Vol 1 Issue 5 (pdf – 3.53MB) - CNGL

VOL 01 ISSUE05QUARTER 4 2011Subscribe toCNGLNews!CNGLNewsQUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRE FOR NEXT GENERATION LOCALISATION (CNGL)this issueMr Richard Bruton, T.D.,Minister for Jobs,Enterprise and Innovaon,addresses delegates at theCNGL LocalisaonInnovaon Showcase atCroke Park, Dublin inNovemberThe Minister for Jobs,Enterprise & Innovation, MrRichard Bruton T.D. hashighlighted the value of localisationto Irish industry and commended thehigh quality of research at CNGL.Speaking at the CNGL LocalisationInnovation Showcase on 16thNovember, Minister Bruton stated thatthe sector employs approximately15,000 in Ireland and is worth anestimated €680million to the economyper year.CNGL is currently preparingproposals for a new cycleof research, developmentand innovation under ScienceFoundation Ireland’s programmes inconsultation with industry partnersand collaborators.We intend to build upon the significantsuccess in research andcommercialisation of CNGL to date andto propel world-class innovation acrossthe ‘Global Content Value Chain’spanning content Creation, Curation,Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovationhails value of Localisation to IrelandDiscovery, Analysis, Translation &Localisation, Personalisation and Multimodal(mobile) delivery. We envision a framework for‘Global Content Intelligence’.Increasingly, organisations are realising thatthey must “give up the illusion of control” andengage proactively with the people, processesand technologies of the global content valuechain without the traditional boundaries androles of corporate/consumer stakeholders.We are currently conducting stakeholderengagement on this theme. If you areinterested in participating, please contact us.Headline News P.1Partnerships & Commercialisation P.2Awards P.3Education & Outreach P.4Research Track Updates P.5 - P.6AGIS 2011 P.8Conferences & Workshops P.9– P.10Looking Ahead: Towards ‘Global Content Intelligence’Affiliated Project: PLuTO P.12Upcoming Events P.13Minister Bruton attended the showcase atCroke Park Conference Centre, Dublin to viewnumber of jobs our research can create”,he added.first-hand the economic andCommercialisation was very“Localisaon employssocial impact of investment inmuch the focus of this year’sapproximately 15,000CNGL’s research programme.Localisation Innovationpeople in Ireland and is“I am delighted to see that worth an esmatedShowcase. The event wasstart-up companies are being €680m per year to theattended by representativescreated from this research, as economy”from 53 organisations, for whomwell as an impressive number of‐ Minister Bruton the CNGL showcases haveinvention disclosures, licensingbecome particularly fertileagreements and patent applications”, saidMinister Bruton. “We must now build on thatrecord and be highly ambitious about thegrounds in which to find new productofferings or seek solutions to specificindustry problems.Read MoreRead Morewww.cngl.ie1

Partnerships and CommercialisationPictured at the SFI Summit are (from left)Steve Gotz, CNGL; Sean Sherlock, T.D.Minister of State, Department of Enterprise,Jobs & Innovation and Department of Education& Skills with responsibility for Research &Innovation; Alexander O’Connor, CNGL; andGraham Love, Director General of SFICNGL Spinout Showcased at 2011 SFI SummitEmizar.com to enable Fortune 500 companies to reduce costs and increase customer satisfactionThe SFI Summit is an annualtwo‐day meeng for Ireland’sleading researchers to discussand debate new horizons for scienceand society. This year’s event wasparcularly focused upon how theresearch community can best impactand support Ireland’s economic, socialand reputaonal recovery. In line withthat theme, CNGL researchers were onhand at the event to demonstrate oneof our emerging spinouts that isexpected to generate up to fiveknowledge‐intensive jobs in thecoming year.Emizar.com is a CNGL spinout fromTrinity College Dublin, promoted byProf. Vincent Wade and EnterpriseIreland Business Partner Brian Kelly,transforming on‐going CNGL researchinto a commercial offering that enablesFortune 500 companies to reduce costsand increase consumer sasfacon byproviding superior customer careexperiences. The spinout leveragescung‐edge CNGL technologies whichfuse proprietary corporate databasesand complimentary corporate assetswith user‐generated content to deliverreal‐me, personalised soluons.At the SFI Summit CNGL CommercialDevelopment Manager, Steve Gotz, andTCD Postdoctoral Researcher, DrAlexander O’Connor, presentedEmizar.com to