QANUS :: Question-Answering (QA) System tag:junbin.com,2009-09-13:/qanus//3 2010-01-04T14:29:00Z open-source . framework . benchmark Movable Type 4.31-en QANUS Site Up tag:junbin.com,2009:/qanus//3.97 2019-09-13T06:16:54Z 2010-01-04T14:29:00Z JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping This is the official page for QANUS --- an open-source question-answering (QA) system that I have developed.

You can read more about QANUS on this page "What is QANUS?". This is a framework upon which new QA systems can be rapidly and easily developed. QANUS is also shipped with complete QA modules and can function as a simple baseline for other QA systems. The QA modules will be kept updated so that QANUS can serve as an adequate baseline.

To try out QANUS, please hop on to the "Download" page where you can download the full source code of my work, as well as some documentation to help you better understand this framework.

The plans I have instore for QANUS are found on the "Development Roadmap" page. Please do not hesitate to forward me any suggestions you have for the system, it would be great if we can fully exploit the potential of QANUS as a development framework for QA systems.

 

Work on QANUS is on-going as I type. So do check back with this site for updates often! To make it convenient to stay up-to-date with the developments for QANUS, you may also want to track the RSS feed for this blog page.

 

 

 

]]> Link Errors Fixed tag:junbin.com,2010:/qanus//3.111 2010-06-23T16:28:39Z 2010-06-23T16:50:26Z Those of you who tried to download QANUS recently may have ran into problems. We had an unfortunate hard disk failure on our server recently, and it took a while before we managed to fix everything. Please do try again... JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping Those of you who tried to download QANUS recently may have ran into problems. We had an unfortunate hard disk failure on our server recently, and it took a while before we managed to fix everything.

Please do try again if you didn't manage to download QANUS, the link should be functioning properly now!

The online demo is still down however. We didn't have a proper backup of the online system, and it will take a while for us to re-construct the demo system again. Our apologies!

]]> Updates So Far tag:junbin.com,2010:/qanus//3.110 2010-04-29T08:30:28Z 2010-04-29T08:37:01Z It has been a while since there were any updates to QANUS. We have added a paper describing the QANUS framework in the Downloads section. Do check it out to get a better idea of what the framework is all... JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping It has been a while since there were any updates to QANUS. We have added a paper describing the QANUS framework in the Downloads section. Do check it out to get a better idea of what the framework is all about.

The online demo is also experiencing a lot of down-time recently. We have traced the problem to the named entity recognition module which we are connecting to as a web service. We will try to improve the stability of the module, failing which we will likely revert to a local version instead. This will add about 10 seconds to every query response time and is not the most favoured solutions, but we'd see how the fix to the web service pans out.

 

 

 

]]> QANUS Updated to v26Jan2010 tag:junbin.com,2010:/qanus//3.109 2010-01-30T17:40:48Z 2010-01-30T17:49:00Z There has been a major re-structuring of QANUS. The changes are included in this latest update to v26Jan2010. For readers who have been following the project, you would have noted that QANUS provides a framework on which new QA systems... JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping There has been a major re-structuring of QANUS. The changes are included in this latest update to v26Jan2010.

For readers who have been following the project, you would have noted that QANUS provides a framework on which new QA systems can be built. To verify the flexibility of the framework, a reference implementation of a QA system has also been built on top of QANUS, and has been bundled together with QANUS.

In this latest version, the source code has been re-structured so that there is now a very distinct segregation between the QANUS framework and the reference QA system. For a detailed update on the new structure, please do refer to the documentation that accompanies this new version of QANUS.

Both the new source code and the updated documentation are now available from the Download page.

I hope that this update would make QANUS all the better. Do drop me your comments and feedback!

 

 

 

]]> Significant Changes are Afoot tag:junbin.com,2010:/qanus//3.108 2010-01-15T18:26:57Z 2010-01-15T18:34:33Z Here's a teaser! QANUS is currently going through a huge re-structuring. The codes and functionalities are largely unchanged. However we are re-arranging the interfaces and coupling between the various parts of the framework. The changes will make QANUS more developer/user... JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping Here's a teaser! QANUS is currently going through a huge re-structuring. The codes and functionalities are largely unchanged. However we are re-arranging the interfaces and coupling between the various parts of the framework.

The changes will make QANUS more developer/user friendly. QANUS is actually a QA framework for you to build your own QA systems. However to make it more useful, we have also actually implemented a sample QA system on top of the framework. The current structure does not differentiate between the framework and the sample system sufficiently.

For more detailed information, stay tuned to the upcoming updates to the accompanying documentation.

If you intend to download QANUS within the short term (a week or so!), do take note that the new re-structured version would be out very soon!

 

]]> Big QANUS Update - to v04Jan2010 tag:junbin.com,2010:/qanus//3.107 2010-01-04T13:55:35Z 2010-01-04T14:29:52Z QANUS has received a big update (now v04Jan2010). As promised in an earlier post, this update includes the improvements to QANUS done over the new year. Most of the work revolved around updating the answer retrieval module shipped with QANUS.... JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping QANUS has received a big update (now v04Jan2010). As promised in an earlier post, this update includes the improvements to QANUS done over the new year.

