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YI 2010 : Young Investigators Workshop on Computational Approaches to Languages of the Americas | |||||||||||||||
Link: http://groups.google.com/group/naacl-2010-yi-workshop | |||||||||||||||
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Call For Papers | |||||||||||||||
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FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS *************************************** Young Investigators Workshop on Computational Approaches to Languages of the Americas http://groups.google.com/group/naacl-2010-yi-workshop Submission Deadline : February 15, 2010 Travel Award Application Deadline : February 15, 2010 Notification to Authors : March 1, 2010 Camera Ready Deadline : April 1, 2010 Workshop Date June 5 or 6, 2010 in Los Angeles, California immediately following NAACL-HLT 2010 Workshop description Research in Computational Linguistics (CL) and related fields is carried out in all of the Americas. However, interaction among investigators from the different countries in this half of the world is rare. This is evident when we look at the proceedings of the last conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL 2009) where out of 13 countries represented in the proceedings of the main conference the only two from the Americas are the USA and Canada. Among contributions including international collaborations, the majority are from European authors while a few were collaborative work between researchers in Canada and the USA. In these proceedings, there are no contributions from authors in Central or South America, or the Caribbean. This demonstrates that the research communities in each of these regions work in a somewhat isolated environment, organizing their own satellite events on CL and related topics. Typically, events organized in the USA will be primarily attended by researchers from this country. In a similar way, events organized say in Mexico or Brazil, will have a predominant attendance from people in these countries. Having these regional events has clear advantages: it allows to focus sessions around the specific interests of the local communities, and at the same time travel expenses are cheaper. But it also has the major drawback of discouraging the exchange of ideas that drives the advancement of science and knowledge by keeping research work from different parts of the Americas in separate worlds, unknown to each other and the wider international research community. The goal of the workshop is to increase awareness of the state of the art research in all of the Americas by bringing together researchers from across the Americas to discuss the work carried out at their home institutions. The workshop program and activities, as well as this opportunity to showcase their research will allow the attendees to explore the possibilities for international collaborations. In addition, the workshop will also include an open discussion session for proposing mechanisms that will promote a more interactive community in the Americas. The target audience are young investigators launching independent careers that can take advantage of the opportunity to do some networking with other people at the same stage in their careers. The format of the workshop will allow the participants to showcase their research and have meaningful discussions with people interested in the same topics. The presentations will give attendees an overview of the state of the art in CL research carried on outside their own country. Please note that young refers to the length of time actively working and doing research in CL and not to chronological age. Examples of it young investigators would include (but are not limited to) advanced Ph.D. students, post-docs, and junior faculty who are not yet tenured. However, more senior investigators are also welcome to submit and participate in the workshop, since both their research and their experiences in their own country can help guide young investigators as they move forward. Workshop Topics We are particularly interested in submissions from researchers and groups working on languages used south of the Rio Bravo (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua, Nahuatl, etc.) We welcome three types of submissions for this workshop. All three categories must specifically identify meaningful opportunities for collaboration that will cross linguistic or geographic boundaries in the Americas. These opportunities should be expressed in terms of expertise or resources the authors can provide to another project, or what expertise and resources would be of assistance to meeting the goals of the authors' own project. 1) Research papers presenting recent results in any area of CL, where the work shows specific and focused contributions to the state of the art in languages of the Americas. In addition, the author must specifically describe how this work could be incorporated in other projects and what benefits it might provide, and/or discuss what expertise or resources the author does not currently have access to that would allow this work to advance. This topic focuses on an individual researcher and submissions are particularly encouraged from young investigators. 2) Surveys of on--going research projects in CL and related areas carried out by an individual or research group residing in the Americas, where the authors clearly describe their plans for future work and identify opportunities for collaboration as described above. These papers are distinct from the research papers in that they will be broader in scope and describe an entire project rather than a specific contribution (as topic 1 does). The submission must also describe collaborative opportunities as described above. This topic focuses on a group as a whole and submissions from both more senior and young investigators are welcome. 