STAI NLP Workshop Successfully Held by Department of AI at Cheju Halla University

The STAI NLP Workshop, co-organized by the Department of Artificial Intelligence at Cheju Halla University and the KAIST Impact Lab, was successfully held following the IJCAI 2024 STAI Workshop. This half-day session at CS Hotel Jeju brought together approximately 15 participants eager to explore the practical applications of natural language processing in social science research.

Professor Young Joon Lee of our department planned and facilitated the workshop, inviting domestic and international experts to create a forum for in-depth discussion of the latest NLP technologies and their applications. This workshop was a good opportunity to showcase the research capabilities and network of the Department of Artificial Intelligence.

The workshop was divided into three focused sessions, each led by an expert in the respective field:

1. Hands-On NLP for Social Sciences Professor Young Joon Lee opened the workshop with a session on practical NLP techniques for social scientists. The session explored how to apply NLP methods to analyze text data commonly found in social science research, such as survey responses, social media posts, and policy documents.

2. Introduction to ReportParse Gaku Morio, a researcher from Hitachi America and Stanford University, introduced ReportParse. This powerful tool is designed to extract structured information from unstructured reports and has the potential to revolutionize the way social scientists process large volumes of text data.

3. Introduction to Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) The final session was led by Lee Jaeyun, an engineer from the Saltlux AI Research Institute. He provided a comprehensive introduction to retrieval-augmented generation, covering everything from theoretical understanding to practical implementation. This cutting-edge technology, which combines information retrieval with text generation, has great potential for improving the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated text in the social science field.

What was most impressive about this workshop was the enthusiasm and engagement of the participants. Despite the technical content, all participants were eager to learn and quickly identified potential application areas relevant to their own research.

This workshop demonstrated how far NLP has come and how it is transforming research across academic disciplines. Held immediately following the STAI event, this workshop highlighted the growing intersection of AI, NLP, and diverse research fields. It became clear that these tools are no longer the exclusive domain of computer scientists but are becoming essential skills for researchers across all social science fields.

The Department of Artificial Intelligence at Cheju Halla University plans to continue introducing students to the latest AI technologies and application areas, and to continuously provide opportunities to apply them in practice, starting with this workshop. It will also develop more diverse and in-depth educational programs by utilizing its network with domestic and international experts. Through this, students in our department are expected to acquire the capabilities to excel at the forefront of AI technology.