SFI Director General,Dr Graham Love, and Sean SherlockT.D., Minister of State, Departmentof Enterprise, Jobs & Innovaon andDepartment of Educaon & Skillswith responsibility for Research &Innovaon."This is a defining me for academicR&D both within Ireland and thebroader EU, parcularly with regardto the need for impacul research”,said Gotz. “Emizar is but oneexample of how we are aligning ourresearch programme to deliver notonly commercially relevant productsbut also an economic return to thestate."CNGL Researchers on Path to Commercialisation€215k in funding secured from TIDA Feasibility Study AwardIn December three CNGL enable researchers to focus on the firstresearch teams were awarded a steps of an applied research project thatcombined €215k in funding to may have a commercial benefit ifbegin the process of commercialising further developed.their research, under the TechnologyInnovaon Development (TIDA) The funded CNGL teams will beFeasibility Study programme.developing commercial prototypes inthe areas of machine translaon andThe TIDA Feasibility Study award is translaon memory integraon, crosssitecontent personalisaon, anda joint programme, run by ScienceFoundaon Ireland (SFI) and mullingual customer care.Enterprise Ireland (EI), designed towww.cngl.ie2

www.cngl.ie 3AwardsEva Szekely wins National ‘Thesis in 3’ CompetitionSuccess is inthe Air!Eva Szekely, a CNGL PhDstudent based in UCD,beat off sff compeonfrom 24 other PhD students fromCSETs around Ireland to win thenaonal Thesis in Threecompeon on 9th November.Talented communicators fromthe 9 SFI‐funded Centres forScience, Engineering andTechnology presented theirresearch in bite‐sized chunks ‐three slides in three minutes. Theaudience of 300 people enjoyed averitable communicaons masterclass at the Mansion House,Dublin.Eva won first place in thecompeon for herpresentaon "Voices thatSpeak for You", whichdescribed her work on infusingemoon inspeech synthesis.Eva's researchaims to createexpressivespeech synthesisEva presented herwinning pitch at theSFI Summit infrom audiobook Novemberrecordings andthen to personalise this toindividual user needs. Eva hasdeveloped techniques thatanalyse the voice quality fromopen source audio books todetect different styles such asa cheerful, calm or forcefulPresent your work inthree minutes using justthree slides—this is thechallenge posed by theThesis in 3 compeon,in which CNGL’s EvaSzekely excelled lastmonthvoice. She is then able to usethis analysis to parameterisespeech synthesis systems todynamically produce speechin the requiredstyle. This willallow futurespeech synthesissystems to speakto peopleexpressively inaccordance totheir personal preferencesand the requirements of thecontent being spoken.“As well as supporng speechsynthesis for audio books, thisresearch has great potenal inCNGL students recordedconsiderable successthis quarter with winsin naonal andinternaonalcompeons. Chiefamong them were EvaSzekely’s ‘Thesis in 3’win and Yifan He‘s ‘LRCBest Thesis Award’applicaons such as speech‐tospeechtranslaon, human‐robotinteracon and support for thosewith speech impairments”,explains Eva.Also represenng CNGL at thenaonal final were HannaBechara ("Recycling MachineTranslaon") and Wei Li("Retrieval Rescued byRecommendaon”).Eva was invited to deliver herwinning presentaon at the SFISummit 2011 in Athlone inNovember. Many senioracademics in aendancecommented on the high qualityof Eva’s content and delivery.Yifan He wins LRC Best Thesis AwardYifan He of CNGL has beenannounced Winner of the LRCBest Thesis Award 2011. Yifan’swin makes it four-in-a-row forCNGL students based at DCU.Yifan made history earlier thisyear when he became the firstCNGL student to complete hisPhD viva, under thesupervision of Prof Andy Wayand Prof Josef van Genabith.His thesis is titled ‘TheIntegration of MachineTranslation and TranslationMemory’. The work focuses onthree aspects: 1) translationrecommendation andtranslation re-ranking modelsthat can access high qualityMT outputs in the TMenvironment, 2) a subsegmenttranslationmemory and machinetranslation integrationmodel that improvesboth translationThe LRC thanked SymantecIreland for its generousYifan’s winmakes itfour‐in‐a‐row forCNGL studentssponsorship of theaward for thefifteenthconsecutive year.Symantec’ssponsorship hasconsistency and translation made this award the mostquality, and 3) a human successful and longest runningevaluation pipeline to validate award in the industry, attractingthe effectiveness of his models a significant number ofwith human judgments.international entries.

