Athens, OH – SMART Lab Director Dr. Laeeq Khan led the first SMART Workshop Series March 29. The training session was a tutorial on sentiment analysis.

During the workshop, Dr. Khan provided background information on sentiment analysis, which he defined as “the automated process of understanding opinions and emotions about a given subject from written or spoken language.” This process is believed to have originated from computer science, and has been used across disciplines including management, social science, and linguistic and machine learning studies. Dr. Khan emphasized the importance of sentiment analysis and the increase in its value with social media, “The advent of social media has increased the value of sentiment analysis. Social networks are not only fueling the digital revolution, but also enabling the expression and spread of emotions and opinions through the network.”

Dr. Khan explained the sentiment analysis process and introduced the sentiment analysis tool Sentistrength, a program that compares social media text against a classifier of sentiments. As a part of the tutorial, workshop participants conducted their own sentiment analysis by gathering data on Twitter and using Sentistrength.

Follow our Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/SMARTlabOhioU/ and Twitter @SMARTLabOhioU for updates on the SMART Workshop Series and other events. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Laeeq Khan (khanm1@ohio.edu).

By Alayna Hutchinson