Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Engineering in Society CENG 291

Part I: Introduction to Search Engines

Part II: Introduction to Survey
 Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Part I: Introduction to
Search Engines
 Lecture Plan
• World Wide Web
• Example of Search Engines
• Google, Yahoo, Bing

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 World Wide Web
• World Wide Web (WWW) is a global
hypermedia system on Internet.
• It can be described as wide-area hypermedia
information retrieval initiative aiming to give
universal access to a large universe of
documents.

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 World Wide Web
• Through WWW it is possible to deliver
hypertext, graphics, animation and sound
between different computer environments.
• To use WWW the user needs a browser, for
example internet explorer and a set of
viewers, that are used to display complex
graphics, animation and sound.
• Browsers are currently available on Windows,
Linux and Macintosh.
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 Search Engine
▪ A Web search engine is a search engine designed to
search for information on the World Wide Web.

▪ Information may consist of web pages, images and

other types of files.

▪ Eg: Google.com, Yahoo!, Altavista.com, Excite.com

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 How it works?
• The searcher types a query into a search
engine.
• Search engine software quickly sorts through
literally millions of pages in its database to
find matches to this query.
• The search engine's results are ranked in order
of relevancy.

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 Example of Search Engines
• Google is always a safe bet for most search
queries, and most of the time your search will
be successful on the very first page of search
results.
• Yahoo is also a great choice, and finds a lot of
stuff that Google does not necessarily pick up.

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 Example of Search Engines
• There are some search engines out there that are
able to answer factual questions, among these are
Answers.com, BrainBoost, Factbites, and Ask
Jeeves.
• There are quite a few search engines that will help
you do this with clustered results or search
suggestions.
• Some of these include Clusty, WiseNut, AOL Search,
and Teoma, in addition to Gigablast, AllTheWeb, and
SurfWax.
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 Example of Search Engines
• There are lots of great search engines that
deal primarily in academic and research
oriented results.
• Included among them are:
– GoogleScholar, ResearchGate, Scirus, Yahoo
Reference, National Geographic Map Machine,
MagPortal, CompletePlanet, FirstGov, and
EducationWorld.

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 Example of Search Engines
• Images on the Web are easy to find, especially
with targeted image search engines such as
Picsearch, Ditto, and of course, Google has
some fantastic image search capabilities.
• You can also check out my list of Image Search
Engines-Directories-Collections, or Clip Art-
Buttons-Graphics- Icons-Images on the Web.

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 Example of Search Engines
• There's so much multimedia on the Web that
your main problem will be finding enough
time to look at it all.
• Here are a few places you can use to search
for sounds, movies, and music on the Web,
e.g.:
– YouTube, Loomia, Torrent Typhoon, The Internet
Movie Database, SingingFish, and Podscope.

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 Example of Search Engines
• Finding someone with similar interests on the Web
via a blog or online community is simple.
• Use LjSeek, Technorati, and Daypop to search for
blogs;
• find people with ZoomInfo, Pretrieve, or Zabasearch,
and
• search for discussion groups and message boards
with BoardTracker.
• For programming solutions forums like
StackOverflow and others are helpful
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 Indexing
• Search engine indexing collects, parses, and stores
data to facilitate fast and accurate information
retrieval.
• Index design incorporates interdisciplinary concepts
from linguistics, cognitive psychology, mathematics,
informatics, physics and computer science.
• An alternate name for the process in the context of
search engines designed to find web pages on the
Internet is Web indexing.
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Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
www.knust.edu.gh
 Google strengths
• The interface is clear and simple.
• Pages load instantly.
• Placement in search results is never sold to
anyone.
• No other search engine accesses more of the
Internet or delivers more useful information
than Google.
• Google Search is fast with most results coming
back to the user in less than one second
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 Google Weakness
• Some people love the results they get at Google, others
are often disappointed.
• To a large extent, both the pluses and the minuses derive
from Google's ranking system, which (as the folks at
Google explain http://www.google.com/technology/)
depends largely on the
– number of links to a particular page and
– the relevance of the content on those linking pages to the
content on the target page, and
– the quality of the pages doing the linking.

