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cs.vassar.edu>Coling-ACL '98 Workshop Multilingual Information Management: Current Levels and Future Abilities August 16, 1998 Universiti de Montrial Montrial/Canada The Coling/ACL workshop on Multilingual Information Management is a follow-on to an NSF-sponsored workshop held in conjunction with the First International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation in Granada, Spain (May 1998), at which an international panel of invited experts considered these questions in an attempt to identify the most effective future directions of computational linguistics research--especially in the context of the need to handle multi-lingual and multi-modal information. The follow-on workshop is intended to open the discussion to the computational linguistics community as a whole. ******************************************************************** * * * REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS JULY 1!!!! * * * * TO REGISTER, CONSULT THE COLING/ACL HOME PAGE AT * * * * http://coling-acl98.iro.umontreal.ca/MainPage.html * * * ******************************************************************** WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION The development of natural language applications which handle multi-lingual and multi-modal information is the next major challenge facing the field of computational linguistics. Over the past 50 years, a variety of language-related capabilities has been developed in areas such as machine translation, information retrieval, and speech recognition, together with core capabilities such as information extraction, summarization, parsing, generation, multimedia planning and integration, statistics-based methods, ontologies, lexicon construction and lexical representations, and grammar. The next few years will require the extension of these technologies to encompass multi-lingual and multi-modal information. Extending current technologies will require integration of the various capabilities into multi-functional natural language systems. However, there is today no clear vision of how these technologies could or should be assembled into a coherent framework. What would be involved in connecting a speech recognition system to an information retrieval engine, and then using machine translation and summarization software to process the retrieved text? How can traditional parsing and generation be enhanced with statistical techniques? What would be the effect of carefully crafted lexicons on traditional information retrieval? The workshop will be organized as a series of panels reporting on the outcome of discussions in the Granada workshop (a report summarizing the discussions at Granada will be available before the Coling-ACL workshop). Ample time for discussion will be included. The discussion will focus on the following fundamental questions: 1.What is the current level of capability in each of the major areas of the field dealing with language and related media of human communication? 2.How can (some of) these functions be integrated in the near future, and what kind of systems will result? 3.What are the major considerations for extending these functions to handle multi-lingual and multi-modal information, particularly in integrated systems of the type envisioned in (2)? In particular, we will consider these questions in relation to the following areas: o multi-lingual resources (lexicons, ontologies, corpora, etc.) o information retrieval, especially cross-lingual and cross-modal o machine translation o automated (cross-lingual) summarization and information extraction o multimedia communication, in conjunction with text o evaluation and assessment techniques for each of these areas o methods and techniques (both statistics-based and linguistics-based) o parsing, generation, information acquisition, etc. o speech recognition and synthesis o language and speaker identification and speech translation Program Committee Khalid Choukri, European Languages Resource Association Charles Fillmore, University of California Berkeley, USA Robert Frederking, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Ulrich Heid, University of Stuttgart, Germany Eduard Hovy, Information Sciences Institute, USA Nancy Ide, Vassar College, USA Mun Kew Leong, National University of Singapore Joseph Mariani, LIMSI/CNRS, France Mark Maybury, The Mitre Corporation, USA Sergei Nirenburg, New Mexico State University, USA Akitoshi Okumura, NEC, Japan Martha Palmer, University of Pennsylvania, USA James Pustejovsky, Brandeis University, USA Peter Schaueble, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Oliviero Stock, IRST, Italy Felisa Verdejo, UNED, Spain Piek Vossen, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Wolfgang Wahlster, DFKI, Germany Antonio Zampolli, Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale, Italy Organizers Bob Frederking Center for Machine Translation Carnegie-Mellon University Schenley Park Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 Tel: (+1 412) 268-6656 Fax: (+1 412) 268-6298 Email: refMail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue
nottingham.ac.uk>TwD98 Thinking with Diagrams: Is there a Science of Diagrams? Workshop call for participation University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK 22-23 August 1998 REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 22nd July 1998 Diagrams are essential in most fields of human activity. There is substantial interest in diagrams and their use in many academic disciplines for the potential benefits they may confer on a wide range of tasks. Are we now in a position to claim that we have a science of diagrams? That is, a science which takes the nature of diagrams and their use as the central phenomena of interest. A science which is attempting to understand how diagrams differ from other representational systems and trying to develop principles for the design of effective graphical representations. A science which considers how diagrams communicate information and how they are used to solve problems. If we have a science of diagrams it is certainly constituted from multiple disciplines, including: cognitive science, psychology, artificial intelligence, logic, mathematics, and others. If there is a science of diagrams, then like other sciences, there is an applications or "engineering" discipline that exists alongside the science. Applications and engineering provide tests of the theories and principles discovered by the science and extend the scope of the phenomena to be studied by generating new uses of diagrams, new media for presenting diagrams, or novel classes of diagram. This applications and engineering side of the science of diagrams also comprises multiple disciplines, including: education, architecture, computer science, mathematics, human- computer interaction, knowledge acquisition, graphic design, engineering, history of science, statistics, medicine, biology, and others. The theme of TwD98 will be - Is there a Science of Diagrams? By providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of quality research on diagrams and diagram use, we not only try to answer this question, but more importantly attempt draw together the many different approaches, theories and results that we have in the many diverse disciplines that are concerned with diagrams. The question provides a vehicle on which to attempt to integrate what is currently a disparate and disordered set of activities into a more rational and coherent programme of research. Is there any common core to the activities which provides a basis for the claim that the TwD community could constitute a science? More information and the workshop registration form can be found at the Thinking with Diagrams home page: http://www.aber.ac.uk/~plo/TwD98 or contact: Patrick Olivier (ploMail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue