Ties de Kok

Blog Articles

Beyond chat-bots: the power of prompt-based GPT models for downstream NLP tasks

Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) models have clear uses for generative text applications such as auto-complete and chatbots. However, it is less obvious how researchers and data scientists can use the power of these GPT models for their downstream task. This article describes how one can use creative prompt-engineering to use GPT models for virtually any NLP tasks, and it discusses the pros-and-cons of doing so.

Creating a collaborative virtual classroom: the case of Discord

Creating a collaborative classroom experience can be challenging when teaching remotely. This article describes how I have successfully used Discord as an alternative to Zoom to create a collaborative classroom environment.

Dashboard to manage student questions in the Zoom chat

Managing student questions through the standard Zoom chat can be challenging when teaching remotely. This article demonstrates a Chrome extension I developed to make it easier to manage student questions on Zoom.

How to keep your research projects organized: folder structure

Keeping your research projects is fundamentally important to minimize mistakes, maintain replicability, and to reduce the mental burden of managing complex projects. This article describes my folder structure and the philosophy behind it.

Retrieving data from WRDS directly using Python, R, and Stata

Programmatically retrieving data from WRDS databases through Python can be challenging. This article provides various code examples of how one can use PostgreSQL and Python to programmatically download data from WRDS.

Use Python to calculate the facial width to height ratio (fWHR)

Manually calculating facial features such as the facial width-to-height ratio is time-consuming. This article describes how one can use Python and machine learning models to automatically calculate the fWHR.