Hands-on digitizing texts with machine learning and AI

Term: Summer 2025

Date: May 21st, 2025

Time: 9:00am - 12:00pm

Location: Newman Library 207A

Instructors: Chreston Miller, Bipasha Banerje, & Jesse Sadler

Presented By: University Libraries (LIB)

Description:

Are you interested in extracting text from scanned images—even poor quality images—and learning more about new advances in optical character recognition (OCR)? Join us for a 3-hour workshop on utilizing machine learning and large language models to programmatically OCR images of text. The workshop will take participants through running Python code in collaborative notebooks to access a variety of tools used to OCR texts, including texts that might be poorly scanned or otherwise difficult to read.

This is a participatory workshop and you will have the opportunity to practice along with the instructors, as well as applying skills in exercises on your own. Our goal is that you walk away with the confidence and skills to use the software and address challenges as they arise.

The workshops are open to all VT community members. Some experience with Python is recommended, and you will need access to a Windows, Mac, or Linux computer. Instructions for setting up accounts with Kaggle, Hugging Face, and Llama will be provided before the workshop.