Department of Computer Science at UH

University of Houston

Department of Computer Science

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science or Doctor of Philosophy

Waleed Faris

Will give a preliminary defense of his dissertation

Building a Natural Language Interface for ALPS

Abstract

There have been a lot of research on and applications build based on specific areas of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The objective of my research is to examine the link between knowledge in the real world and the grammar of a natural language. The human brain has the capability of learning a language and as a result, the world has hundreds of languages. This variety in languages shows that the knowledge needed to learn a language is universal, regardless of the specific language. For example, a majority of languages form sentences using a subject/verb construction.

The research will look at creating an application that provides a system with the tools necessary to learn and use a new language. In other words, the system is not learning a specific language; it is learning important knowledge about all languages. This includes the creation of a new component based grammar along with a semantic representation that allows for better understanding of phrases. This application is being developed as the communication agent for an existing knowledge system known as A Learning Program System or ALPS.

Date: Monday, November 30, 2009
Time: 11:00 AM
Place: 563-PGH
Faculty, students, and the general public are invited.
Advisor: Prof. Kam-Hoi-Cheng