Most of the work revolved around updating the answer retrieval module shipped with QANUS. The original one was a relatively basic one which did not manage to turn in correct answers most of the time.

The current answer retrieval module:

  1. Makes use of known IR-based methods to extract the correct answer string, such as
    • Named entity recognition (with Stanford's NER)
    • Question classification (with Li and Roth 2002)
    • Validation (primitive) with Freebase
    • Significant number of hand-written regular expression patterns
  2. Supports factoid questions
  3. Achieves an accuracy of 12.5% when run over TREC-2007 QA test questions

We know that it's not perfect, and we are hungry for better accuracy. Work will continue to further improve this answer retrieval module.

 

 

]]> Ramping Up The Accuracy of QANUS tag:junbin.com,2009:/qanus//3.106 2009-12-25T15:22:12Z 2009-12-25T15:38:31Z After much work in the week leading up to Christmas Day, I have managed to update the basic answer retrieval module shipped with QANUS. The updated answer retrieval module currently is able to achieve an accuracy of about 0.10 in... JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping
Work will still be progressing so that QANUS can catch up with the current state-of-the-art. The current changes will be packaged and made available for download soon. Stay tuned!
]]> Online Version of QANUS tag:junbin.com,2009:/qanus//3.104 2009-12-07T04:25:55Z 2009-12-07T04:31:51Z I am currently in the process of setting up an online version of QANUS. This can be found at:http://wing.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping/qanus/online/main.phpCurrently it is a direct port of QANUS v07Dec2009, and makes use of the AQUAINT-2 corpus as a knowledge base. It is... JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping
http://wing.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping/qanus/online/main.php

Currently it is a direct port of QANUS v07Dec2009, and makes use of the AQUAINT-2 corpus as a knowledge base. It is functional, you may want to surf over and take a look at it!

To enhance the utility of the demo however, I am next working on a module which will extend QANUS and make it possible to use a web search engine as part of the knowledge base. Do stay tuned for this next exciting change!
]]> QANUS Updated to v07Dec2009 tag:junbin.com,2009:/qanus//3.103 2009-12-07T04:22:11Z 2009-12-07T04:33:31Z JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping
QANUS has been updated to v07Dec2009. The new files can be downloaded from the download page.

Notable changes in this version include:

1. Question Processing module updated to accept a single file as the source of questions. The previous versions only accepted a folder as the source.

2. The entry points to the various stages (Knowledge-Base Building, Question Processing and Answer Retrieval) are updated with a new class hierarchy. This improves on the existing structure and architecture of the entry points.

3. The logging mechanism of the code is changed. All logging is now done through Java's native Logger class. This makes it easier to manage the log messages.

]]> QANUS Updated to v30Nov2009 tag:junbin.com,2009:/qanus//3.102 2009-11-30T14:20:07Z 2009-12-02T14:33:55Z JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping QANUS has been updated to v30Nov2009. The new files can be downloaded from the download page.

This update adds an eval package which can be used to automatically score answers generated by the QA system. This version ships specifically with a module to check the factoid answers for questions from the TREC-2007 QA track. 

With this addition to the QANUS framework, it should now be easier to customise and add your own evaluation modules to evaluate the accuracy of the QA system.

]]> QANUS Updated to v24Sep2009 tag:junbin.com,2009:/qanus//3.101 2009-09-24T02:58:43Z 2009-09-24T03:02:03Z QANUS has been updated to v24Sep2009. The new files can be downloaded from the download page.The notable changes in this version include :Fixed a problem with instructions on running the system from the provided JAR filesIncluded a toy document and... JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping QANUS has been updated to v24Sep2009. The new files can be downloaded from the download page.

The notable changes in this version include :

  1. Fixed a problem with instructions on running the system from the provided JAR files
  2. Included a toy document and sample questions with the package so that you can run QANUS and give it a try-out

More changes will be coming soon, particularly to improve the performance of the answer retrieval phase. Do stay tuned!
]]> QANUS Available for Download tag:junbin.com,2009:/qanus//3.100 2009-09-22T14:23:41Z 2009-09-22T14:33:08Z The source for QANUS is now live. You may download it at the download page. At the download page, you can also find a write up on the architecture of QANUS, and find out how you can start using QANUS... JunPing https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~junping QANUS is now live. You may download it at the download page. At the download page, you can also find a write up on the architecture of QANUS, and find out how you can start using QANUS to build your own customised QA system.

QANUS is in the midst of active development, so you are encouraged to monitor the RSS feed of this blog to stay updated of the latest changes and releases. 

More information on the planned milestones and additions to the system can also be found in the development roadmap page.

I hope that you'd find the code useful for your needs. Do drop me a note if you have any questions regarding the code, or if you have any comments and feedback to improve the framework and structure!
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