Faculty Research Areas

Alan W Black I ProfessorSpeech Synthesis• Enabling computers to speak in any style or language

Speech-to-Speech Translation• Portable, real-time conversation cross-lingually

Spoken Dialog Systems• Making computers and machines communicate through speech

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Jeff Bigham I Associate ProfessorCrowd-Powered Conversational Assistants• Creating robust dialog systems using on-demand human computation• Crowd-powered assistants that automate themselves over time

Tools for Crowd Workers• Applying AI to amplify workers abilities, and help workers improve their skills and earnings

Dyslexia Detection and Intervention• Using linguistics and human-computer interaction measures to detect dyslexia• Building tools that help people with dyslexia read and write better

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Taylor Berg-Kirkpatrick I Assistant ProfessorUnsupervised Learning• Developing models and methods that can learn to understand aspects of human language

without relying on hand-labeled data

Structured Prediction• Building inference procedures that can efficiently and accurately produce complex outputs,

including both structured linguistic annotations (like parse trees) and natural language utterances(like summaries)

Analysis of Human Artifacts• Using automated methods to analyze and decipher structured human artifacts, including text

but also sources like piano music, images of early modern books (e.g., First Folio of Shakespeare),and cuneiform tablets

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Timo Baumann I Systems ScientistResponsive Speech Interaction• Incremental Processing for Spoken Dialog Systems• Conversational Dialog Beyond Task-driven Systems

Speech Signal Processing• Large-scale and Corpus-based Analysis• Speaker Likability and Speaker Traits• Prosody, Language and Multi-modal Integration

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Justine Cassell I Professor, LTI; Associate Dean for Technology Strategy & ImpactEmbodied Conversational Agents• Generating dialogue and nonverbal behavior for autonomous embodied agents

in augmented environments

Socially Aware Dialogue Systems• Deep learning approaches to recognizing, reasoning about, and generating social cues in dialogue

to increase user engagement and task success

Educational Technology• Dialogue-based systems for online and in-classroom learning, particularly for marginalized populations

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Jaime Carbonell I Director, LTIActive and Proactive Machine Learning

Transfer and Multitask Learning• Applied to deep neural nets

Low-Resource Language Analysis• Entity extraction and linking

Machine Learning in Computational Proteomics

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Jamie Callan I ProfessorSearch Engine Architecture• Distributed, federated, and vertical search• Use of knowledge assets and other semi-structured information• Structured and annotated documents

Text Mining and Analysis• Analysis of social media

The Lemur Project• Open-source search engine and text mining software• Large-scale web datasets• Search services that support the research community

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Ralf Brown I Principal Systems ScientistInformation Extraction• Text normalization

Language Identification• Identifying short texts in 1000+ languages

Digital Forensics• Text extraction• Reconstructing corrupted files

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Robert Frederking I Assoc. Dean, Doctoral Programs, SCS & Chair, Graduate Programs, LTIMachine Translation• Speech translation• Endangered language support

Natural Language Applications• Information extraction from text

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Scott Fahlman I Professor Emeritus, LTI & CSDSymbolic Knowledge Representation and Reasoning• Ongoing research on the open-source Scone knowledge-base system• Flexible, human-like planning, integrated with world-knowledge

(The focus is "good-enough planning", not optimal planning)

Knowledge-Based Natural Language Understanding and Generation• Going all the way from text or speech to a useful representation of the knowledge• Making use of context and background knowledge for disambiguation and filling in missing information

Incrementally Constructed Networks for Deep Learning• Looking again at some old ideas about gradually building up neural networks to fit the task at hand -

as a means to solve deep problems with much less guesswork and computation

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Maxine Eskenazi I Principal Systems ScientistMultidomain Dialogue Systems• Research to create intelligent agents able to respond to a variety of topics and assemble

diverse dialog systems

Distraction Detection• Deep learning to achieve early prediction of driver distraction using multimodal information

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William Cohen I ProfessorInformation Extraction and Machine Reading• Extracting factual knowledge from text• Answering queries using textual information• Neural approaches to question-answering

Statistical Relational Learning• Probabilistic logic programs and query languages• Differentiable query languages• Neuro-symbolic learning and reasoning

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Eduard Hovy I Research ProfessorComputational Semantics for Natural Language Processing• Machine learning and deep neural methods to do information extraction, event detection, entity

detection and linking into Wikipedia, reference resolution, semantic typing, etc., in multiple languages

Social Media Analysis• Latent analysis methods to discover interesting features of events and users of social media

Information Extraction, Text Mining, and Summarization

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Alex Hauptmann I Research ProfessorMultimedia Analysis and Retrieval• Large scale analysis of internet and surveillance video• Multimedia for healthcare• Multimedia for human rights

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Matthias Grabmair I Systems ScientistNatural language processing of legal text• Document Retrieval• Question answering• Information extraction• Automatic summarization

Computational Models of Argumentation• Knowledge representation and inference in formal argument models• Argument schemes for case-based reasoning• Modeling purposive legal argumentation with values• Learning to weight arguments from data and predict outcomes

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Anatole Gershman I Distinguished Service ProfessorInformation Extraction from Text• Conceptual dependency parsing• Domain adaptation through interactive learning

Conversational Systems• Task-specific and thematic chat bots

Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Under Uncertainty• Fusion of prior and new information

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Louis-Philippe Morency I Assistant ProfessorHuman Communication Dynamics• Analyze, recognize and predict subtle human communicative behaviors during social interactions

Multimodal Machine Learning• Probabilistic modeling of acoustic, visual and verbal modalities• Learning the temporal contingency between modalities

Health Behavior Informatics• Technologies to support clinical practice during diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders

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Teruko Mitamura I Research Professor

& Director, MIIS ProgramText Analysis• Events: Definition, detection, coreference and representation• Annotation on event and entity mentions and coreference-linking

