGIR-AP2024 Satellite event at @rmitcomputing.bsky.social in Melbourne with a great keynote by Peter Bailey from #canva. Moving on to the hybrid talks in Tokyo. In the photos a taste of the talks and @damianospina.com acknowledging Country with Indigenous artwork on IR #ADMS

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Oleg Zendel @olegzendel.com · 29/11/2024

📢 Excited about IR in Australia? Join us at the SIGIR-AP Satellite Event at RMIT! 🎙️ Morning sessions (9:30–11:00) are FREE & open to all. 🌟 Full-day access is available with online SIGIR-AP registration. Don’t miss the keynote by Peter Bailey from Canva! 🔗 shorturl.at/4WD2e #SIGIRAP2024 #RMIT

sigir-ap.org

SIGIR-AP 2024

The 2nd International ACM SIGIR Conference on Information Retrieval in the Asia Pacific

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

Lisa M Given, FASSA, FASIS&T @lisagiven.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I spoke to the NewYork Times about the impact of the #socialmediaban “Critics say there are major unanswered questions about how the law will be enforced, how users’ privacy will be protected and, fundamentally, whether the ban will actually protect children.” www.nytimes.com/2024/11/28/w...

nytimes.com

What to Know About Australia’s Social Media Ban for Children Under 16

Critics say big questions remain not only about how the new law will be enforced, but also about whether the ban will really protect young people.

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Reposted by Oleg Zendel

ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Yesterday was an improvement for Discovery Projects. An extra ~$110 million was invested compared to last year (which was a low point). It replaces rapid loss in last 2 years & aligns investment with the last 12 years (adjusted for inflation). Not enough, but a start!

Bar graph (blue bars) showing the funding invested in the ARC’s Discovery Projects scheme each year since 2002, including yesterday’s outcomes for 2025. There’s a red line showing the success rate (number of applications approved divided by the number submitted). Data compiled here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AyITNrCVt7pdLiUzyvC99q7l_X99rCS68r8_3i3h85s/edit?usp=sharing.

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