[Corpora-List] Internship at Idiap: verb tenses for SMT

[Andrei Popescu-Belis]

Internship at the Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland

Learning verb tense translation from parallel
corpora for statistical machine translation

http://www.idiap.ch/education-and-jobs/

Contact: Andrei Popescu-Belis


Description

Applications are invited for a 6-month internship (preferably at the 
Master level) in the field of statistical machine translation (SMT).

At Idiap, we are studying methods for using text-level information to 
improve SMT, in the context of the Swiss COMTIS project 
(www.idiap.ch/comtis). In particular, we have successfully combined 
classifiers for discourse connectives with state-of-the-art SMT systems, 
showing an improvement on such particles. In collaborations with 
linguists, we currently analyze the features that govern the translation 
of verb tenses, mainly from English to French. The main challenge for MT 
is that there is no one-to-one mapping from English to French tenses, 
and the correct choice depends on the context.

The goal of the internship is to design and implement a method for 
predicting the translation of verb tenses, applied to English/French 
translation (or another European language). First, training data will be 
generated by the word alignment of annotated parallel corpora. Then, a 
classifier will be trained to predict tense translation based on lexical 
and semantic features. Its output will then be used to train and test a 
tense-aware SMT system, which will be evaluated in terms of BLEU 
improvement but also verb-specific scores (METEOR or ACT).

The applicants should have a background in computer science or 
linguistics. Knowledge of computational linguistics and machine learning 
would be an advantage. Previous experience with statistical machine 
translation would be highly appreciated. The applicants should have 
demonstrable programming skills in at least one scripting language such 
as Perl or Python, or master a programming language such as Java or 
C/C++. Good command of English and knowledge of another European 
language (preferably French) are mandatory.

The applications should be submitted before March 15, 2013, with 
priority given to those submitted earlier. The internship can start 
immediately, but no later than July 1st, 2013. The appointment is for 6 
months, with a gross salary of 2000 CHF per month.

About Idiap

Idiap is an independent, non-profit research institute recognized and 
supported by the Swiss Government, and affiliated with the Ecole 
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). It is located in the town of 
Martigny in Valais, a scenic region in the south of Switzerland, 
surrounded by the highest mountains of Europe, and offering exciting 
recreational activities, including hiking, climbing and skiing, as well 
as varied cultural activities. It is within close proximity to Geneva 
and Lausanne. Although Idiap is located in the French part of 
Switzerland, English is the working language. Free French lessons are 
provided.

Idiap offers competitive salaries and conditions at all levels in a 
young, dynamic, and multicultural environment. Idiap is an equal 
opportunity employer and is actively involved in the "Advancement of 
Women in Science" European initiative. The Institute seeks to maintain a 
principle of open competition (on the basis of merit) to appoint the 
best candidate, provides equal opportunity for all candidates, and 
equally encourages both genders to apply.

APB
-- 
Idiap Research Institute  |  tel: (41 27) 721 7729
Centre du Parc, CP 592    |  fax: (41 27) 721 7712
CH-1920 Martigny          |  name.surname at idiap.ch
Switzerland               |  www.idiap.ch/~apbelis

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