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University of Michigan School of Information

Data, Archives and Information in Society (DAIS) Seminar: Benjamin Lee, University of Washington

DAIS Guest Lecture Announcement for Benjamin Lee, University of Washington. The lecture is titled, "Computing Cultural Heritage: AI, Discoverability, and Scale". It will take place on Friday, May 15 from 12-1:30PM at LCSIB 4320 (Dow Room) and Online. RSVP is requested for in-person attendance and registeration is required to attend virtually.

Lecture

Friday, May 15, 2026 Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Mode: Hybrid
Audience: All U-M

Computing Cultural Heritage: AI, Discoverability, and Scale

Abstract: 

Widespread efforts by libraries, archives, and museums have drastically improved digital access to collections. Yet, scholars and the public alike face a persistent challenge: how to explore and analyze these digital collections, which contain millions or even billions of items and often suffer from imperfect metadata. My interdisciplinary research in this field of “computing cultural heritage” addresses this question by bringing together approaches from AI, library & information science, and the digital humanities in order to build and examine large-scale search systems for digital collections. In this talk, I will present my genealogy of work in this space, including GovScape, a multimodal search system for 10+ million government PDFs. I will conclude with a horizon of opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

Relevant links:

GovScape search system: https://govscape.net/

GovScape pre-print: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010

Please RSVP (link) for in-person seminar and lunch. 

Register for Webinar (link)

Featured Speaker

Benjamin Lee, University of Washington, wearing a blue button up shirt, with brown hair and glasses, smiling.

Benjamin Lee

University of Washington

Benjamin Charles Germain Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, where he has started the Lab for Computing Cultural Heritage. Ben's research explores how to re-imagine search and discovery for large-scale digital collections held by libraries, archives, and museums. Previously, Ben has served as an Innovator in Residence as well as a Kluge Fellow in Digital Studies at the Library of Congress. He also was the inaugural Digital Humanities Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Ben received his Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Washington, which was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in machine learning. 

Contact: [email protected]