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 Conclusion
• Google is designed to crawl and index the Web
efficiently and produce much more satisfying search
result than existing systems.
• Google's technology uses the collective intelligence
of the web to determine a page's importance.
• There is no human involvement or manipulation of
results, which is why users have come to trust
Google as a source of objective information
untainted by paid placement
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 Google Search Tips:
• You can search for a phrase by using quotations ["like this"] or with a
minus sign between words [like-this].
• You can search by a date range by using two dots between the years
[2004..2007].
• When searching with a question mark [?] at the end of your phrase,
you will see sponsored Google Answer links, as well as definitions if
available.
• Google searches are not case sensitive.
• By default Google will return results which include all of your search
terms.
• Google automatically searches for variations of your term, with
variants of the term shown in yellow highlight.
• Google lets you enter up to 32 words per search query.
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www.knust.edu.gh
 Yahoo Search Tips:
• By default Yahoo returns results that include all of your search
terms
• To exclude words use a minus sign [cat -tabby] would show all
results about cats with no mention of tabby.
• Yahoo search results also shows related searches, which are
based on other searches by users with similar terms
• To search for a map, use map [location]
• To search for dictionary definitions use "define" [define
harddrive]
• To search a single domain use site [site:webopedia.com DVD]
would search Webopedia for the term DVD.
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 Bing
• Bing is a new search engine from Microsoft that was launched
on May 28, 2009.
• Microsoft calls it a "Decision Engine," because it's designed to
return search results in a format that organizes answers to
address your needs.
• When you search on Bing, in addition to providing relevant
search results, the search engine also shows a list of related
searches on the left-hand side of the search engine results
page (SERP).
• You can also access a quick link to see recent search history.
Bing uses technology from a company called Powerset, which
Microsoft acquired

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 BING
• Bing launched with several features that are unique in the
search market.
• For example, when you mouse-over a Bing result a small pop-
up provides additional information for that result, including a
contact e-mail address if available.
• The main search box features suggestions as you type, and
Bing's travel search is touted as being the best on the net.
Bing is expected to replace Microsoft Live Search.

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• Bing Search Tips:
You can search for feeds using feeds: before the
query
• To search Bing without a background image use
http://www.bing.com/?rb=0
• To turn the background image back on, use
http://www.bing.com/?rb=1
• To change the number of search results returned per
page, click "Extras" (on top-right of page) and select
"Preferences". Under Web Settings / Results you can
choose 10, 15, 30 or 50 results

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 MathBrowser
• Recently, The Mathsoft company has announced
MathBrowser, a WWW-browser that can display
HTML and MathCAD documents.
• MathBrowser has a computational engine and
interface similar than MathCAD, allowing the
student to edit MathCAD documents through the
Internet.
• MathBrowser is used to distribute a collection of
Shaum's outline series in electronic form.
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 Wikipedia
• An online encyclopedia
• Open source
• Created and edited by everyone with
expertise in the field
• Be careful when citing Wikipedia; if possible,
go to Wikipedia's source.

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 Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

PART II
Research Methods
Introduction to Survey
Data Collection and Analysis
 Lecture Plan
• General Introduction
• Collecting Data with Surveys
• Summarizing Data

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 Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Part 1: General Introduction

 Introduction
• Applied Statistics generalizes into 5-step process:
– Problem Definition/Description
– “Research Design”
– Data Collection
– Data Description/Summarization
– Data Analysis/Interpretation/Communication
• Many methods exist to complete this process for
many types of data and experimental settings
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 Examples of Practical Problems
• New Drug Testing: Does a new drug improve patient
condition more so than an existing drug or placebo?
• Quality Control: Does a manufacturing facility continue to
have an acceptable rate of defectives?
• Political Polling: What proportion of adults favor a particular
political stance or candidate?
• Measuring Animal Populations: How many fish of a
particular species live in a lake?
• Agricultural Production: Which of 4 varieties of fertilizer give
best results in grain production?
• Marketing: What levels of pricing and advertising produce
the highest profits for a new product?
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 Populations and Samples
• Population: All measurements of interest
to researcher
• Sample: Subset of population that is
obtained and to be analyzed

