WorkMy area of research is computational linguistics. I specialize primarily in research at the intersection of computer science, formal linguistics and cognitive science.
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I am originally trained as a computer scientist. I did my
undergraduate degree, a B.Sc(Eng) in Computing Science, at Imperial
College of Science and Technology, part of the University of
London. I was interested in logic programming and (particularly) in
artificial intelligence, which precipitated my next step.
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Department of Computing, Imperial College
Imperial College, University of London |
After completing my undergraduate degree, in 1985, I came to the
United States to do graduate work at the Artificial Intelligence
(AI) Laboratory (then a separate entity from LCS) at the
Masschusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge,
Masschusetts. I received a S.M. (Master of Science) degree in 1986. I
spent a little time at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in
Hawthorne on qualitative reasoning for large-scale computer systems. I
developed a strong interest in natural language processing and formal
linguistics. (My Ph.D minor is in Linguistics.) My Ph.D thesis work
was on the implementation of Government-and-Binding (GB) theory, a
popular theory in the so-called Principles-and-Parameters framework.
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AI Lab, MIT |
[From 1994 NEC Research Institute, Inc. publicity brochure.]
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After completing my Ph.D, in Fall 1991, I joined the recently founded
NEC Research Institute in Princeton New Jersey. (I believe it
was just a couple of years old when I joined.) This was a small
institute initially set up to do fundamental research in the computer
and physical sciences, wholly funded by NEC Japan. I formed a small
natural language processing group. Later on, the focus of the
institute became collaborative applied research with NEC C&C
Laboratories (Japan) and eventually it merged to become NEC
Laboratories America. I did some proprietary work on machine
translation and ended up collaborating on machine translation
evaluation for Japanese to English translation. I also did consultant
work with researchers at the University of Quebec at Montreal
(UQAM) and with Kanda University of International Studies
(KUIS) of Chiba, Japan on their COE project.
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NEC Laboratories America
Asymmetry Project, UQAM COE project, Graduate School of Language Sciences, KUIS |
In 2003, I moved to the University of Arizona in Tucson,
Arizona. I took a joint appointment in Linguistics and Computer
Science. In addition to having a traditional linguistics program, the
Linguistics Department here is also pushing forwards with its
efforts in the Human Language Technology (HLT) area. Since my
research topics are at the intersection of computer science and formal
linguistics, this position meshes well with my current interests in
multilingual parsing and modern syntactic theory,
machine translation evaluation,
ontolinguistics, WordNet, computational lexical
semantics and computational morphology. Take a look at my
resume and publications available here on-line.
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Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona
Department of Computer Science, University of Arizona Cognitive Science Program, University of Arizona
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RecreationOutside of the university, as you see from my interests listed below, my time and energy are mostly focused on sports, maintaining fitness and the outdoors.
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First and foremost, I'm an avid cyclist, specializing in long
distance events such as brevets and 1200 km randonnees. For example, I
have completed Boston-Montreal-Boston (BMB), a distance of 1200 km or
750 miles with around 30,000 ft of climbing, in 57 hours. I have
ridden in the French Alps, the Dolomites, the Netherlands, Germany,
Switzerland and even Canada. I love distance and climbs. More
mundanely, I also commute a few times a week, each trip being 30 miles
roundtrip.
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Boston-Montreal-Boston
(2002 results)
Sportcommunications.com organizer for La Marmotte and other cyclosportives in France |
I also used to be a dedicated and competitive table tennis
player, not quite making 2200 (USA Table Tennis rating). Nowadays
I keep a low profile and play occasionally for fun at the University
of Arizona's table tennis club.
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USA Table Tennis
Sport Clubs, University of Arizona New Jersey Table Tennis Club, where I used to play (no website) MIT Table Tennis Club, where first I learnt to play as a graduate student |
Since arriving in the Southwest, I have dabbled in hiking since it's a
hiker's paradise here in the Sonoran desert with the surrounding
mountain ranges.
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Trail Guide, Sierra Club Tucson |
With the good weather that suffuses the Southwest, I have finally
managed to learn to swim, albeit embarassingly late in life. More
interestingly, I acquired a basic scuba diving license (PADI
Advanced Open Water), thereby expanding my horizons. So far, I have
dived in Pennslyvania, the southern islands of Japan, the Carribean
and Mexico. I'd like to dive all over the world.
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PADI Professional Association of Diving Instructors
SCUBA Connection, Hillsborough NJ, where I first learnt to dive Dutch Springs, Bethlehem PA Jalousie Hilton, St. Lucia Nilaina Resort, Iriomote, Okinawa, Japan San Carlos, Mexico |
Finally, also recently, I have begun to reacquaint myself with
alpine skiing after a hiatus of more than 15 years. Believe it
or not, there is skiing to be had within driving distance of Tucson.
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Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley, Tucson AZ
Sunrise Park Resort, Greer AZ
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Sandiway Fong
May 2004, Tucson AZ