3) Opinion papers describing the research situation in a particular country, paying particular attention to funding, typical career paths, and research infrastructure. These papers should propose specific ideas or mechanisms to strengthen ties and interactions among researchers in the Americas to resolve whatever limitations may be noted by the author. In addition, these papers should provide a brief sketch of the CL community in that country that may include (but is not limited to) the number of researchers and groups and their geographic distribution, the number of students who study CL, and any significant initiatives taken within that country to advance the state of CL. This topic focuses on an entire country and submissions from more senior investigators are especially encouraged. Submission Information Submissions in all categories must be in English and should not have been published previously. All submissions are limited to 8 pages (including references), and must use the NAACL-HLT 2010 style files, available here : http://naaclhlt2010.isi.edu/authors.html Research paper submissions (topic 1) must be anonymous with no author information provided, while survey papers (topic 2) and opinion papers (topic 3) should include author information. Papers will be submitted via START - more information about this will be provided shortly. Submissions in all categories will be reviewed by at least two members of the Program Committee. Research papers (topic 1) will be judged on the technical merit of their contributions as well as the degree to which the opportunities for collaboration are well thought--out and feasible. Research papers that do not specifically discuss opportunities for collaboration will not be accepted. Survey papers (topic 2) will be judged on their clarity and the degree to which they successfully describe the history and future plans of a given project, paying particular attention to the degree to which opportunities for collaboration are well thought--out and feasible. Survey papers that do not specifically discuss opportunities for collaboration will not be accepted. Opinion papers (topic 3) will be judged on how effectively they provide an overview of the current state of CL research in that country. In addition, the feasibility of the proposed mechanisms for improving ties and interactions both within the given country and between others will receive significant weight. Opinion papers that do not include specific proposals for improving ties and interactions will not be accepted. Travel Awards Travel awards are available due to the generous support of the Information and Intelligent Systems Directorate and the Office of International Science and Engineering of the National Science Foundation (USA). These awards are intended for young investigators with limited travel funds, such as senior-level PhD students, post-docs and junior faculty members, especially those in predominantly undergraduate institutions. The travel awards will be some combination of airfare, accommodations, and workshop registration fees, depending on the particular budget constraints of the participants and the workshop. To be eligible for an award, you must be an author (or co-author) of an accepted submission to the workshop. You should submit a short travel award application (form to be provided) at the time you make your submission. This should go directly to the Workshop Chairs, and should include an estimate of your travel, hotel and registration expenses, and indicate what other sources of funding you may have available. Workshop Chairs Thamar Solorio (primary contact) Assistant Professor Department of Computer and Information Sciences The University of Alabama at Birmingham 1300 University Boulevard Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170 solorio at uab dot edu http://www.cis.uab.edu/solorio Ted Pedersen Professor Department of Computer Science The University of Minnesota, Duluth 1114 Kirby Drive Duluth, Minnesota 55812-3036 tpederse at d dot umn dot edu http://www.d.umn.edu/~tpederse Program Committee Laura Alonso Alemani, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Argentina John Atkinson, Universidad de Concepcion, Chile Diego Burgos, Instituto Tecnologico Metropolitano, Colombia Vitor Carvalho, Microsoft Bing, USA Maria das Gracas Volpe Nunes, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil Ana Feldman, Montclair State University, USA Caroline Gasperin, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil Alexander Gelbukh, CIC, IPN, Mexico Carlos Gomez Gallo, Harvard, USA Agustin Gravano, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina Diana Inpken, University of Ottawa, Canada Greg Kondrak, University of Alberta, Canada Jorge Antonio Leoni de Leon, Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica Aurelio Lopez Lopez, INAOE, Mexico Lucia Helena Machado Rino, Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos, Brazil Rada Mihalcea, University of North Texas, USA Raymond Mooney, University of Texas at Austin, USA Manuel Montes y Gomez, INAOE, Mexico Thiago A. S. Pardo, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil Renata Vieira, Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Luis Villasenor-Pineda, INAOE, Mexico Dina Wonsever, Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay Discussion Group The most recent copy of the Call for Papers plus additional information about the workshop will always be available here: http://groups.google.com/group/naacl-2010-yi-workshop |
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