Population
Sample

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 Statistical Inference
• Goal: Make statements regarding a population
(or true state of nature) based on observations
from a sample.
– What can be said of the average measurement in a
population, when we obtain the average of a sample
from the population?
– Can we conclude success rates differ for two
treatments in nature (across a conceptual population
of units), based on a certain difference in success
rates in two samples of units that were assigned the
treatments
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 Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Part 2: Collecting Data with

Surveys
 Surveys
• Instruments used to obtain demographic
characteristics and attitudes or behavioral
tendencies from subjects
• Passive in nature, obtaining “naturally
occurring” information
• Many fields conduct surveys regularly:
– Public Opinions: Gallup, CNN, WSJ, TV Networks
– Government Bureaus: Census, Labor Statistics
– Business: Customer satisfaction, Quality, Practices
– Recreation: State parks and wildlife area usage
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 Sampling Methods
• Simple Random Sampling: Frame listing all N elements of
population exists. Random numbers used to obtain a
sample of n elements such that all samples of size n had
equal chance of selection
• Stratified Random Sampling: Population split into
homogeneous groups (strata) based on auxiliary variable(s)
such as gender, income, race. Simple random samples
taken from each stratum.
• Cluster Sampling: Population broken into set of clusters
(often based on location), and sample of clusters are
selected, with all elements in sampled cluster measured
• Systematic Sampling: Element selected at random near
top of list, then every kth element subsequently measured
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 Survey Problems
• Nonresponse: If people who do not respond tend to
differ systematically from responders, results will be
biased
• Measurement Problems
– Recall: Tendency to forget occurrences of certain things or be
unable to give accurate counts of frequency of occurrence
– Leading Questions: Wording of questions can lead to certain
responses that can bias survey results
– Unclear Wording: Different people can interpret the same
question in different ways, making results inaccurate when
responses depend on interpretations
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 Survey Techniques
• Personal Interviews: In person, face-to-face meetings
between interviewer and interviewee. Biases can occur
due to the interaction.
• Telephone Interviews: Interview over the phone. Less
costly than personal interviews. Bias can occur due to
unlisted numbers and different schedules for different
people.

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• Self-administered Questionnaire:
Inexpensive, but notoriously low response
rates. Can be done by mail or on internet.

• Direct Observation: Measurements made

directly using monitoring equipment or public
records

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 Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Part 3: Summarizing Data

 Graphical Methods - 1 Variable
• After data collected, sorted into categories/ranges of
values so that each individual observation falls in
exactly one category/range
– Numeric Responses: Break “range” of values into non-
overlapping bins and count number of units in each bin
– Categorical Responses: List all possible categories (with
“Other” if needed), and count numbers of units in each
• Pie Chart: Displays percent in each category/range
• Bar Chart: Displays frequency/percent per category
• Histogram: Displays frequency/percent per “range”
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 Constructing Pie Charts
• Select a small number of categories (say 5
or 6 at most) to avoid many narrow
“slivers”
• If possible, arrange categories in ascending
or descending order for categorical
variables

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 Category Range Count
Philly Monthy Rainfall 1825-1869 (1/100 inches) 1 <100 17
2 100-199 78
3 200-299 132
4 300-399 115
5 400-499 86
6 500-599 55
7 600-699 27
8 700-799 17
9 800-899 6
1012 900-999 3
113 >1000 4
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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 Constructing Bar Charts

• Put frequencies on one axis (typically vertical,

unless many categories) and categories on other
• Draw rectangles over categories with
height=frequency
• Leave spaces between categories

