1. Micah Tongen ’26 Publishes and Presents Research Paper

By Lily Caldwell
January 28, 2026

Washington and Lee University student Micah Tongen '26 recently published a research article titled "Semantic Search for Ancient Inscriptions " in the Anthology of Computers and the Humanities in collaboration with W&L faculty members Sara Sprenkle, associate professor of computer science, and Rebecca Benefiel, Abigail Grigsby Urquhart Professor of Classics, as well as W&L alumnus Trevor Stalnaker '20, currently a graduate student at the College of William and Mary.

Tongen's research focuses on improving traditional search methods of ancient inscriptions by creating a search system that combines traditional keyword matching with artificial intelligence. The system first converts Latin and Greek texts from the Ancient Graffiti Project, a major scholarly resource that Benefiel and Sprenkle have built over the past decade, into numerical representations to capture their meaning. The system then uses semantic search to identify thematically related inscriptions that could be missed by traditional search methods, offering new possibilities for epigraphic research and discovery. Finally, Tongen's system uses a large language model to find the most relevant results.

"There is still so much to learn about these ancient cities, and there is no better reflection of daily life than informal inscriptions by common people," said Tongen, a computer science and mathematics double major from Harrisonburg, Virginia. "The project also has broader implications for information retrieval in domain-specific settings. Fields such as medicine and law face similar challenges when searching for complex, error-prone corpora, and this project explores how semantic search techniques can be applied in those contexts."

"The project is highly interdisciplinary, applying artificial intelligence to graffiti to learn more about the people of ancient Rome," said Sprenkle. "Micah had to learn about a broad range of topics (for example, semantic search, vector databases, epigraphy, Latin and ancient Greek) to be able to do the work."

Tongen presented his paper at the . The Computational Humanities Research (CHR) Society is an international and interdisciplinary community that promotes researchers with an interest in computational approaches to the humanities. Founded during the COVID-19 pandemic, CHR provides a platform for computational work that remains grounded in traditional humanities inquiry.

"As the only undergraduate at the conference and one of the few presenters who was not a professor, at first, I was pretty apprehensive about how my work would be received," said Tongen. "However, several Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers and professors encouraged me to focus on clearly communicating a project that I am passionate about rather than trying to impress the audience. I adjusted my presentation accordingly, and it was received very positively."

"I enjoyed working with Micah on this project. He was a great writer and creative in his approach," said Benefiel. "He was also quick in finding ways to adapt and improve the outputs. We found some surprising results that will allow a user to explore a corpus more broadly, beyond conducting targeted searches."

Tongen is a Johnson Scholar and computer science teaching assistant. After graduation, he hopes to continue doing research in information retrieval and human-computer interaction by pursuing a Ph.D. or a research-focused role in industry.

Sprenkle, who also chairs the Computer Science Department, has been a member of the faculty since 2007. She holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and mathematics from Gettysburg College, a master's degree in computer science from Duke University and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Delaware.

Benefiel has been a member of the W&L faculty since 2005. She has served as department head for the Department of Classics and is a core faculty member for the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program. She has also been an affiliated faculty member for the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program and served as a humanities faculty member for the Digital Humanities Working Group. She holds a bachelor's degree in classics with a double major in Greek and Latin from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in classics from Harvard University.

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