Sam Zhang, from the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado Boulder, will present "The fun and joy of static word embeddings"

Static word embeddings are simple to understand and use, and present an attractive array of opportunities for applied mathematicians when faced with natural language processing tasks. We will present a basic tutorial while celebrating the fun and joy of static word embeddings by walking through three systems together: (1) an algorithm that can play the board game Codenames, as both the spymaster and guesser, (2), a word embedding based version of the addictive online game The Little Alchemist, and (3), slightly more seriously, the permit discovery engine that matches land-use codes to citizens seeking business and residential permits in over 50 cities across the country, including Detroit, Salt Lake City and San Diego.