William A. Ingram

I am an Associate Professor at Virginia Tech, where I currently serve as Associate Dean and Executive Director for Information Technology in the University Libraries, and Director for the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship.

My research is centered on enhancing the functionality and scope of academic library services by using Large Language Models (LLMs) and other natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze and derive new value from library collections. Supported by funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), specifically through grants lg-256638-ols-24 and lg-37-19-0078-19, we aim to enrich library collections and empower research communities by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to unlock the profound potential of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). Our approach involves developing innovative, service-oriented applications that enhance the depth, reach, and reliability of library services. By applying advanced information retrieval, NLP, and other forms of AI, our goal is to enhance the visibility and accessibility of graduate scholarship, position the university as a leader in the innovative use of AI within academic libraries, and strengthen the library's reputation as a pioneer in digital scholarship and educational technology.

I received a B.A. in Cognitive Science from University Of Virginia and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008. My ongoing involvement in projects related to scholarly communication, digital preservation, repositories, and digital libraries has led to my current Ph.D. studies in Computer Science at Virginia Tech, supervised by Professor Edward A. Fox, focusing on NLP and machine/deep learning applied to scholarly big data.

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