Students
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At the KIT Graduate School there are currently five
graduate students funded by the Ministry of Education, and
some students with other funding arrangements.
Lili Aunimo
| Organization:
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University of Helsinki, Department of Computer Science
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| Supervisor:
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Helena Ahonen-Myka
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| Research topic:
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Computational Methods for Semantic Representation of
Text
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| Description:
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The goal of my research is to develop computational
methods for representing the contents of text. The research
has two parts. The first part consists of applying suitable
data mining and machine learning techniques to induce a
model that represents the contents of a text. The second
part consists of applying a suitable knowledge
representation framework in representing the semantics of
text in a form easily accessed by a natural language
processing application.
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| Financing:
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Ministry of Education
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| Links:
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Homepage,
Doremi
Research group
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Tom Bäckström
D.Sc. (tech), graduated in April 2004.
| Organization:
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Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Acoustics
and Audio Signal Processing
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| Supervisor:
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Paavo Alku
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| Research topic:
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Spectral models of speech and parametrization of the
glottal source
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| Description:
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The research is concentrated around two topics. Firstly,
we investigate constrained linear predictive models for
modeling voiced speech sounds in the spectral domain. The
goal is to develop models that more effectively allow
inclusion of a priori knowledge while maintaining stability
of the model. Secondly, we study different parameters of
the glottal source that describe effects of vocal loading.
The aim is to gain better understanding of the speech
production system as well as develop tools for
phoniatricians for clinical analysis of the voice.
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| Financing:
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Ministry of Education
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| Links:
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Homepage
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Mathias Creutz
| Organization:
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Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of
Computer and Information Science, Neural Networks Research Centre
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| Supervisors:
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Krista Lagus, Mikko Kurimo
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| Research topic:
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Unsupervised learning of language models
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| Description:
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The goal is to study how unsupervised learning methods
developed at the Neural Networks Research Centre can be applied
to language modelling. The focus is on linguistically motivated
solutions that are applicable to several languages. The
performance of resulting language models shall be evaluated using
speech recognition as a testbench.
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| Financing:
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Ministry of Education
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| Links:
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Homepage
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Osmo Eerola
| Organization:
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University of Turku
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| Supervisor:
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Olli Aaltonen
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| Research topic:
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To be determined
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| Financing:
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Independent
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Kimmo Kettunen
| Organization:
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University of Tampere
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| Supervisor:
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Kalervo Järvelin
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| Research topic:
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Suomen kielen vartalo-ohjelmaperhe tiedonhaun apuna
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| Financing:
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Independent
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Juha-Pertti Laaksonen
| Organization:
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University of Turku, Department of Phonetics
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| Supervisors:
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Olli Aaltonen (Dept. of Phonetics, Univ. of Turku);
Risto-Pekka Happonen (Dept. of Oral and Maxillofacial
Surgery, Univ. of Turku)
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| Research topic:
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Effects of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgical Operations on
Speech Acoustics
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| Description:
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The purpose of the research is to find out the effects
of operations used in oral and maxillofacial surgery on
acoustic quality of speech by analyzing the main
acoustic features of speech. By studying the effects of
distorted control mechanisms (e.g., nerve impairments)
and altered vocal tract configurations (e.g.,
modifications of oral structures) on speech acoustics, I
try to get information concerning the control mechanisms
of speech production, and the relationship between
acoustics and articulation. Also the different theories
of speech production are discussed. In addition, the
results can be applied to development of speech
production modeling.
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| Financing:
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Independent
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| Links:
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Homepage
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Mietta Lennes
| Organization:
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University of Helsinki, Department of Phonetics
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| Supervisors:
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Antti Iivonen, Stefan Werner, Martti Vainio
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| Research topic:
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Phonetic variability of speech sounds in Finnish informal speech
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| Description:
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The goal of my research is to model the phonetic
variability of speech sounds in Finnish informal speech. A
method will be developed for the description of the amount
of articulatory effort used by the speaker. Relationships
between prosodic properties and the expected
acoustic-phonetic quality of the corresponding speech
sounds will be studied. Artificial learning methods will be
used to test the model.
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| Financing:
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Independent
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| Links:
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Homepage
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Krister Lindén
| Organizations:
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Helsinki University, Department of General Linguistics;
Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Computer and
Information Science, Neural Networks Research Centre;
Tampere University, Department of Information Studies
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| Supervisors:
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Lauri Carlson (HU), Krista Lagus (HUT), Kalervo
Järvelin (TaU)
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| Research topic:
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On Word Sense Disambiguation: Using self-organizing document
maps as semantic components in language technology applications
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| Description:
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Word sense disambiguation is the task of selecting the
most appropriate word meanings or senses in a given
context. Self-organizing maps are an efficient way to
cluster, visualize and abstract data. When a
self-organizing document map is provided with information
about words in context a clustering based on similar
contexts emerges. The goal is to find methods for
exploiting this clustering for word sense disambiguation in
language technology applications.
