Participants in this session will acquire a general understanding of topic modeling, the automated analysis technique often referred to as "text mining."  Topic modeling can refer to a number of different algorithms, which are computationally intensive and mathematically complex. To facilitate a hands-on approach with a focus on process, this workshop uses the open-source MALLET toolkit as a platform for exploring topic modeling with LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) and will not offer a comparison of algorithms.  

Learning Outcomes: Participants will learn what topic modeling can reveal about a body of texts, how to interpret the results of topic modeling or document classification processes, and how to use the open-source MALLET software to analyze a body of texts.