Education and Outreach700 Students to test their Minds with AILO 2012Surge in interest sees annual increasein registrations of over 30%The popularity of CNGL’s AllIreland Linguiscs Olympiadappears to know no bounds. Arigorous markeng campaign,launched in September, hasproduced a surge in enquiriesand registraons for the novelsecondaryschoolscompeon. Todate more than700 studentsfrom 57 schools across 22counes have registered forthe 2012 season. Thisrepresents a 30% increase over2011 figures.“We are delighted that somany students will this yearhave the opportunity to samplethe field of linguiscs forthemselves and to developtheir own strategies for solvingproblems in fascinanglanguages from around theRegister nowat www.cngl.ie/ailoglobe”, says CNGL Educaon &Outreach Manager, CaraGreene.As well as appealing tolanguage teachers, thecompeon is now aracngsignificant interest fromguidancecounsellors inschools, whoappreciate thecompeon’spotenal for honing students’so skills in areas such asproblem solving and teamwork. At the IBEC/Instute ofGuidance Counsellors CareersDay in Cork last month, theAILO stand was inundatedwith informaon requestsrelang to the compeon.Parcipang schools willhost qualifying rounds inFebruary, with the top 100students selected to competeat the naonal finals of thecompeon at DCU in March.The four best performers atthe naonal finals will beselected to represent Irelandat the Internaonal LinguiscsOlympiad in Slovenia in June2012.The deadline for registraonfor the 2012 season of the AllIreland Linguiscs Olympiad is20th January 2012. Registeronline at www.cngl.ie/ailoCNGL Projects added toESOF 2012 Dublin Cityof Science ProgrammeCNGL was successful inboth its submissions to theCall for Proposals for DublinCity of Science 2012.The All Ireland LinguisticsOlympiad will be on thePublic EngagementProgramme, while CNGL’sLocalisation InnovationShowcase 2012 will featureon SFI’s Conference andWorkshops Programme.For more on ESOF 2012Dublin City Of Science, seewww.dublinscience2012.ieFinal Preparations forComputeTY 2012CNGL Autumn Scientific Committee MeetingCNGL held its postdocs on the themesMike DillingerAutumn Scientific ‘Content Intelligence & Social—Committee Meeting Analytical Annotation’, ‘Contenton 17th-18th November at the & Social—Content Delivery’,Science Gallery, Dublin 2. Themeeting brought together CNGL‘Language—ContentTransformation’, and ‘Systemresearchers, management, Communication—Digitalindustry partners, internationalcollaborators and members ofTechnologies’.Day 2 was very much about money in the proposals displayingour Industry Advisory Board, to the future. The enjoyable the most potential. Mike Dillinger,share their work and to plot ‘Dragon’s Den’ format saw track Principal at TOPs Globalizationfuturedirections. leaders and industry partners Consulting, delivered a fascinatingDay 1 featured presentations delivering scientific pitches and keynote presentation.by PhD candidates and attendees ’investing’ theirwww.cngl.ieJanuary will be a busy monthat DCU School of Computing,as 480 Transition Yearstudents take the weeklongComputeTY web design andprogramming course. CNGLcontributes to theorganisation, content designand funding of ComputeTY.The course runs from 9thJanuary – 4th February 2012.4

CNGL Research Track UpdatesDigital Content Management (DCM)Prototype development and research commercialisationwere notable outputs of Q4 for DCMDCM researchers reportedsignificant interacon withpotenal new industry partners atthe CNGL Innovaon Showcase inNovember. DCM researchers presented awide range of innovave prototypes andservices at the event.Substanal progress has been made on DCMprototypes from both a scienfic andindustrial perspecve. We planned andexecuted trials of PersonalisedMullingual Customer Care based on arange of novice to experienced Norton360 users. The first version of thePersonalisaon‐as‐a‐Service prototype isnow close to compleon.DCM researchers have prepared finalsubmissions of revised journal papers tohigh impact journals this quarter, and apaper has been accepted to ACM’sCompung Surveys.We have executed a collaboraonagreement with HMH on PersonalisedPortals for Informal Learning, whichinvolves the set up of a trial of DCMtechnology to support nextgeneraon learning and digitalcuraon.Commercialisaon of DCM researchconnues apace. PersonalisedMullingual Customer Care spin‐outEmizar has moved to BusinessPartnership and Business Modelmode. SFI Technology InnovaonDevelopment Award (TIDA) grantsto the