UW SUMMER RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY FOR POSTSECONDARY STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
APPLICATION DEADLINE: May 8

--------
Workshop on Semi-supervised Learning for Language Processing
June 18 -- August 17
University of Washington

Language processing is becoming increasingly important for retrieving
and managing the large volumes of data online, both on the web and in
company databases, and it is an important component of some assistive
technologies.  Language processing includes analyzing and extracting
information from text and speech transcripts, as well as annotating
text/speech with labels that make text processing more effective. A
key problem is how to take advantage of the large amount of text and
audio archives on the web to improve language processing, and
semi-supervised machine learning techniques offer promise for addressing this 
challenge.

To explore the potential of recent advances in semi-supervised learning
and train more students in this area, the University of Washington's
Computer Science & Engineering and Electrical Engineering departments
are hosting a summer research workshop supported by the National
Science Foundation.  Research positions are available for 2 graduate and 2
undergraduate students to work in a team with another UW graduate
student on problems related to semi-supervised learning for language
processing. Students will be given tutorials about machine learning
and language processing in the first week and will have the opportunity
to meet senior researchers in the field, both from UW and other
institutions. We are particularly interested in supporting students
with disabilities who are in the fields of computer science, electrical
engineering, or related fields.  Students will receive a stipend,
support for travel costs, and a $4500 subsistence allowance to defray
housing and food costs. Sign language interpreter services will be
made available for seminars and tutorials if needed.

All applicants should have some programming experience and should
have taken a course in probability. Background in machine learning is
desirable but not required.

To apply: Send your resume, the contact information for one reference,
and a brief statement (1 paragraph) describing why you are interested
in participating to both:
Mari Ostendorf, [log in to unmask]
Richard Ladner, [log in to unmask]
by May 8, 2007.  Applicants will be notified of the decision on
participants by May 11.