ABOUT
After completing her Ph.D. in Computer Science at Brigham Young University in 2014, Dr. Maria Soledad Pera, a native of Argentina, joined Boise State University in the Department of Computer Science, where she is the co-director of the People and Information Research Team (Piret). Sole's main area of expertise is in information retrieval and her current research work focuses on information retrieval systems that can better serve non-traditional users, such as children, teachers, and individuals who speak English as a second language. Sole is a co-PI in the ongoing NSF-funded project CAST (Child Adaptive Search Tool). She is also part of an international and interdisciplinary group of researchers interested in advancing research pertaining to information retrieval systems that can support education.Research Interests:
Information Retrieval, Web Search, Recommender Systems, Readability, Information Systems, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Databases, System Analysis.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Computer Science
April 2014
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA
Proposed Dissertation Topic: "Using Online Data Sources to Make Recommendations
on Reading Materials for K-12 and Advanced Readers"
Advisor: Dr. Yiu-Kai Ng
M.S. in Computer Science
April 2009
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA
Thesis: "Improving Library Searches Using Word-Correlation Factors
and Folksonomies"
Advisor: Dr. Yiu-Kai Ng
B.S. in Information Systems Analysis
September 2006
Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Rosario, Argentina