The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s Dr. Xiangming (Simon) Mu, associate professor in the School of Information Studies, and Ph.D. student Manman Luo have been selected as awardees in the Fall 2025 cycle of the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute (NMDSI) Student Scholars program.
Their funded project, “Enhancing Entity Sentiment Analysis in Multi-Entity Contexts Using an Ontology-Based Approach,” aims to advance techniques to accurately detect sentiments expressed towards specific entities (e.g., products, brands, or organizations) when multiple entities co-occur within the same text. The research explores innovative methods based on an ontology that models multi-entity relationships in the product review context by capturing key multi-entity relationship types –work that has applications across information science, artificial intelligence, and other fields that rely on precise data interpretation.
Through the NMDSI Student Scholars program, Luo will receive a $2,500 stipend to support her research over the Fall 2025 term. The program is designed to accelerate student engagement in data science and related research projects while fostering interdisciplinary applications of data-driven solutions.
Dr. Mu said he is excited to collaborate with Luo on this project, noting that the work will “help bridge and advance the application of data science within the field of information and library science.”
The NMDSI is a collaboration between UWM, Marquette University, and Northwestern Mutual, with a mission to advance southeastern Wisconsin as a national hub for data science research, education, and talent development.