December 6, 2013

Love connection


UI researchers develop better model for recommending online date prospects

Most online dating users don’t choose a potential mate the same way they choose a movie to watch, but new research from the University of Iowa suggests they’d be more amorously successful if that’s how their dating service operated.

Kang Zhao, assistant professor of management sciences in the Tippie College of Business, and UI doctoral student Xi Wang are part of a team that recently developed an algorithm for dating sites that uses a person’s contact history to recommend more compatible partners. It’s similar to the model Netflix uses to recommend movies users might like by tracking their viewing history.