A scalable and portable question-answering system. The current availability of large volumes of free text digitally stored demands the development of methodologies that can automatically find specific answers to user questions about this "unstructured" information. The goal of this project is to develop a scalable portable and domain-independent real-time natural-language question-answering system that explores the logical contents of the text. To achieve this we will fuse current approaches to ....A scalable and portable question-answering system. The current availability of large volumes of free text digitally stored demands the development of methodologies that can automatically find specific answers to user questions about this "unstructured" information. The goal of this project is to develop a scalable portable and domain-independent real-time natural-language question-answering system that explores the logical contents of the text. To achieve this we will fuse current approaches to question answering with approaches that look at the logical contents of the questions and answer candidates. A central part of the project will be the characterisation of the optimal logical forms, the determination of efficient methods to create and store sentence logical forms of potentially large volumes of text, and the treatment of difficult questions by incorporating summarisation and text generation techniques.Read moreRead less
A Layered Controlled Natural Language for Knowledge Representation. In this research project we will develop a controlled natural language for knowledge representation that has the potential to bridge the gap between fragments of natural language and formal languages. This controlled language will be based on a variety of increasing sophisticated layers, each building upon those below it by providing enhancements in expressive power. Sentences of the controlled language will be unambiguously tra ....A Layered Controlled Natural Language for Knowledge Representation. In this research project we will develop a controlled natural language for knowledge representation that has the potential to bridge the gap between fragments of natural language and formal languages. This controlled language will be based on a variety of increasing sophisticated layers, each building upon those below it by providing enhancements in expressive power. Sentences of the controlled language will be unambiguously translatable into a corresponding formal language. Anyone who can read and write English can immediately use the controlled language with the help an intelligent text editor. This technology will make it possible for non-specialists to write problem specifications in terms of the application domain without the need to formally encode the information.Read moreRead less
Evolution Of Knowledge: Transformations And Universals. This project has two principal benefits: A basic scientific outcome concerning the evolution of language and an applied outcome that can inform the design of graphical communication tools. The evolution of language is one of the most hotly debated issues in contemporary science, but to date it has escaped experimental examination. This project develops an experimental methodology that permits examination of the processes by which human know ....Evolution Of Knowledge: Transformations And Universals. This project has two principal benefits: A basic scientific outcome concerning the evolution of language and an applied outcome that can inform the design of graphical communication tools. The evolution of language is one of the most hotly debated issues in contemporary science, but to date it has escaped experimental examination. This project develops an experimental methodology that permits examination of the processes by which human knowledge evolves across generations of teachers and learners. In addition, by also examining the final content of evolution, and by determining what type of graphical symbols emerge out of communal evolution, the project can inform the future design of graphical communication tools (e.g., road signs).Read moreRead less
Computational Methods for the Social Accounting of Teamwork. The cornerstone of the knowledge industries underlying the Australian economy is not just mechanical efficiency but also teamwork productivity. The increasing trend toward placing Australian employees nearer to their customers means that Australian companies face an even greater challenge in managing effective teamwork. This research examines the pragmatics and theoretical issues of developing computer-based systems that enable real-ti ....Computational Methods for the Social Accounting of Teamwork. The cornerstone of the knowledge industries underlying the Australian economy is not just mechanical efficiency but also teamwork productivity. The increasing trend toward placing Australian employees nearer to their customers means that Australian companies face an even greater challenge in managing effective teamwork. This research examines the pragmatics and theoretical issues of developing computer-based systems that enable real-time assessments of teamwork productivity. Automated assessments of how well relationships are progressing in teams will enable them to realise the same levels of productivity gains that automated workflow management has facilitated.Read moreRead less
Improved syntactic and semantic analysis for natural language processing. This project aims to improve the accuracy of syntactic and semantic analysis of natural language for automatic extraction of meaning from text. Many data mining and information extraction applications rely on syntactic and semantic analysis. Current analysis approaches are limited because they require expensive manually-labelled data. The project plans to develop new indirectly-supervised approaches to overcome this labell ....Improved syntactic and semantic analysis for natural language processing. This project aims to improve the accuracy of syntactic and semantic analysis of natural language for automatic extraction of meaning from text. Many data mining and information extraction applications rely on syntactic and semantic analysis. Current analysis approaches are limited because they require expensive manually-labelled data. The project plans to develop new indirectly-supervised approaches to overcome this labelled data bottleneck. By integrating information from large text corpora and structured databases, the project aims to minimise the reliance on manually-labelled data for training natural language processing systems. Automatic methods for syntactic and semantic analysis would have a wide range of applications in extracting information from large collections of unstructured data, such as hospital patient records or social media.Read moreRead less
Language engineering in the field: preserving 100 endangered languages in New Guinea. Efforts to preserve the world's endangered linguistic heritage are labour-intensive, and unable to keep up with the pace of language loss. This project investigates a new approach to language preservation, using techniques from language engineering, and leveraging the labour of mother-tongue speakers.
