I'm forwarding this for Professor Mari Ostendorf of the University of Washington, who I've known for many years. Sounds like a great opportunity for some students! Jim Fruchterman ------------------ SUMMER RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES 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, mo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Richard Ladner, ladner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx by May 8, 2007. Applicants will be notified of the decision on participants by May 11. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.