LINGUIST List 11.22

Tue Jan 11 2000

Jobs: Natural Lang Processing,Natural Lang Processing

Editor for this issue: James Yuells <jameslinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Pierre Eggermont, NLP Grammar Developer at Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products,Belgium
2. Zeeshan Khan, NLP at BCL Computers, Santa Clara,CA,USA

Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (L&H) is the worlds leading provider of
speech and language technology products, solutions, and services to businesses
and individuals worldwide. It is our mission to break down language barriers
through advanced translation technology and to enable people to interact by
voice in any language with the machines that empower them. Founded in 1987 L&H
has revolutionized the development and application of advanced speech and
language technologies. The company delivers the broadest array of consumer,
business, and industry offerings in automatic dictation, translation, sound
compression, voice synthesis, and industrial documentation.
As a NASDAQ and EASDAQ quoted company and headquartered in Ieper (Belgium), L&H
maintains offices in more than forty nations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East,
North America, and South America. With over 1,750 employees - mainly linguists,
scientists and engineers - we generated an annual revenue of $211.6 million in
1998.
For the development of language and speech technology, L&H currently has an
opening in its offices in Brussels (Belgium) for a (m/f):


 ******************************************
 NLP GRAMMAR DEVELOPER
 Speech and Language Technology
 ******************************************

General Description:
* Localization of the Voice Xpress natural language grammars to voice control
Windows applications to German, Dutch and UK English, but with the focus on
German.
* Development of new grammars for specific applications in the target languages.
 This includes domain analysis, design, implementation, testing and usability
evaluations.

Duties:
Responsibility - Percent of Work Time:
* Natural language Grammar localization - 80%
* Natural Language Grammar Development - 20%

Required Skills:
* Linguistic education, preferably a university degree in the target language,
or a (additional) degree in computer linguistics or artificial intelligence
* Excellence in the grammar of the target languages and its practical usage
(preferably native speaker of one of them)
* Good command of English
* The candidate has sense for methodology and self organization, works
rigorously
* Working knowledge of the following software required: Microsoft Windows,
Microsoft Office
* Good communication skills

Desired Skills:
* Experience with context free grammars and their application in Natural
Language Processing
* Experience with Rule Based systems
* The candidate is a team player but can also work also independently
* programming experience with Visual Basic and/or scripting languages
* Willing to travel for short periods

 **********************************************************

If you are interested in this job opportunity and you believe to fulfill the
required profile, we have to meet each other.
 Please send your application letter and detailed resume to:


 Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products
 Personnel Department

 Mailto:job-announcelhs.be

 attn. Ms. Valerie Maes
 Flanders Language Valley 50
 B-8900 Ieper
 BELGIUM
 Fax: int+ 32 (0)57.20.84.89


To learn more about Lernout & Hauspie and its products, visit our homepage:
http://www.lhsl.com

Rank of Job: 
Areas Required: NLP, Semantic Domain Modelling
Other Desired Areas: Knowledge-Base Construction
University or Organization: BCL Computers
Department: HCI Products
State or Province: CA
Country: USA
Final Date of Application: 7/1/2000
Contact: Zeeshan Khan zeeshanbcl-computers.com

Address for Applications:
990 Linden Dr, Suite 203
Santa Clara
CA 95118
USA

BCL is looking for people with experience in computational linguistics
and linguistics to work on an exciting, cutting-edge project funded by 
the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) of the Department of Commerce. 
The work involves developing and implementing linguistic models for 
spoken and written language for internet and handheld platforms. 

A short summary of the project and BCL is given below:
- -------------------------------------------------------------------

BCL COMPUTERS TO DEVELOP SPOKEN
LANGUAGE CODE GENERATING SOFTWARE FOR ATP

October 7, 1999.

 BCL Computers, a leader in document management technology, is pleased
to announce being awarded an ATP contract to develop a code generating 
software "toolkit" that will allow programmers to rapidly develop 
spoken-language input interfaces for new and existing applications 
without a detailed knowledge of linguistic theory.

Speech-based input systems are becoming ever more desirable with the 
advent of handheld computers. Spoken language provides a natural and 
convenient method of communicating with the computer, but a 
spoken-language user interface (SLUI) for an application program is 
difficult to create. 

Natural-language processing is far more complex than GUI programming. 
Automatic speech recognition systems exist to take spoken words and 
translate them into symbols, but to build a true SLUI the programmer 
needs to understand concepts in human linguistics, syntactic parsing 
and human discourse theory to effectively translate a natural language
sentence into input for an application program. 

BCL Computers proposes a SLUI Toolkit that will allow programmers to 
rapidly develop spoken-language input for new and existing applications
without a detailed knowledge of linguistic theory. The programmer will
specify a sample set of input sentences for each task, the Toolkit will
analyze them and generate a front-end application which is fine-tuned 
for understanding relevant Naturally Spoken command sentences. 

Natural-language processing is a notoriously difficult field, and 
developing a SLUI Toolkit powerful and general enough to be useful to 
programmers working in a wide variety of application areas will 
require BCL to overcome a number of technical challenges, ranging from
 algorithms to deal with ambiguity in natural language to designing 
effective "wrappers" to interface with the target application programs.

The resulting SLUI also must be compact and efficient enough to work 
well within the resources of a handheld computer. A SLUI toolkit will 
transform and expand the uses of handheld computers in much the same 
way that the Graphical User Interface transformed the world of desktop 
computers. 

About BCL Computers

BCL Computers is a leader in human computer interaction technology. 
Formalized in 1994, the company has been developing numerous solutions
addressing document understanding technology to aid repurposing of PDF
with both custom and shrink-wrapped solutions. With the intent of 
simplifying the workflow, BCL has also developed technology that makes
web-publishing an easy task for both novices and experts. The
development 
of the SLUI toolkit takes BCL into the Natural Language aspect of human

computer interaction where computers begin to understand written and 
spoken input. The company's repertoire of products includes a fax 
solution that enables immediately and automatic delivery of incoming 
faxes to users via email.

About ATP

The ATP is a unique partnership between government and private 
industry to accelerate the development of high-risk technologies 
that promise significant commercial payoffs and widespread benefits 
for the economy. The ATP encourages a change in how industry 
approaches R&D, providing a mechanism for industry to extend its 
technological reach and push out the envelope of what can be attempted.

http://www.atp.nist.gov