value of €130,000 have beensecured for Emizar andPersonalisaon‐as‐a‐Service.Next Generation Localisation (LOC)To the fore this quarter were publications, internationalpresentations and component integrationLOC researchers contributedsignificantly to the Action Weekfor Global Information Sharing(AGIS) 2011, which was hosted by UNECAin Ethiopia in early December. The eventconnected Africa’s language industry,decision makers and researchers withmainstream localisation and translationindustries and researchers. Read a reviewof AGIS’11 by LOC Track Leader,Reinhard Schäler, on page 8.There was a strong showing from the LOCresearch group this quarter in terms ofpublications and presentations. A peerreviewedjournal paper has been acceptedto Localisation Focus, which is due forpublication shortly. LOC papers will also bepublished in the 2011 issue of the Journalof Internationalisation and Localisation(JIAL), in proceedings of ASLIB Translatingand the Computer, in theTradumatica Journal, and in theJournal of Information Science.A conference paper proposalhas been accepted by the panelof the IATIS 2012 Conference.CNGL spin-out activity, TheRosetta Foundation, exhibited atthe Localization World Silicon ValleyConference in October and ran a preconferenceworkshop. In addition, theSolas innovation platform was shown in aspecial Demo Derby session. The eventprovided great exposure for the SOLASplatform and enabled us to establish newindustry contacts.LOC researchers have been busycoordinating cross-strand collaborationfrom a component perspective – from botha Solas-centric viewpoint, and in terms ofwww.cngl.ieoverall CNGL componentintegration. We have helddiscussions with the SystemsFramework track regarding theapplication of their user studiesexpertise to community-basedlocalisation workflow interfaces.On the Tech Transfer front,Translation eXchange (now SolasMatch) has completed its 6-monthsoftware innovation disclosureperiod, and is now in a position fortech transfer.5

Systems Framework (SF)To the forefront this quarter were medicalinterpreting and the Wizard of Oz platformSF researchers report goodprogress on evaluaon of theWizard of Oz plaorm thisquarter. This includes the interviewingof speech applicaon developers andvoice interface designers inconnecon with the plaorm. A paperon the WOZ plaorm was submiedto ACM SIGCHI Conference on HumanFactors in Compung Systems (CHI2012).Contacts with various hospitals inIreland and the US have beenestablished, with a view to shadowingand interviewing medical interpreters.Ilana Rozanes presented a paper onpotenal uses of language technologyCNGL Research Track Updatesin medical interpreng at the HealthInformacs Society of Ireland (HISI)Annual Conference in November.Dr Bridget Kane of TCD’s Knowledgeand Data Engineering Group will joinCNGL on ashort‐termcontract toSF researchers havestrengthened their collaborationinvesgatepotenalwith the LOC track onuses of collaborative work in translationlanguagetechnology in health informacs.SF researchers have strengthened theircollaboraon with LOC track oncooperave work in translaon, buildingon fieldwork undertaken by SF andsoware and requirements workcompleted by LOC in the context ofCNGL spinout acvity, the RoseaFoundaon.On the publicaons front, a paper onalignment in S2S translaon systemshas been accepted to the InternaonalWorkshop on Spoken LanguageTranslaon (IWSLT 2012).Integrated Language Technology (ILT)Publication and funding success were themajor themes of Q4 for ILTILT researchers have been prolificon the publicaons front in Q4,with papers accepted to the IEEEInternaonal Conference on NaturalLanguage Processing and KnowledgeEngineering (NLPKE) and the journal‘Machine Translaon’. 10 papers havealso been submied to peer‐reviewedinternaonal conferences andworkshops.Strong engagement with the Centre’sindustry partners includes connuedinteracon with VistaTEC/DigitalLinguiscs over licensed technologies,and further progress on linguiscfeatures of futureforum leader posngsin conjuncon withSymantec.ILT researchers have kept anopen door to collaboration withadditional industry partners andIn addion, ILTresearchers have keptan open door to collaboraon withaddional industry partners and EU FP7interacons. The Enterprise IrelandInnovaon Voucher project withVocalycs has been completed. Thegrant agreement for the LT‐WEB FP7project has been signed, and thenegoaon meeng for the QTLaunchEU FP7 interactionsPad FP7 project was successful.SFI TIDA funding has beensecured for a project concerning theIntegraon of MachineTranslaon Memories(based on the work ofYifan He). This will coverthe cost of 1postdoctoral researcherand 1 research assistantfor 12 months.The CNGL‐affiliated project PatentLanguage Translaons Online(PLuTO) has received funding for avising Chinese postdoc from HongKong University under the SFI shorttermtravel fellow scheme.www.cngl.ie6

