New book by Alessandro Lenci and Magnus Sahlgren published

Authors: Alessandro Lenci and Magnus Sahlgren
Title: Distributional Semantics (Studies in Natural Language Processing)
Editor: Cambridge University Press
Accces to book: here>

Distributional semantics develops theories and methods to represent the meaning of natural language expressions, with vectors encoding their statistical distribution in linguistic contexts. It is at once a theoretical model to express meaning, a practical methodology to construct semantic representations, a computational framework for acquiring meaning from language data, and a cognitive hypothesis about the role of language usage in shaping meaning.

This book aims to build a common understanding of the theoretical and methodological foundations of distributional semantics. Beginning with its historical origins, the text exemplifies how the distributional approach is implemented in distributional semantic models. The main types of computational models, including modern deep learning ones, are described and evaluated, demonstrating how various types of semantic issues are addressed by those models. Open problems and challenges are also analyzed. Students and researchers in natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science will appreciate this book.

By |2023-09-28T14:21:34+02:0025 Sep, 2023|NEWS, POP, PUBLICATIONS|

The Language of Siri

In October 2020, the 18th edition of the Genova Popular Science Festival took place. In the context of this event, AILC presented on 22 and 23 October the dissemination workshop “Il linguaggio di Siri” (The language of Siri).

The activities presented aimed at introducing high school students to (computational) linguistics. The workshop focused on highlighting possibilities and limits of the computational representation and analysis of language, with interactive games, quizes, and concrete examples of computational modeling of linguistic problems.

The (online) workshop was attended by 5 classes from high schools from Genoa and its surroundings, for a total of about 150 people, including students and teachers. The feedback received will allow us to bring our scientific dissemination activities to a level that is increasingly suited to the needs and interests of students in the future.

The workshop was created by Ludovica Pannitto, Lucia Busso, Claudia Roberta Combei, Mirko Lai, Lucio Messina, and Malvina Nissim.

For a detailed analysis of the themes presented at the Festival, please refer to these slides (in Italian).

By |2020-10-27T11:37:47+01:0029 Apr, 2023|NEWS, POP NEWS|

New book by Fabio Tamburini published

Author: Fabio Tamburini
Title: Neural Models for the Automatic Processing of Italian
Editor: Pàtron editore
Access to book: here>

The volume reports the author’s research experiences and experiments in developing solutions in the various areas of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing. The book focuses mainly on applications based on Deep Neural Networks, but contrasting these approaches with the methodologies used in the past, and it is organised in such a way as to both describe the state of the art in this discipline, examining the studies proposed by the author, and to outline a useful path also for the training of young scholars and students. Following the same spirit, the volume can be profitably read both by people more concentrated on humanistic studies and people with more technical interests.

By |2023-09-28T14:33:31+02:0028 Oct, 2022|NEWS, POP, PUBLICATIONS|

New book by Malvina Nissim and Ludovica Pannitto published

Author: Malvina Nissim and Ludovica Pannitto
Title: Che cos’è la linguistica computazionale / What is Computational Linguistics
Editor: Carocci
Access to boook: here>

Commonly used devices, such as virtual assistants and automatic translators, are based on the ability to use and produce language automatically. The key science in the development of such technologies is computational linguistics.

The volume, through the analysis of the most recent theories and methods, offers to interested readers and scholars technical and critical tools to approach the discipline. The understanding of the functioning and limits of language technologies constitutes, in fact, the basis for greater awareness in their daily use, reminding us that we humans are not only the recipients but, by creating linguistic data, also the protagonists of the development process of technologies.

By |2023-09-28T14:31:12+02:001 Aug, 2022|NEWS, POP, PUBLICATIONS|

AILC @ Festival di Genova 2020

On the 22nd and 23rd of October 2020, as part of the 18th edition of the popular science event “Festival della Scienza di Genova”, AILC will present a workshop entitled “Il linguaggio di Siri (The language of Siri)”.

Our activities are aimed at introducing high-school students to (computational) linguistics. Concrete examples of computational modelling of language tasks as well as interactive games will be employed to illustrate the opportunities and the limits of language analysis and representation.
The laboratory was designed and built by Ludovica Pannitto, Lucia Busso,  Claudia Roberta Combei, Mirko Lai, Lucio Messina, and Malvina Nissim.
Further details on the topics presented at the festival are available in this presentation presentation (in Italian).

By |2021-12-21T14:22:08+01:0016 Oct, 2020|NEWS, POP NEWS|

AILC @ SISSA, Student Day 2020

On 13 February the Italian Association of Computational Linguistics participated in the Student Day of the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste. Its aim was to introduce fourth and fifth year’s students to research in the field of computational linguistics and to its key role in technological advancement.

During the event SISSA hosted more than 500 students from various secondary schools in the Triveneto area. This annual appointment aims at making boys and girls discover the practical applications of science, thanks to the testimonials offered by its protagonists, the researchers, in one of the most prestigious scientific institutes on the Italian territory.

In this context, AILC proposed the interactive presentation “Hey Siri, what is computational linguistics?”, combining historical and theoretical notions regarding computational linguistics with a practical demonstration of the statistical properties of language.

At the end of the presentation, which was extremely successful, an informative session took place to introduce students to the educational offers of various Italian institutes and universities active in this area.

Thanks in particular to Gabriele Sarti for giving the talk on behalf of AILC at this event. We would also like to thank to the other PhD students and young researchers who contribute to the dissemination activities of the Association: Ludovica Pannitto, Lucia Busso, Roberta Combei, and Alessio Miaschi .

By |2020-04-02T12:37:26+02:0019 Feb, 2020|NEWS, POP NEWS|

AILC is in BergamoScienza!

Bergamo Scienza 2019

As a part of the XVII edition of the “Bergamo Scienza” scientific dissemination festival, AILC organized a workshop entitled “Do not say málvísindi if you do not have it in the bag”, aimed at boys and girls from the eighth grade upwards, to approach them to (computational) linguistics.

The intent of the laboratory is to provide concrete and tangible examples of computational modeling of linguistic problems, which highlight the possibilities and limitations related to the analysis and representation of language: through the solution of various puzzles, participants and participants will be challenged with Markov chains, analyzing syntactic and automatic translation, arriving at the solution of a thorny enigma.

The Laboratory was conceived and organized by Lucia Busso, Ludovica Pannitto and Roberta Combei.

By |2020-04-02T12:39:06+02:0019 Sep, 2019|NEWS, POP NEWS|

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