Exploring Scientific Information with Advanced New Search Tools. The rapidly growth of scientific literature in many fields makes finding information a challenge. For example, biologists produce over 1 million articles each year. Existing search tools have only limited success satisfying the demands of scientists' queries. This project will deliver intelligent e-research assistants capable of answering scientists' questions directly rather than returning a list of documents. This will allow scie ....Exploring Scientific Information with Advanced New Search Tools. The rapidly growth of scientific literature in many fields makes finding information a challenge. For example, biologists produce over 1 million articles each year. Existing search tools have only limited success satisfying the demands of scientists' queries. This project will deliver intelligent e-research assistants capable of answering scientists' questions directly rather than returning a list of documents. This will allow scientists to more efficiently exploit the literature enabling them to be more innovative and productive. This technology is applicable where ever finding facts in large volumes of text is critical, e.g. analysing surveillance material. Advanced search tools will have considerable academic and industrial impact.Read moreRead less
New methodologies for representing and accessing resources on endangered languages: a case study from South Efate. Linguists produce material which has immense cultural significance as it is often the only record of endangered cultures. With new technologies come new ways of working with indigenous languages. This APD will develop an innovative methodology for documenting and archiving data from a language of the Pacific. It will do this by linking a dictionary, texts, audio, video, images and a ....New methodologies for representing and accessing resources on endangered languages: a case study from South Efate. Linguists produce material which has immense cultural significance as it is often the only record of endangered cultures. With new technologies come new ways of working with indigenous languages. This APD will develop an innovative methodology for documenting and archiving data from a language of the Pacific. It will do this by linking a dictionary, texts, audio, video, images and a grammar to facilitate presentation of both the data and its analysis to speakers, fellow linguists, and the general public. The methodology developed in this APD will result in innovative linguistic data management techniques conformant to emerging international standards.Read moreRead less
Ask the Net: Intelligent Natural Language Learning. Natural Language Processing (NLP) has progressed rapidly using corpus-based machine learning techniques. However, corpus development costs cause a ?data bottleneck? which prevents systems from reaching human competence. This project overcomes the difficulties of creating huge corpora by employing the innate language ability of untrained contributors. We will show how to automatically select and present examples, containing informative lingui ....Ask the Net: Intelligent Natural Language Learning. Natural Language Processing (NLP) has progressed rapidly using corpus-based machine learning techniques. However, corpus development costs cause a ?data bottleneck? which prevents systems from reaching human competence. This project overcomes the difficulties of creating huge corpora by employing the innate language ability of untrained contributors. We will show how to automatically select and present examples, containing informative linguistic structures, which are most beneficial for training NLP systems. These examples will be analysed by many contributors whose responses will be automatically collated into corpora. Huge corpora are vital to emerging language technologies for managing textual information in the global economy.
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ARC Research Network for Enabling Human Communication. The Human Communication Network promotes interdisciplinary research in speech, language, and sound by and between humans and machines. The network connects leading and emerging researchers across disciplines, exploits previously unrecognised intersections, supports interdisciplinary graduate training and exchanges, provides database storage infrastructure, and consults with industry and government to set, not follow, research agendas. By ge ....ARC Research Network for Enabling Human Communication. The Human Communication Network promotes interdisciplinary research in speech, language, and sound by and between humans and machines. The network connects leading and emerging researchers across disciplines, exploits previously unrecognised intersections, supports interdisciplinary graduate training and exchanges, provides database storage infrastructure, and consults with industry and government to set, not follow, research agendas. By generating an explosion of new approaches and knowledge, the network will build Australia's reputation as a leader in communication science and technology via advances in automatic speech recognition, distress call monitoring, hearing prostheses, web interfaces, and data retrieval and data mining systems.Read moreRead less