Date: 09-Apr-2010
From: Lori Levin <lslcs.cmu.edu>
Subject: NACLO: 2010 Competition Information and Winners
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Say what? High school linguists break the code.
Winners of the fourth annual North American Computational LinguisticsOlympiad just announced.
More than a thousand high school students from across the USA and Canadarecently competed in the fourth annual North American ComputationalLinguistics Olympiad. The top students are eligible to represent theircountry at the Eighth International Linguistics Olympiad to be held inSweden in late July.
The competition included two rounds - the Open round on February 4th andthe Invitational round on March 10th. 1118 students participated in theOpen competition at more than 100 sites, including universities such asCarnegie Mellon, Princeton, Stanford, and University of Michigan, as wellas many high schools. The students with the top 100 scores in the openround advanced to the Invitational round, which featured significantlyharder questions.
Top winners include:1st- Ben Sklaroff, Palo Alto, CA, Palo Alto High School2nd- Brian Kong, Milton, MA, Milton Academy3rd- Allen Yuan, Farmington Hills, MI, Detroit Country Day School4th- Daniel Li, Fairfax, VA, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science andTechnology5th- Alan Chang, Piedmont Hills High School6th- Alexander Iriza, Astoria, NY, The Dalton School7th- In-Sung Na, Old Tappan, NJ, Northern Valley Regional High School atOld Tappan8th- Tian-Yi Damien Jiang, Raleigh, NC, North Carolina School of Science &Mathematics (Durham)
Students compete in the Computational Linguistics Olympiad by solvingchallenging problems using data from a variety of languages and formalsystems. There is no pre-requisite knowledge. Students discover facts aboutlanguages and formal systems in the course of solving the puzzles.According to first place winner Ben Sklaroff, 'Translating a languageyou've never heard of before just by using logic is extremely gratifying.It's like breaking a code, except languages generally make sense so all therules are less arbitrary. Trying to figure out how another person wouldexpress common concepts in their own language, with just a few examples towork with is a fun challenge.'
This year students solved sixteen problems, including deciphering the rulesfor a Pig-Latin-like play language in Minangkabau, the writing systems ofPlains Cree, and the Vietnamese classic Tale of Kieu written in Chinesecharacters. Computational problems dealt with text compression andautomatic expansion of abbreviated words. Alan Chang (5th place) says, 'Ireally didn't know what I was getting myself into until the open roundactually started. Those three hours didn't feel like a test at all. Theywere three hours of very creative and challenging puzzles. As much as Ilike math and physics competitions, I found this linguistics competition tobe the most fun. I was very surprised at how many problems I could solvewithout any prior experience or knowledge of the subject, and this made mefeel more accomplished every time I solved a problem.'
Dragomir Radev of the University of Michigan is the chair of the programcommittee. Among his many responsibilities, Radev gathers ideas fromindustry and academic researchers around the world. Radev aims to createchallenging and stimulating problems that address cutting edge issues inthe field of computational linguistics. Though not yet widely known to thegeneral public, computational linguistics is a rapidly emerging field withapplications in such areas as search engine technologies, machinetranslation, and artificial intelligence.
While the linguistics competition is fun, it also requires dedication andhard work by many people, all of whom are volunteers. Dragomir Radev andLori Levin (Carnegie Mellon University) co-chair the organizing committee,which also includes School Liaison Amy Troyani (Pittsburgh Allderdice HighSchool), Administrative Chair Mary Jo Bensasi (Carnegie Mellon University)and Sponsorship Chair James Pustejovsky (Brandeis University), as well asproblem authors and jury members Eugene Fink (Carnegie Mellon University),David Mortensen (University of Pittsburgh), Patrick Littell (University ofBritish Columbia), and 2007 international gold medalist Adam Hesterberg,now studying at Princeton University. Many other college professors, highschool teachers, and college students also volunteer their time.
NACLO is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the NorthAmerican Chapter of the Association for Computation Linguistics (NAACL),Carnegie Mellon University Language Technologies Institute and GelfandCenter for Community Outreach, University of Michigan, and BrandeisUniversity, as well as donations from academic departments and individualdonors.
Programs similar to NACLO have taken place for over forty years in EasternEurope, and the International Linguistics Olympiad is in its eighth year.More information as well as the problem sets and solutions can be found onthe NACLO website www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu.
'Usually, college students don't even hear about computational linguisticsuntil they are well along in their undergraduate studies,' says Lori Levinof Carnegie Mellon University, co-chair of the North American program. 'Ourhope is that competitions such as the Computational Linguistics Olympiadwill identify students who have an affinity for linguistics andcomputational linguistics before they graduate high school and encouragethem to pursue further studies at the university level.' The organizationalso hopes to see the scientific study of language incorporated into highschool curricula.
Charles Forster, a computer science teacher, has created a newcomputational linguistics course at the Dalton School in NY. 'We aremaking an effort to cater to the students who are in the department but areless interested in following our singular 'algorithms' track, as well as tostudents who are afraid to take computer science because it has the word'science' in it but are interested in taking language. Ling is a greatcrossover field in HS. For kids who are less inclined to science, theylearn to see a subject that they are interested in through a science lens.Inversely, it is a great entre for sci geeks to English and language.'
Universities and corporations view the program as a way of helping highschool students discover their talents and interests in the areas oflanguage, linguistics and natural language processing. 'High schoolstudents are always enthusiastic about logic puzzles, and the LinguisticsOlympiad provides lots of them,' says Adam Hesterberg, vice-chair of thejury and winner of the 2007 International Linguistics Olympiad. "It's likea math contest without the requirement of knowing any math, althoughwithout the rigor of a math contest. Indeed, mathematicians normally doquite well in the contests." Chang adds, 'Despite all being based onlinguistics, the problems in NACLO are very diverse. Every time I began anew problem, I had to think carefully about what I could use to solve it.The techniques I ended up using ranged from applying basic English grammarto searching for patterns to solving systems of equations.'
Dragomir Radev certainly feels that his hard work pays off. 'Many of theparticipants are extremely bright and have broad interests. In addition tolinguistics, they also excel in physics, mathematics, computing, and manyother subjects. A number of linguistics clubs have been created at highschools thanks to NACLO.'
And, as Eugene Fink puts it, 'most importantly, it is fun for allparticipants, both students and organizers.' Allen Yuan (third place)concurs, 'NACLO has been one of the most enlightening experiences in mylife, combining my love for solving puzzles with a newly sparked interestin languages. The contest was very well organized this year and I hopethat this event can continue to expand in the future. It brings a greatopportunity to change the way all the students think.'
Contact information:
Dr. Lori Levin, Carnegie Mellon University (lslumich.edu)
Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics
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