Final Report Summary - LANGTERRA (Enhancing the Research Potential of ILSP/”Athena” R.C. in Language Technology in the European Research ERA)
Executive Summary:
The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) of the “Athena” Research Center is the oldest and one of the largest R&D organizations in the area of Language Technologies (LT) in Greece, and a centre of excellence for basic and applied research in the field. Ever since its establishment, twenty five years ago, ILSP has been closely following and contributing to the evolution of language technologies; a fact that shaped its profile and defined its character. The Institute’s agenda covers a range of scientific areas from linguistic studies to information technology and signal processing.
The LangTERRA project represented ILSP’s strong commitment to continuously reinforcing its excellence and remaining at the forefront of developments at a European level in its areas of expertise. The area of LT has been rapidly progressing and transforming in the last years. It has adopted a broader view on what language comprises and has put language in context within a richer communication setting. This has fertilized LT with approaches stemming from the areas of interaction, cognition and multimodality. In view of this, ILSP has identified a set of priority research axes in which it is seeking to further strengthen its know-how and foster its existing research assets. These spans seemingly diverse areas such ranging from multimodal communication focusing on richer human-machine interactions and emotion-aware devices; to multimedia and text processing targeting the analysis, indexing and reuse of language-rich content to facilitate knowledge extraction and harvesting; and to language learning & learning disabilities, addressing the challenge of developing targeted assessment and remediation procedures.
LangTERRA's main objective was to enhance ILSP's research capacity in these areas through extensive networking, transfer of know-how and upgrade of research infrastructure, creating the conditions for it to scale up its research performance in the next period. LangTERRA has been particularly successfully in this respect:
Strong links have been established and reinforced between ILSP and prominent research throughout Europe and transfer of know-how has been achieved through bilateral exchanges and visits, collaborative activities and joint plans for future research. Additionally, ILSP had a strong presence in major international scientific events presenting recent research results and connecting with the research and academic community.
Experienced researchers and an experienced innovation manager have been recruited, all of them possessing solid recent research experience, and having an academic profile with high quality publications and in-depth involvement in R&D projects. This fused considerable know-how and hands-on experience in key areas increasing ILSP's research potential that as these merits are expected to last beyond the duration of the project.
LangTERRA has also invested in research equipment, with the acquisition of cutting-edge hardware and software for capturing, analyzing and modelling multimodal language and behavior data as well as for digitizing language material. This way, a contemporary, high-tech lab has been established, the "HUBIC Lab" ("Human Behaviour, Interaction and Communication Lab"), which is powerful and versatile enough to serve a large breadth of the Institute's current and future research needs.
LangTERRA had a very active dissemination and outreach agenda, with the organization of five scientific workshops, some of them in context of major international conferences; three Info Days in three different cities in Greece targeting wider audiences and disseminating information on ILSP's activities, research topics and new technologies; and an active presence to CeBIT 2015, Europe’s largest and most international information technology expo. In addition, a wide range of informational and promotional material has been designed and produced, including a range of leaflets, a booklet and video clips, to serve ILSP's future communication needs and support its presence in future events.
In overall, LangTERRA has been a valuable instrument for enhancing the overall research potential of the Institute for Language and Speech Processing. Except from the immediate benefits of the project that have already started to pay off, this investment is expected to have multiple effects in the following period, as the intensified networking, increased know-how and cutting-edge equipment has fertilized a wide range of research, development and innovation activities of the Institute. This is improving ILSP's position significantly, bringing it to the current state-of-the-art in the targeted priority research areas and creating the conditions for its research performance to scale up in the next period.
Project Context and Objectives:
The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) of the “Athena” Research Center is the oldest and one of the largest R&D organizations in the area of Language Technologies (LT) in Greece, and a centre of excellence for basic and applied research in the field. Ever since its establishment, twenty five years ago, ILSP has been closely following and contributing to the evolution of language technologies; a fact that shaped its profile and defined its character. The Institute’s agenda covers a range of scientific areas from linguistic studies to information technology and signal processing.
Language technology is now adopting a broader view on what language comprises, placing language in a richer communication context and examining it in relation to other humans and their environment. This has fertilized the research in LT with approaches stemming from the areas of interaction, cognition and multimodality. In view of this, ILSP has identified a set of priority research axes in which it is seeking to further strengthen its know-how and foster its existing research assets. These are:
- multimodal communication, addressing challenges such as the analysis, recognition, description and synthesis of multimodal behaviors, including speech, gestures, and facial expressions opening the way to rich human-machine interactions and emotion-aware devices.
- multimedia processing, addressing the automatic analysis, processing, indexing and reuse of the digitized information, be it handwritten documents, textual information in video sequences or music content.
- language learning & learning disabilities, addressing the challenge of developing targeted assessment and remediation procedures in the context of school, language class, special education or speech and language therapy, and informing the processes of designing and developing educational software accordingly.
- text mining, focusing on aspects such as dependency parsing, event/fact recognition, as well as sentiment analysis and emotion recognition in order to facilitate knowledge extraction and harvesting.
With a focused set of priority research areas to complement its set of core competencies and existing expertise, ILSP has formulated a set of objectives that will allow it to address the future challenges, maintain its edge, and remain competitive. These objectives are:
- Enhance its research capabilities in the identified priority research areas. This would help maintain the Institute's excellence in the field and efficiently keep up with the latest state-of-the-art and the research challenges faced at an EU and/or international level.