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 Constructing Histograms
• Used for numeric variables, so need Class Intervals
– Let Range = Largest - Smallest Measurement
– Break range into (say) 5-20 intervals depending on sample size
– Make the width of the subintervals a convenient unit, and make
“break points” so that no observations fall on them
– Obtain Class Frequencies, the number in each subinterval
– Obtain Relative Frequencies, proportion in each subinterval
• Construct Histogram
– Draw bars over each subinterval with height representing class
frequency or relative frequency (shape will be the same)
– Leave no space between bars to imply adjacency of class
intervals
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 Histogram

140 100
120 200
300
100
Frequency

400
80 500
60 600
40 700
800
20
900
0
1000
1100
0

e
00
10

30

50

70

90

or
11

M
1200
rain100 More

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 Interpreting Histograms
• Probability: Heights of bars over the class intervals
are proportional to the “chances” an individual
chosen at random would fall in the interval
• Unimodal: A histogram with a single major peak
• Bimodal: Histogram with two distinct peaks (often
evidence of two distinct groups of units)
• Uniform: Interval heights are approximately equal
• Symmetric: Right and Left portions are same shape
• Right-Skewed: Right-hand side extends further
• Left-Skewed: Left-hand side extends further
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 Numerical Descriptive Measures

• Numeric summaries of a set of measurements

• Measures of Central Tendency describe the “location”
or center of a set of measurements
• Measures of Variability describe the “spread” or
dispersion of a set of measurements
• Parameters: Numeric descriptive measures based on
Populations of measurements
• Statistics: Numeric descriptive measures based on
Samples of measurements

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 Measures of Central Tendency - I
• Mode: Most often occurring outcome (typically only of
interest for variables taking on only “discrete” values)
• Median: Middle value when measurements ordered
from smallest to largest
• Mean: Sum of all measurements, divided by total
number of measurements (equal distribution of total)
Population ( N elements) : =
 i
yi
N

Sample ( n elements) : y=
 i
yi
n
In practice, we only observe sample, and use y to estimate 
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Summarizing Data of More than One Variable
• Contingency Table: Cross-tabulation of units based on
measurements of two qualitative variables simultaneously
• Stacked Bar Graph: Bar chart with one variable
represented on the horizontal axis, second variable as
subcategories within bars
• Cluster Bar Graph: Bar chart with one variable forming
“major groupings” on horizontal axis, second variable
used to make side-by-side comparisons within major
groupings (displays all combinations in factorial expt)
• Scatterplot: Plot with quantitaive variables y and x plotted
against each other for each unit
• Side-by-Side Boxplot: Compares distributions by groups
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Example - Ginkgo and Acetazolamide for Acute
Mountain Syndrome Among Himalayan Trekkers
AMS No AMS Total
Placebo 40 79 119
Acet 14 104 118
Ginkgo 43 81 124
Acc+Gi 18 108 126
Total 115 372 487
AMS No AMS Total
Placebo 33.61 66.39 100
Acet 11.86 88.14 100
Ginkgo 34.68 65.32 100
Acc+Gi 14.29 85.71 100
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• MicroSoft Excel is a simple but excellent tool
for summarizing data.

• Search Youtube to learn how to use it to

construct the various types of charts using the
data provided in the previous slide

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 Stacked Bar Graph of AMS Incidence (Percent) Cluster Bar Graph of AMS Incidence (Counts)

100% 120

90%

100
80%

70%
80

60%

Frequency
No AMS AMS
50% 60
AMS No AMS

40%

40
30%

20%
20

10%

0% 0
Placebo Acet Ginkgo Acc+Gi Placebo Acet Ginkgo Acc+Gi
Treatment Treatment

3-D Barchart of Incidence of AMS

100.00

90.00

80.00

70.00

60.00

Percent within Treatment 50.00

40.00

30.00

20.00

10.00

0.00 No AMS

Placebo Outcome
Acet AMS
Ginkgo
Treatment Acc+Gi

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www.knust.edu.gh