Welcome to:In BriefSTAFF NEWSPUBLICATIONSCNGL enjoys considerablesuccess with researchpublicaons. To view fulldetails of our publicaonshistory, and to downloadcopies of our publicaons, visit:www.cngl.ie/researchpub.htmlFUNDING AWARDSTHIS QUARTER Zinopy Ltd. InnovaonVoucher received byDeirdre Hogan of DCU £4,514 grant receivedfrom the Welsh LanguageBoard to design andexecute an evaluaon taskfor different MT vendors,and to develop a linguiscdiagnosc evaluaontoolkit for Welsh EI Innovaon PartnershipProject of 15 months’duraon awarded toDeirdre Hogan of DCU,value €230,000 IRCSET PhD sponsorship inconjuncon withSymantec, value €72,000 EAMT Award to AntonioToral of DCU, value€2,000Amelie Dorn, who has joined TCD as PhD Lorraine Goeuriot, who joins DCU ascandidate under the supervision of Ailbhe Ní Postdoctoral Researcher on the CNGL-affiliatedChasaide.Kreshmoi project.Farewell to:Özlem Çetinoğlu, Postdoctoral Researcher with ILT3, who departed DCU recentlyto join the Institut für Maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung at Universität StuttgartCongratulations to:Asanka Wasala, LOC PhD candidate at UL, who became a dad to babySiluni last month. Best wishes to Asanka and his wife Menaka.Stephen Doherty of ILT, who successfully defended his PhD in November.Stephen was supervised by Dr Dorothy Kenny and Dr Sharon O’Brien at DCU.Tsuyoshi Okita of ILT, who completed his PhD viva this quarter under thesupervision of Prof. Andy Way at DCU.METADATA GROUPThe CNGL Metadata Group (MDG) aims demonstraon systems of CNGL.to work towards collecng, recordingThe Metadata Group has modeled theand documenng the usage andcollaborave research conducted in CNGLapplicaon of metadata across the demonstratortheorecally, instanated it into electronicsystems and research conducted as part of CNGL.Previous experiments have been conducted intodocumenng and building semanc models ofCNGL in terms of content, services and properes.The results of this work proved highly useful forvisualising the overall informaon flow in CNGL.models, and is deploying these models at thecore of demonstraon research. This researchaims to e together research systems andprovide a framework for data sharing, mark‐upand expansion. Evaluaon of such an approachwill be conducted via use‐cases that highlight theThe Metadata Group is currently applying ability to query across the models and thuselectronic versions of these conceptual models in anumber of different demonstraon systems. Thisresearch is being conducted to link together thedemonstrate the linking of collaborave researchthat was previously paroned via their usage oftechnology but linked through their CNGL‐widedifferent demonstrators, through common semancs.semancs. By using Resource DescriponFor more informaon, contactFramework (RDF) modeling, similaries and sharedDominic.Jones@cs.tcd.ie.resources can be quanfied across the differentwww.cngl.ie 7

Action Week for Global Information Sharing (AGIS’11)CNGL researchers at theUniversity of Limerick coorganisedAGIS’11—The AconWeek for Global InformaonSharing—earlier this month inEthiopia. Here, Reinhard Schälerof UL reviews the conference...Did you know that, over the pastdecade, six of the world’s tenfastest‐growing countries wereAfrican; and that with 600 million mobilephone users, Africa has overtaken Americaand Europe? It is because of our ignoranceof Africa that the hoest connent is sll noton the radar of mainstream localisaon. Thisbecame clear at the recent GALA‐ andLocalizaon World‐supported Acon forGlobal Informaon Sharing event (AGIS ’11),hosted by the UN’s Economic Commissionfor Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, coorganisedby the Localisaon ResearchCentre (LRC) and supported by CNGL.Africa is the cradle of humanity, thebirthplace of human language and, withclose to 3,000 languages, the world’s mostdiverse linguisc connent. Earlier thismonth close to 200 delegates gathered inthe Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, tocelebrate the Third Acon for GlobalInformaon Sharing (AGIS ’11). The UN’sEconomic Commission for Africa hosted theevent, which was opened by the