CAS researcher uses artificial intelligence, machine learning to optimize knowledge extraction from Covid literature

Jingyi (Catherine) Shi, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, received funds from the 2021 Faculty Seed Funding program—an initiative of MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences— for her project “Developing Automatic Pipelines and Algorithms to Enable Rapid Learning of COVID-19 Publications.”

In response to the proliferation of Covid related publications since the onset of the pandemic, Shi will create automatic pipelines and algorithms to mine the Covid literature for its key knowledge.

She is an expert in data science and health informatics with a history of integrating cutting edge technologies like predictive modeling and machine learning to focus on healthcare related challenges.

“There is an urgent need to automatically parse publications in order to reduce manual reading load and shorten researchers’ time for finding the things they need from publications,” Shi said.

Shi is a part of the artificial intelligence community and has experience with Natural Language processing (NLP), the science of using computer programs and algorithms to process and analyze large amounts of natural language data. She intends to utilize NLP technologies to develop a ready-to-use pipeline to obtain key knowledge from covid related literature while also improving the accuracy and scalability of these systems for future needs.

As the world transitions into the “Big Data” era—generating nearly inconceivable amounts of information through digital technology—Shi’s background in computing and information systems positions her as a forerunner in the management and processing of these data sets.

MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences includes more than 5,000 students, 323 full-time faculty members, nine doctoral programs, 14 master’s programs, and 27 undergraduate academic majors offered in 14 departments.  MSU is classified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a “Very High Research Activity” doctoral university, the highest level of research activity in the country.  MSU is one of only 120 schools to hold the designation. For more details about the College of Arts and Sciences, visit www.cas.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.