Analysing Humanities Data 2016

An Introduction to Knowledge-Based Computing with the Wolfram Language

  • Conveners: Arno Bosse and Martin Hadley
  • Hashtag: #ShiftEnter and #DHOxSS
  • Computers: Students are required to bring and use their own laptops for this workshop. Please consult our Laptop Guidance for more information.  

Abstract:

This example-led workshop will provide an introduction to current techniques for analysing a wide range of humanities research data by using the Wolfram Language; from text analysis, image processing, visualization and network analysis, to machine learning, time-based, and geographic computation.

The course assumes no prior knowledge of programming or programming languages. During the workshop, you will learn and practice the concepts needed to import, manipulate, and analyse humanities research data using the natural-language and scripted interfaces to the Wolfram Language and to share your work with others in the cloud. For a quick introduction, please view this short video or take a look some simple demo applications or even start to explore the Wolfram Language on your own with the guided examples in the online Programming Lab.

Much of the material in our workshop will be drawn from two freely available, online textbooks: Stephen Wolfram's An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language, and William Turkel's Digital Research Methods with Mathematica (click here to download a PDF version). Additional case studies and data in the workshop will be drawn from a variety of humanities research projects and related examples.

The workshop will require delegates to bring along a Mac/Windows/Linux laptop on which they can install Mathematica. For the summer school, Wolfram Research will provide 30 days of free access to Mathematica v10, Mathematica Online and Programming Lab to all workshop attendees. Please check with your local IT department to see if your institution can additionally provide you with a free, site-wide, academic license—many schools and universities already offer Mathematica licenses to their staff, faculty, and students at no cost.

For further details about individual sessions, news, and resources related to this workshop, please visit our microsite: http://shift-enter.org.

Timetable

Time

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

11:00 - 12:30

Introduction to Mathematica and overview of the Wolfram Language 
(Group)

An introduction to text analysis and graphs & networks
(Group)

An introduction to semantic import, geographic visualization and geocomputing
(Group)

An introduction to image processing, sound analysis and machine learning
(Group)

Next Steps: Wolfram Language learning and community resources
Arno Bosse

Lunch

Venue: St Hugh's College, Wordsworth Tea Room

14:00 - 16:00

First steps with the Wolfram Language – Part I
Martin Hadley

Text analysis and graph & network applications
Jon McLoone

Semantic import, geographic visualization and geocomputing applications
Marco Thiel

Image processing, sound analysis and machine learning applications
Vitaliy Kaurov

Team-based Hackathon!
(Group)

16:30 - 17:30

First steps with the Wolfram Language – Part II 
Martin Hadley

Lab: Practice exercises and consolidation
(Group)

Lab: Practice exercises and consolidation 
(Group)

Lab: Practice exercises and consolidation 
(Group)

Deploying and sharing your apps online in the Wolfram Cloud 
(Group)

 

Schedule Details

Monday

11:00 - 12:30

Introduction to Mathematica and overview of the Wolfram Language 
(Group)

An overview of the principles and concepts which characterise the Wolfram Language and supporting products and services from Wolfram Research, in particular, Mathematica, our main interface to the language during the course.
 

14:00 - 16:00

First steps with the Wolfram Language – Part I 
Martin Hadley

Part I of an introduction to the core syntax and structure of the Wolfram Language, drawing in part on the online textbooks, An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language by Stephen Wolfram, Digital Research Methods with Mathematica by William Turkel, and the guided explorations in the Programming Lab

16:30 - 17:30

First steps with the Wolfram Language – Part II 
Martin Hadley

Part II of 'First steps with the Wolfram Language' (see above for details).

Tuesday

11:00 - 12:30

An introduction to text analysis and graphs & networks
(Group)

An introduction to common functions and methods for text analysis, graphs and networks. Today we'll learn how to manipulate and search through texts for patterns as well as techniques for analysing, comparing and parsing texts We'll also cover common graph and network functions to show you how to construct and representmeasure, and perform computations on graphs and social networks.
 

14:00 - 16:00

Text analysis and graph & network applications 
Jon McLoone

Demonstrations and step-by-step explanations of text analysis, graph and network analysis applications drawn from humanities research data and related examples. Additional details will be made available in advance of the workshop on http://shift-enter.org.
 

16:30 - 17:30

Lab: Practice exercises and consolidation 
(Group)

An opportunity to ask questions, and to review and practice what was learned earlier in the day.
 

Wednesday

11:00 - 12:30

An introduction to semantic import, geographic visualization and geocomputing 
(Group)

An introduction to methods and functions for drawing on the curated Wolfram Knowledgebase. For example, for automatically detecting and interpreting dates and cities in a spreadsheet or from a natural language query). On this basis, we'll learn how to work with geographic data, create maps, and carry out geographic calculations.
 

14:00 - 16:00

Semantic import, geographic visualization and geocomputing applications 
Marco Thiel

Demonstrations and step-by-step explanations explanations of semantic import and interpretation based on the Wolfram Knowledgebase, geographic visualization, and geocomputing applications drawn from humanities research data and related examples. Additional details will be made available in advance of the workshop on http://shift-enter.org.
 

16:30 - 17:30

Lab: Practice exercises and consolidation 
(Group)

An opportunity to ask questions, and to review and practice what was learned earlier in the day.
 

Thursday

11:00 - 12:30

An introduction to image processing, sound analysis and machine learning 
(Group)

An introduction to common methods and functions for image processing, sound analysis and machine learning Today, we'll learn how to measure the properties of images, basic image and colour manipulation, and how to filtersegment and detect different features of images. We'll also briefly cover playing and analysing sound and music. Following this, we'll learn how to automatically classify different kinds of data into categories and make predictions from learned examples.

Peter Boardman's free iBook Basic Image Processing in Mathematica provides a good, current introduction to this topic.
 

14:00 - 16:00

Image processing, sound analysis and machine learning applications 
Vitaliy Kaurov

Demonstrations and step-by-step explanations explanations of image processing, sound analysis and machine learning applications drawn from humanities research data and related examples. Additional details will be made available in advance of the workshop on http://shift-enter.org.
 

16:30 - 17:30

Lab: Practice exercises and consolidation 
(Group)

An opportunity to ask questions, and to review and practice what was learned earlier in the day.
 

Friday

11:00 - 12:30

Next Steps: Wolfram Language learning and community resources 
Arno Bosse

A review, from a beginner’s perspective, of the different resources available to you for extending your knowledge of the Wolfram Language after the summer school. These include Mathematica's interactive notebook-based help and online documentation, step-by-step how-to guides, sample code from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, a variety of introductory and intermediate level textbooks, the official Wolfram Community, and Mathematica Stack Exchange.
 

14:00 - 16:00

Team-based Hackathon!
(Group)

Split into small teams, think of an idea for a small, fun app (perhaps using your own data) and finish coding it in just two hours, all the time closely assisted by your course instructors. See the Wolfram Hackathons page for examples of some apps created at past hackathons.
 

16:30 - 17:30

Deploying and sharing your apps online in the Wolfram Cloud 
(Group)

Learn how to create an interactive web application which can be deployed in the cloud with a public API for others to access and re-use.

Note: For further details on the workshop programme, please visit our microsite http://shift-enter.org.