EthiopianMinister for IT; the Irish Ambassador toEthiopia; the Director of ICT Science andTechnology (ECA); and the Director of theLocalisaon Research Centre (LRC) at theUniversity of Limerick.For the first me, AGIS ’11 connectedAfrica’s language industry, decision makersand researchers with the mainstreamlocalisaon and translaon industries andresearchers. Ethiopia’s Minister for IT, in hisopening address, stressed theimportance of Ethiopia’s two hundredlanguages for the economicdevelopment of his country. The IrishAmbassador stressed the important roleour country, with a populaon smallerthan that of Addis, sees in the economicand cultural development of Ethiopia,and pledged Ireland’s connued supportfor a mullingual Africa. Ireland’ssupport of AGIS ’11 was acknowledgedby many speakers, among them thesecretary of the Academy of AfricanLanguages.Pictured right are Reinhard Schäler, Chris Extonand Solomon Gizaw of CNGL with HansFenstermacher of GALA and local farmersLocalisaon (CNGL), withMullingual Compung as themedia sponsors.Delegates agreed that AGIS ’11 willsignify the beginning of a number ofcollaboraon iniaves andestablished the AGIS Network tofacilitate informaon andknowledge exchange. UNECA andthe LRC signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding to support thesedevelopments; a furthermemorandum is planned with theAcademy of African Languages inthe near future.The eventwas jointlyIreland’s support of AGIS’11 Concrete discussions areorganised byalready on the way to explorethe United was acknowledged by manyjoint acons to promote theNaons’ ECAspeakers, among them the work of Africa’s vibrant(UNECA), CDAClanguage and localisaonPune, and thesecretary of the Academy ofcommunies within GALA,LRC/CNGL. It African Languagesand to involve GALA muchwas supportedcloser in the preparaons for AGISby a wide range of African organisaons,’12. AGIS ’12 will take place in Sriincluding the African Network forLanka on 10th‐11th December 2012.Localizaon (ANLoc), the AfricanSave the date!Language Technology Network (AfLaT),and the Internet Society (Africa); Read Reinhard Schäler’s fullWestern organisaons supporng the review of AGIS’11event included the world’s largestNote: AGIS ’11 would not haveindustry associaon, the Globalizaonhappened without the dedication andand Localizaon Associaon (GALA), thesupport of Solomon Gizaw, a CNGLworld’s largest industry event organiser,Localizaon World, and the worldleadingCentre for Next GeneraonPhD student at the LocalisationResearch Centre of the University ofLimerick.www.cngl.ie8

CNGL and EM+ bringMachine Translaonto the UserThe Directorate‐General forTranslaon of the EuropeanCommission hosted the ThirdJoint EuroMatrix+/CNGLWorkshop on 12th October2011 in Luxembourg.Conferences and WorkshopsDCU hosts IWPT, the biennial conference on allthings related to natural language parsingTitled ‘Bringing MT to theUser’, JEC 2011 broughttogether translators, users,academic and industrialMachine Translaon (MT)researchers and developers todiscuss issues that are mostimportant in industrial sengsand applicaons involving MT,but currently under‐representedin research circles.Josef van Genabith, DeclanGroves, Pavel Pecina and JohnTinsley of CNGL served on theJEC Program Commiee.Federico Gaspari, Antonio Toraland Sudip Kumar Naskardelivered a very insighulpresentaon on ‘User‐FocusedTask‐Oriented MT Evaluaon forWikis: A Case Study’.CNGL deliversWorkshop at FIRE2011CNGL researchers DebasisGanguly, Johannes Leveling andGareth Jones organised a trackon Collaborave InformaonRetrieval at the Forum onInformaon Retrieval (FIRE)2011, which took place on 2nd—4th December in Bombay, India.Gareth Jones was invitedspeaker. Gareth also served onthe Steering Commiee, as didTony Veale of UCD.Congratulations to DeirdreHogan, Johannes Leveling,Paul Ferguson and CathalGurrin (CLARITY), who wereplaced 1st of 13 participantsin the SMS-based FAQretrieval task, organised byIBM India.Further DetailsThe National Centre forLanguage Technologyin DCU organised the12th International Workshop onParsing Technologies (IWPT),which took place from 5th - 7thOctober 2011 in the Helix, DCU.CNGL researchers had a stronginput into the organisation anddelivery of the event.IWPT is the biennial conferenceon all things related to naturallanguage parsing, a cornerstonetechnology in the field of NaturalLanguage Processing which is usedin applications such as machinetranslation, question-answering andsentiment analysis.The conference was a resoundingsuccess, with 