Question Answering• Question answering for Japanese National Center for University Admissions• Various tests for other domains

Computer-Assisted Language Learning• Intelligent reading system for English (Smart Reader)

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Florian Metze I Associate Research ProfessorSpeech and Audio Recognition and Understanding• End-to-end speech processing using Deep Learning• Multi-modal training, grounding, and adaptation (e.g., audio-visual ASR, children’s speech)• Low-resource speech recognition and spoken term detection• Language-independent speech recognition (e.g., using articulatory features)• Distant microphone recognition and information extraction from conversations• Audio event detection, sequence modeling of non-speech sounds• Recounting and summarization of video events (e.g., how-to-videos)• Extraction of para-linguistic information from speech (e.g., personality)

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Lori Levin I Research ProfessorMultilingual Natural Language Processing• Using linguistics and language typology to improve performance of corpus-based methods• Low resource languages

North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO)• High school students learn about human language and computation by solving puzzles

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Carolyn P. Rosé I ProfessorText Mining/ Computational Sociolinguistics• Modeling social processes in discourse• Deep learning of rhetorical structure• Social Media Analysis

Dialogue Agents •Reinforcement Learning for Adaptable Dialogue Agents•Dialogue agents for Learning, Health, and Wellbeing

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning•Architectures for supporting online collaboration•Social Recommendation Algorithms•Learning in Massive Open Online Courses

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Bhiksha Raj I ProfessorAudio Analysis• Audio content analysis, with applications to acoustic intelligence, surveillance, content-based retrieval• Never ending learner of sound: a self-updating audio-content index for the web• Signal enhancement and separation algorithms

Privacy Preserving Signal Processing• Algorithms to preserve user privacy in speech & audio applications• Secure cloud computing techniques

Speech Processing• Robust speech recognition and core speech recognition technologies

Deep Neural Networks• Novel applications of deep networks and algorithms for practical deployment of deep networks

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Eric Nyberg I Professor and Director, MCDS ProgramOpen Advancement of Question Answering• Software architectures and algorithms for real-world QA applications (e.g., Jeopardy! Challenge,

BioASQ, LiveQA)

Machine Reading• Mixed-initiative information extraction, logical form creation and inference for automatic

knowledge-base construction in any domain

Interactive Analytic Learning• Reducing cost of training high-quality analytics for new domains

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Graham Neubig I Assistant ProfessorCore Natural Language Processing• Machine translation• Text analysis, language modeling, parsing• Multilingual NLP and cross-lingual transfer

Machine Learning for Natural Language Processing• Neural networks, un- and semi-supervised learning• Efficient training methods for NLP systems

Natural Language Interfaces to Computers• Generation of code from natural language and vice-versa

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Ravi Starzl I Assistant Teaching ProfessorInformation-driven Systems• Computational analysis and modeling of complex domains such as biological systems,

financial systems, and Internet topologies

Software Engineering and Machine Learning• Mathematical modeling, big data systems, and biology

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Rita Singh I Senior Systems ScientistSpeech and Audio Processing• Signal processing• Automatic speech recognition• AI-based techniques for intelligence gathering and analysis, crime investigation and forensics

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Alex Rudnicky I Research Professor EmeritusConversational Systems• Proactive learning through spoken interaction between agents and humans• Agents that engage in social, non-goal directed interaction

Spoken Language Systems• Dialog system architectures and dialog management• Spoken language understanding and situational awareness• Speech recognition for interactive systems

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Roni Rosenfeld I ProfessorForecasting Epidemics• Developing the science and technology of epidemiological forecasting• Embedding this technology in tools for public and private decision making• Forecasting the timing and spread of Influenza and Dengue• Evaluation of forecasting accuracy

Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D)• Speech based, telephone based information services for low-literate people in developing countries• Viral entertainment as a vehicle for information dissemination

Machine Learning for Social Good (ML4SG)

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Alex Waibel I ProfessorSpeech-to-Speech Translation

Neural Network / Deep Learning and Language Processing

Machine Learning

Machine Translation

Speech Processing

Multimodal and Multimedia

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Yulia Tsvetkov I Assistant ProfessorMultilingual Natural Language Processing• Enabling language technologies for low-resource languages• Integrating rich linguistic knowledge into deep learning models

Machine Learning for Social Good• Identification of bias in online conversations; debiasing• Identification of manipulation and propaganda in media

Modeling Effective Communication• Identifying effective negotiation strategies• Enabling style transfer

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Anthony Tomasic I Senior Systems ScientistSelf-driving Databases• Self-driving databases to remove most of the duties of a database administrator

via machine learning analysis of workload

Language Production in Children• Development of new systems that promote language production in children

via speech recognition and user experience design

Crowdsourcing in Transportation• Application of crowdsourcing techniques to problems in the transportation domain

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Richard Stern I ProfessorRobust Speech Recognition• Physiologically- and perceptually-motivated feature extraction• Microphone-array processing• Application of deep learning approaches

Auditory Perception• Spatial hearing• Application of robust recognition techniques to the hearing impaired

Music Information Retrieval• Score following and musical training• Content analysis of musical performance

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Yiming Yang I ProfessorGraph-based Multi-Relational Learning• Unified framework and algorithms for joint inference over multi-source heterogeneous graphs of data

Time Series Forecasting and Anomaly Detection• Over massive heterogeneous sensor networks• Collaborating with Boeing and DOE

Cross-Domain and Cross-Language Transfer Learning• With topic identification and event summarization

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Eric Xing I ProfessorMachine Learning and Statistical Methodology• Solving problems involving automated learning, reasoning, and decision-making

Large-scale Computational System and Architecture• High-dimensional, multimodal, and dynamic possible worlds in artificial, biological, and social systems

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