The 2019 North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics Student Research Workshop

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

The Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) is the primary international organization for computational linguistics and natural language processing, which in turn is one of the primary application areas for research in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The annual meeting of the North American chapter of the ACL (NAACL) is one of the most prestigious and selective international conferences in these fields. The proceedings of this meeting is among the most cited publications in computational linguistics, and the meeting itself is the most important meeting for North American researchers in the field on years when it is held. This project will subsidize travel, conference and housing expenses of students selected to participate in the NAACL Student Research Workshop, which will take place during the main NAACL conference June 2-7, 2019 in Minneapolis, MN. The Student Research Workshop helps create a new generation of researchers with a more thorough understanding of their field, with connections and collaborations across institutions, and with innovative and exciting research programs. This contributes to America's pool of researchers with the needed scientific and engineering knowledge and skills. The workshop encourages a spirit of collaborative research and builds a supportive environment for a new generation of computational linguists. By sponsoring student travel, the workshop can reach a wider audience, broadening the horizons of the computational linguistics community and helping bring diversity to computer science research. The Student Research Workshop solicits two categories of submissions: research papers and research proposals. The research proposal can have only one author who must be a student. The research papers can have multiple authors, with the first author being a student (at either the graduate or undergraduate level). Unlike typical workshops and conferences, student authors have the opportunity to receive explicit mentoring prior to submitting their work: they are put into contact with world-class researchers in the field who provide guidance and help the authors polish their submissions. The workshop is then a venue for students to receive constructive critical feedback on their work from experts outside of their institution; the early-stage work that students present here may later form the basis for full conference papers, journal articles, or dissertations. These features are particularly useful for students from underprivileged backgrounds or institutions where they might not have access to such strong mentoring resources. In addition, the workshop is organized and run by students. The student organizers gain valuable opportunities for professional growth and interaction with the researchers on the organizing committee of the main conference. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.