CALL FOR PAPERS: WORKSHOP ON MACHINE LEARNING IN HUMAN LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MACHINE LEARNING AND APPLICATIONS Advanced Course on Artificial Intelligence 1999 (ACAI'99) 5-16 July 1999, Chania, Greece (http://www.iit.demokritos.gr/skel/eetn/acai99) European Coordinating Committee on Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI) (http://www.eccai.org) & Hellenic Artificial Intelligence Society (EETN) (http://www.iit.demokritos.gr/skel/eetn) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Workshop Objectives The Workshop aims to present current Machine Learning (ML) research activities in the area of Human Language Technology (HLT) (i.e. Written and Spoken Language Recognition / Understanding / Generation). The fields of interest include (but are not limited to): speech processing, natural language processing, machine translation, optical character recognition, speaker recognition, text processing, information retrieval, semantic disambiguation, commonsense reasoning, language modelling, dialogue modelling, user modelling, corpus handling, data mining, etc. The techniques used have to exhibit an intelligent adaptive behaviour resulting to the gradual improvement of system performance. Such techniques include (but are not limited to): hidden Markov models, neural networks, genetic algorithms, decision trees, rule-based models, simulated annealing, fuzzy reasoning, hybrid models, etc. Workshop Background The area of Human Language Technology is an emerging field which is expected not only to facilitate future applications as the natural improvement of today's Graphical User Interfaces, but also to provide applications of significant importance like machine translation systems and tele-services. The use and testing of existing and innovative machine learning techniques in the field of Human Language Technology will effect significantly the overall performance of such systems and will indicate new directions for research and development. The machine learning field is mature enough to provide solutions and methodologies from which an emerging technology like HLT will certainly benefit. It is important for the scientific community to realise in what extend these two fields can cooperate and what promises lie towards this direction. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Organizing Committee Assist. Prof Nikos Fakotakis Wire Communications Lab., University of Patras, GR-26500, Greece Tel: +30.61.996216 Fax: +30.61.991855 e-mail: fakotaki@wcl.ee.upatras.gr Dr. Kyriakos Sgarbas Wire Communications Lab., University of Patras, GR-26500, Greece Tel: +30.61.991722 Fax: +30.61.991855 e-mail: sgarbas@wcl.ee.upatras.gr Dr. George Demetriou Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, UK Tel: +44 114 222 1800, Fax: +44 114 222 1810 e-mail: demetri@dcs.shef.ac.uk Assoc. Prof. Maria-Teresa Pazienza Dipartimento di Informatica, Sistemi e Produzion Universita' di Roma, Tor Vergata ITALY Tel. +39 067259 7378 e-mail: pazienza@info.uniroma2.it Dr. Roberto Basili Dipartimento di Informatica, Sistemi e Produzion Universita' di Roma, Tor Vergata, ITALY Tel. +39 067259 7391 e-mail: basili@info.uniroma2.it ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Submission Format Interested authors are requested to submit a paper, of no more than 10 pages, before 20 February 1999 (FINAL DEADLINE) The authors are requested to state clearly the problem examined and the machine learning method used as well as to discuss the costs and benefits of their approach. Performance evaluation results are also encouraged. Authors of accepted papers will be asked to provide a camera-ready version of their paper before 1 April 1999. Submission should be sent by e-mail to: Assist. Prof Nikos Fakotakis Wire Communications Lab., University of Patras, GR-26500, Greece Tel: +30.61.996216 Fax: +30.61.991855 e-mail: fakotaki@wcl.ee.upatras.gr ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Organisational Issues Up to 10 accepted papers will be presented (each 15 min). The Workshop will take place during the afternoon sessions of ACAI-99, from 14:30 to 18:00. The exact date of the workshop (between 5 and 16 July) will be finalized soon by the ACAI-99 organizing committee. Anyone registered for the main ACAI-99 event can also attend all the workshops. For the Workshop participants who will not be registered for the whole ACAI-99 there will be a fee of 100 ECUs. Proceedings will be published as a technical report in collaboration with the ACAI-99 organization committee. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Important Dates 20 February, 1999 Deadline for paper submission 10 March, 1999 Notification of acceptance 1 April, 1999 Deadline for final camera ready papers The Workshop will be held between 5 and 16 July, 1999, in the framework of ACAI'99. The exact date will be finalised soon and will be announced in the ACAI'99 Web-page (http://www.iit.demokritos.gr/skel/eetn/acai99)