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Information Retrieval Pipeline

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About This MicroSim

This MicroSim visualizes the complete information retrieval pipeline, showing how a search query flows through five stages from user input to displayed results.

Iframe Embed Code

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<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/search-microsims/sims/ir-pipeline/main.html"
        height="452px" width="100%" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Description

The Information Retrieval Pipeline demonstrates the core stages of modern search systems:

Pipeline Stages

Stage Function Example
User Query User enters search terms "physics pendulum simulation"
Query Processing Tokenize, normalize, remove stopwords ["physics", "pendulum", "simulation"]
Index Lookup Search pre-built inverted index Find document IDs for each term
Matching Identify documents containing terms Found 47 potential matches
Ranking Score and sort by relevance Order by TF-IDF or BM25 scores
Search Results Display top results Top 10 with titles and descriptions

How to Use

  1. Click "Trace Query" to animate a sample query through all stages
  2. Click "Step →" to advance one stage at a time
  3. Click any stage to see detailed information about what happens there
  4. Hover over stages to see brief descriptions
  5. Click "Reset" to start over

Learning Objectives

After using this MicroSim, students will be able to:

  1. Explain the five stages of information retrieval
  2. Trace how a search query moves through the pipeline
  3. Identify the purpose of each stage in the search process

Lesson Plan

Introduction (5 minutes)

  • Ask students: "What happens when you search Google?"
  • Discuss that search seems instant but involves multiple steps

Pipeline Exploration (10 minutes)

  1. Use "Step →" to walk through each stage slowly
  2. Click each stage to explore the details
  3. Discuss what each stage contributes

Trace Activity (10 minutes)

  1. Click "Trace Query" to watch the full animation
  2. Have students describe what happens at each step
  3. Discuss: Which stage do you think takes the most time?

Discussion Questions (5 minutes)

  • Why is the index pre-built rather than created at search time?
  • How does ranking affect what you actually see?
  • What would happen without the matching stage?

References