13.124, FYI: Adv Question Answering Technology Workshops

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-13-124. Sat Jan 19 2002. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 13.124, FYI: Adv Question Answering Technology Workshops

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1)
Date:  Sat, 19 Jan 2002 21:32:27 -0500
From:  Mark Maybury <maybury at mitre.org>
Subject:  Northeast Regional Research Center Workshops, NLP and IE

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Sat, 19 Jan 2002 21:32:27 -0500
From:  Mark Maybury <maybury at mitre.org>
Subject:  Northeast Regional Research Center Workshops, NLP and IE





                                STUDENT FUNDING

              Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA)
                   Northeast Regional Research Center (NRRC)

                              Summer Workshops on
                   Advanced Question Answering Technology


The Advanced Research and Development Activity (www.ic-arda.org) is an
intelligence community organization whose mission is to sponsor
high-risk, high-payoff research designed to leverage leading edge
technology in the solution of some of the most critical problems facing
the United States Intelligence Community (IC). ARDA has recently
established the Northeast Regional Research Center (NRRC)
hosted at The MITRE Corporation (www.mitre.org),
a not-for-profit, public interest organization that manages the
Department of Defense's Federally Funded Research and Development
Center (FFRDC) in Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence
(C3I).  In support of the Advanced Question Answering (AQUAINT)
program, in Summer 2002, the NRRC will host two eight week workshops
focused on advanced topics in the area of question answering
technology.  Two teams of top scientists have been assembled
to address two advanced topics in question answering:

- Temporal - Enhancing natural language question answering systems to
answer temporally-based questions about the events and entities in news
articles, led by Prof James Pustejovsky of Brandeis University
(jamesp at cs.brandeis.edu). The workshop will meet for one week periods
for about 6 months in a row.  The specific dates are not yet finalized.

- Multiperspectives: Enhancing natural language question answering
systems to find and characterize perspectives (e.g., facts vs.
opinions, various political viewpoints) expressed in multiple global
news sources, led by Prof Janyce Wiebe of the University of Pittsburgh
(wiebe at cs.pitt.edu). The workshop will meet for 8 weeks during the
summer at MITRE.  The specific dates are yet to be determined.


Applications are solicited for 4-6 highly qualified graduate or
postdoctoral students to participate in these eight week workshops.
Selection will be based on academic record, science and
technology/programming skills, and two letters of reference. Preference
will be given to regional students and those who have experience in
language processing (especially information extraction or question
answering), information retrieval, and/or supporting database
technology. Knowledge of linguistics and experience with corpus
annotation a plus. Extremely highly qualified undergraduates will also
be considered. Funding is available to cover salary, travel, lodging
and per diem. To apply, please contact Bev Nunan (bnunan at mitre.org)
to receive an application form, which must submitted no later
than March 1st, 2002

We look forward to your participation in the NRRC.

Dr. Mark Maybury
Executive Director, ARDA Northeast Regional Research Center
The MITRE Corporation, 202 Burlington Road, Bedford, MA 01730
maybury at mitre.org  Tel: (781) 271-7230 Fax: (781) 271-2780
http://www.mitre.org/resources/centers/it

- ----------------------------------------------------------------

About The MITRE Corporation:  MITRE is a not-for-profit national
technology resource that provides systems engineering, research and
development, and information technology support to the government. It
operates federally funded research and development centers for the
Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and the
Internal Revenue Service, with principal locations in Bedford,
Massachusetts, and McLean, Virginia. MITRE was founded with the purpose
of conducting scientific activities "to enhance the security of the
United States of America or otherwise to further the public
interest ..."

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