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| Financing:
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Ministry of Education
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| Links:
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Homepage
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Sinikka Loikkanen
| Organization:
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University of Helsinki
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| Supervisors:
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Kimmo Koskenniemi, Lauri Carlson
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| Research topic:
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Automaattisest ja puoliautomaattiset menetelmät
morfologisen kuvauksen päättelemiseksi kieliopillisesti
koodatusta aineistosta
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| Financing:
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Independent
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Stina Ojala
| Organization:
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University of Turku, Department of Phonetics
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| Supervisors:
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Olli Aaltonen, Department of Phonetics, University of Turku;
Ritva Takkinen, Department of Languages, University of
Jyväskylä
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| Research topic:
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The handshapes of the Finnish Sign Language
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| Description:
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The topic of this study is the handshapes of the Finnish
Sign Language. The research is conducted by means of
optical phonetics. The purpose of this study is to define
and clarify the processes involved in the production and
perception of sign language.
The bases of the present research are the handshapes
produced by native signers. These handshapes are
observed from digital video samples and then are
processed further into motion frame -syntheses. The data
is then presented as stimuli in behavioral and
psychophysiological tests.
The results of this study are used to model both the
production and perception models of sign language. In
addition, the results can establish a basis for the
coding of movement envelopes into a computer database
and in the future in the design of a virtual signer.
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| Financing:
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The Alfred Kordelin Foundation, The Finnish Konkordia Fund
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| Links:
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Homepage
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Jussi Piitulainen
| Organization:
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University of Helsinki
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| Supervisors:
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Kimmo Koskenniemi, Lauri Carlson
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| Research topic:
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Sanojen distributionaalisen samanlaisuuden suhde niiden
merkityksen samanlaisuuteen
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| Financing:
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Independent
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Harri Saarikoski
| Organizations:
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Helsinki University (General Linguistics) and
AAC Global Oy
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| Supervisors:
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Lauri Carlson (Helsinki University, General Linguistics) and
Pasi Tyrväinen (Jyväskylä University,
Computer Sciences)
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| Research topic:
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Requirement Specification for Hybrid WSD Component in
Demanding NLP Applications
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| Description:
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I aim to compile a requirement specification for the
Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) component. My key
contribution will be in the design and acquisition of a
WSD-enabling central knowledge base (RDF family), as well
as in defining the optimal balance between the various WSD
knowledge sources and disambiguation tools
(ie. knowledge-driven vs computational methods). To add to
the feasibility of the results, I will simultaneously look
for ways to automate the acquisition of this knowledge base
and ways to represent the knowledge in a unified and
computationally efficient way. The aim is to find real
cures to the WSD bottleneck that stubbornly ails the huge
promise of the NLP field. WSD makes possible an astounding
variety of demanding industrial NLP applications (such as
machine translation, ontology autogeneration and automatic
annotation).
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| Financing:
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Independent
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| Links:
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Homepage
ONTO project for Finnish Ontologies in the Semantic Web
(launching in Fall 2003)
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Janne Savela
| Organization:
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University of Turku, Department of Phonetics
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| Supervisor:
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Olli Aaltonen
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| Research topic:
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Attentive and pre-attentive processing of vowels
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| Description:
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In my research the pre-attentive and attentive
processing of vowel phonemes are discussed. Firstly, the
vowel identification data will be analysed. The
multilingual aspects of vowel labeling will be
discussed. Secondly, the pre-attentive processing of vowel
phonemes are discussed.For example, he effects of
distinctive features on speech perception are studied.
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| Financing:
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Ministry of Education
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| Links:
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Homepage
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Vesa Siivola
| Organization:
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Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of
Computer and Information Science
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| Supervisor:
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Mikko Kurimo
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| Research topic:
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Language modeling for speech recognition
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| Description:
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Language modeling is an essential component of a modern
speech recognizer. Usually the task is simply to estimate
the probabilities for the next word given the already
recognized speech. The goal of my work is to improve the
performance of this part of the recognizer.
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| Financing:
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Independent
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| Links:
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Homepage
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Janne Tynkkynen
| Organization:
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University of Helsinki
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| Supervisors:
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Kimmo Koskenniemi, Lauri Carlson
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| Research topic:
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Hybrid Tagging in a Multilingual Environment
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| Financing:
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Independent
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Anssi Yli-Jyrä
| Organization:
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Helsinki University, Department of General Linguistics;
Nordic Language Technology Programme, NorFA
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| Supervisors:
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Kimmo Koskenniemi, Lauri Carlson
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| Research topic:
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Efficient Parsing with Finite-State Constraint
Satisfaction
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| Description:
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Finite-state automata are efficient, and therefore
widely employed in human language technology. Kimmo
Koskenniemi (1990) has proposed an appealing parsing
approach that uses finite-state automata. The current
implementations of the approach are very slow although the
system runs in an asymptotic linear time. My goal is to
find out how the parser's implementation can be improved on
the basis of comparison to other parsing approaches and
introducing new finite-state methods that improve the
flexibility of the data-structures.
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| Financing:
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NorFA - Nordic Academy for Advanced Study
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| Links:
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Homepage
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