60 participants fromacademia and industry (Google,Symantec) coming together todiscuss the latest developments inparsing Arabic, Basque, Chinese,Danish, Dutch, English, French,Harry Bunt of Tilburg University(General Chair), Özlem Çetinoğluof CNGL (Local ArrangementsChair) and Joakim Nivre ofUppsala University (ProgramChair)German, Hindi, Spanish, Swedish delegates the opportunity toand Turkish.experience the Dublin countrysideand, for some, their first taste ofThe conference featured threeIrish dancing.excellent invited talks by InaBornkessel-Schlesewsky (Philipps Many thanks are due to IWPT’s-Universität Marburg, Germany) sponsors (SFI, DCU, CNGL,on the human parsing mechanism, Springer, Fáilte Ireland), to theMichael Collins (Columbia Programme Chair, Joakim NivreUniversity, USA) on the use of (Uppsala University, Sweden), forLagrangianputting together such aIWPT 2011 connues therelaxation instrong and variedtradion of biennialparsing andprogramme, and toconferences organised bymachineLocal Chair, ÖzlemSIGPARSE, ACL’s Specialtranslation, andÇetinoğlu (then CNGL,Interest Group on ParsingMark Steedmannow IMS Stuttgart), for(University of Edinburgh, UK) oncomputing scope in parsing.doing an outstanding job of leadingthe local arrangements team.CNGL researchers also featuredThe second Internationalon the workshop programme.Workshop on Statistical Parsing ofJennifer Foster, ÖzlemMorphologically Rich LanguagesÇetinoğlu, Joachim Wagner and(SPMRL) was held during theJosef van Genabith presentedsecond afternoon of IWPT andincluded a lively discussion panel.The conference dinner took place‘Comparing the Use of Edited andUnedited Text in Parser Self-Training’.in Johnny Fox’s Pub, givingwww.cngl.ieThis workshop review was kindlyprovided by Dr Jennifer Foster ofDCU.Online proceedings can be obtained from:www.aclweb.org/anthology/sigparse#2011.89

Conferences and WorkshopsGareth Jones of DCU co-organises MediaEval 2011Gareth Jones (DCU)with Martha Larson(TU Delft) organisedthe MediaEval 2011 campaignwhich concluded with a verysuccessful workshop in Pisa, Italyin September. MediaEval is aninternationalmultimediafocuses on social and human RFP IISSCoStasks were offered in the 2011 organiser and participantseason: Placing Task, Spoken presentations, the workshopWeb Search Task, Affect Task, included a practitioners’Social Event Detection Task, session in which projects,Genre Tagging Task, and RichSpeech Retrieval Task. TheRich Speech Retrieval Task wasresearch sites and industrygroups that are involved withMediaEval related tasks orco-organised by Maria Eskevich technologies presentedaspects of multimedia and strivesto emphasise the ‘multi’ inmultimedia, including the use ofspeech, audio, tags, users, andcontext, as well as visual content.MediaEval seeks to encouragenovel and creative approaches totackling these new and emergingmultimedia tasks. MediaEval waslaunched as an independentbenchmarking campaign in 2010with sponsorship by the EUPetaMedia NoE.MediaEval 2011 offered 6 taskscoordinated in cooperation withvarious research groups in Europeand elsewhere. The followingproject andRoelandOdelman of thepanel discussion on Non‐benchmarking initiative that offers (DCU) PhDoverviews of theirMediaEval focuses oninnovative new content analysis, student withwork and ideas.indexing and search tasks to the the CNGLaffiliatedSFI aspects of multimedia proceedings forthe social and human The working notesmultimedia community. MediaEvaltheMediaEval 2011and strives to emphasiseworkshop arethe ‘multi’ in multimediaavailable on onlineat: http://ceur-Netherlands Institute for Sound& Vision.ws.org/Vol-807The MediaEval organisersThe MediaEval 2011 are now beginningworkshop was an official preparations for MediaEvalsatellite event of Interspeech2011. The workshop broughttogether the task participants toreport on their findings, discuss2012. This will begin with aquestionnaire to the communityseeking its views on proposedtasks and research questions.their approaches and learn from Feedback from theeach other. Almost 60 questionnaire will be used toparticipants attended the determine the research agendaworkshop — representing a for the campaign. Furthertwofold increase on the 2010 details are available at:workshop. In addition to www.multimediaeval.org.CNGL PermeatesProgramme atLocalizaon WorldSilicon ValleyCNGL had a strongpresence at LocalizaonWorld Silicon Valley,which ran from 10th‐12thOctober in Santa Clara.David Filip of ULcontributed to twosessions focused onstandards. Eoin Ó Conchúirand Reinhard Schäler (alsoof UL)presented a preconferenceworkshoptled ‘Give Up the Illusionof Control: How to SupportUser‐driven, Needs‐basedTranslaonLocalizaonandScenarios!’Eoin also presented SOLASat the Demo Derby, andReinhard joined the livelyProfit Contribuons for aNon‐Profit World’.The CNGL booth in theindustrial exhibitors’ hallwas also busy throughoutthe event.www.cngl.ie10

