Today at Western University Graduate Research Center at FIMS, a group of students in the “Language & Computer Technologies for Libraries and beyond” class (LIS 9732/9832) presented posters on various topics in Natural Language Processing. The student courageously answered audience’s questions, from simple to more complex ones. How do various Language Technologies (L-ITs) work, who uses them and why?

The students researched and/or imagined how these L-ITs can be used more actively in library settings or in other digital information environments where data bottlenecks are prevalent.The students have informed the audience that Kurzweil has been used in increasing literacy in prison readership, and topic detection in triaging news agencies news content. SentiViz, a popular Twitter sentiment analysis application, sarcasm detection software, and factivity detection efforts were all suggested as analytical tools for library patron feedback. Voice applications (synthesizers and decoders) were a popular choice for assitive technologies in library settings. And finally, content-based image retrieval was alluded to as a useful tool for museums and archives, especially in combination with textual analysis of Twitter hashtags that can contextualize the image meaning (e.g., a row of tents in a park actually refers to #Occupy movement in #motreal).

The posters were informative and evidenced high level of aggregations of information, clarity of explanations, and creativity in thinking about potential “real-life” case-scenarios and uses.

Well-done everyone!