PLuTO: Patent Language Translations OnlineThe CNGL-affiliated PLuTO project is developing advancedpatent translation technologies that will significantlyreduce the time and costs associated with patent searchand translationResearchers at the Centre for NextGeneraon Localisaon at DCUrecently showcased a newmachine translaon system that promisesto reduce the costs associated with patentsearch and filing in the European Union.The European Commission‐funded PLuTOconsorum, of which DCU is lead partner,exhibited a prototype of its rapid onlinepatent translaon service to 330 patentexperts at the European PatentOffice’s Patent Informaon “We aim to deployConference on 18th October at the personalised, tailoredLyrath Hotel in Kilkenny. The vocabulary and terminologyPLuTO (‘Patent Languagemanagement for patentTranslaons Online’) system isprofessionals across manytailored specifically to the needs oftranslaoninventors seeking informaon onlanguages”exisng patents and otherintellectual property maers. The systemhas generated significant interest amongnaonal patent offices, mulnaonals, lawfirms, and individual IP specialists.The translaon burden when seekingpatent validaon can prove expensive andme consuming for companies. This isdespite the introducon of the LondonAgreement, which aimed to reduce thetranslaon costs of European patentsgranted under the European PatentConvenon. These translaons come atsignificant cost, up to €680 per EU patent,and are oen prohibive to individualinventors and SMEs.Direct Translaon InterfaceAddionally, the increase in IP acvityglobally over the last number of years,parcularly in Asia, means that greateramounts of patent data now exist inlanguages foreign to patent searchersand examiners, thus creang addionaltranslaon needs. The PLuTO project isimproving access to mullingual digitalpatent libraries, thus reducing the meand cost associated with patentinformaon access andfiling.“PLuTO makes use ofexisng web content andthe latest machinetoolsdeveloped by DCUresearchers”, explains projectcoordinator Dr John Tinsley.“Thanks to its specialisaon, the systemis more reliable than general‐purposemachine translaon tools, providing ondemandtranslaon when instant accessto informaon is required. We areworking closely with the European PatentOffice and have already deployed, fromDCU, machine translaon for English‐Portuguese to run live on the EPOwebsite. Ulmately, we aim to deploypersonalised, tailored vocabulary andterminology management for patentprofessionals across many languages”,adds Tinsley.• Segment highlighng • Download in mulple formats • Editable translaon outputCoverage of PLuTO in the Sunday BusinessPost, October 2011For more information onthe PLuTO consortium, visit:www.pluto-patenttranslation.euPrincipal Invesgator Dr Páraic Sheridan ofCNGL presents at the EPO Patent InformaonConference in Kilkenny in Octoberwww.cngl.ie1211

Upcoming EventsJanuary 2012CNGL at BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition11th - 14th January 2012, RDS, Dublin 4, Ireland Further DetailsFebruary 2012All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad 2012—Qualifying Round(Taking place in schools across Ireland)March 2012All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad 2012—National Finals20th March 2012, DCU, Dublin 9, Ireland Further DetailsWorkshop on Innovation and Applications in Speech Technology (IAST)9th -10 thMarch 2012, Dublin 4, Ireland Further DetailsSubscribe to CNGL News Alerts!Want to keep abreast of news anddevelopments at CNGL?You can now subscribe to news alerts.Sign up online now.The Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) is a dynamic academia-industry partnership that conducts ground-breaking researchinto next-generation localisation (i.e. the process of adapting digital content to culture, location and linguistic environment) by addressingkey challenges in information volume, access and personalisation.Got an idea for a news article? Perhaps you’d like to contribute?Contact our editor, Laura Grehan, at Email: laura.grehan@dcu.ie or Tel: +353 (0)1 7006705www.cngl.ie 13