- Enhance the abilities of its research personnel. This would allow it to address its needs for new experienced personnel that will be able to fuse knowledge and open up novel research paths. In close cooperation with the existing research personnel, effective research strategies to will be set up enabling the Institute to maintain its excellence in the new digital era.
- Expand the Institute’s existing pool of potential partners. This would strengthen and expand the Institute's links with important actors in the European research area, improving its potential to create dynamic synergies and participate in future R&D projects and consortia.
- Acquire new and upgrade existing research equipment and infrastructure. Specialized, state-of-the-art equipment is a prerequisite for performing ambitious research in novel research areas such as the ones targeted by the project.
- Disseminate at an international level. Wide dissemination of scientific research and results at a European and international levels through specialized workshops addressed to scientists and open info days addressed to the wider public are crucial elements that can help the Institute improve its visibility and extend its collaborations and reach.
Project Results:
Due to its nature and funding rules, the LangTERRA project involved no research or development activities per se. So, no foreground has been explicitly generated by the project. Nevertheless, with its focus on increasing the Institute's research capacity through extensive networking, transfer of know-how and upgrade of research infrastructure, LangTERRA has been a valuable instrument for enhancing the overall research potential of the Institute for Language and Speech Processing / "Athena" Research Center, creating the conditions for it to scale up its research performance in the next period.
Networking has been a central aspect of LangTERRA. Strong links have been established and reinforced with prominent research throughout Europe and transfer of know-how has been achieved through bilateral exchanges and visits, collaborative activities, hands-on workshops, scientific presentations and joint plans for future research. Furthermore, in the context of LangTERRA ILSP researchers have actively participated to major international scientific events presenting their work and networking with the research and academic community.
In the duration of the project, 6 experienced researchers and one experienced innovation manager have been recruited, all of them possessing solid recent research experience, and having an academic profile with high quality publications and in-depth involvement in R&D projects. This experienced personnel worked at ILSP closely collaborating with the existing teams in the respective fields and actively participating to the activities of the project. This knowledge and hands-on experience fused in key areas of ILSP's research agenda not only reinforced ILSP's capacity during the recruitment period but also considerably increased its research potential after that, as these merits are expected to last beyond the duration of the project.
LangTERRA has also invested in research equipment, with the acquisition of state-of-the-art hardware and software for capturing, analyzing and modelling multimodal language and behavior data as well as for digitizing language material. This way, a contemporary, high-tech lab has emerged, the "HUBIC Lab" ("Human Behaviour, Interaction and Communication Lab"), which is powerful and versatile enough to serve a large breadth of the Institute's current and future research needs.
LangTERRA has been very dense in terms of scientific dissemination and outreach. Five scientific workshops have been co-organized, some of them in the form of special tracks in the context of major international conferences with high visibility in the fields of interest to the project. These events also featured keynotes and presentations from ILSP, partnering organizations and invited speakers. Proceeding of some of these events were published by prestigious publishers such as IEEE and ACM and indexed in all major scientific databases.
In addition, three Info Days were successfully organized in three different cities in Greece. Their goal was to inform on the activities, research topics and new technologies of ILSP / R.C. "Athena". Combined with other outreach activities of the Institute, these Info Days offered a wide visibility to ILSP. ILSP has also participated to Europe’s largest and most international information technology expo, CeBIT 2015, exhibiting recent research activities and outcomes. In this context, ILSP had a wide range of B2B meetings, a considerable traffic to its stand and exposure to media.
Finally, LangTERRA has designed and produced a wide set of informational and promotional material regarding the Institute and its research, including a range of leaflets, a booklet and video clips, targeting a wider audience and covering the different fields of activities and the relevant accomplishments of the Institute. These were not solely meant to be used for the needs of the project itself, but also to serve ILSP's future communication needs and support its presence in future events and fora.
Potential Impact:
The LangTERRA project represented ILSP’s strong commitment to continuously reinforcing its excellence and remaining at the forefront of developments at a European level in its areas of expertise.
In overall, LangTERRA has been crucial in increasing ILSP's research capacity and enhancing the Institute's overall potential to excel at a European level in the domain of language technologies and in closely related fields. Except from the immediate benefits of the project that have already started to pay off, this investment is expected to have multiple effects in the following period, as the intensified networking, increased know-how and cutting-edge equipment has fertilized a wide range of research, development and innovation activities of the Institute, significantly improving its position and bringing it to the current state-of-the-art in the priority research areas targeted by the project.
List of Websites:
Website; www.langterra.eu
Contact:
Dr. Spyros Raptis
LangTERRA project co-ordinator
Deputy Director
Institute for Language and Speech Processing /
“Athena” Research Center
e-mail: spy@ilsp.gr
Web: http://www.ilsp.gr | http://www.athena-innovation.gr
The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) of the “Athena” Research Center is the oldest and one of the largest R&D organizations in the area of Language Technologies (LT) in Greece, and a centre of excellence for basic and applied research in the field. Ever since its establishment, twenty five years ago, ILSP has been closely following and contributing to the evolution of language technologies; a fact that shaped its profile and defined its character. The Institute’s agenda covers a range of scientific areas from linguistic studies to information technology and signal processing.
The LangTERRA project represented ILSP’s strong commitment to continuously reinforcing its excellence and remaining at the forefront of developments at a European level in its areas of expertise. The area of LT has been rapidly progressing and transforming in the last years. It has adopted a broader view on what language comprises and has put language in context within a richer communication setting. This has fertilized LT with approaches stemming from the areas of interaction, cognition and multimodality. In view of this, ILSP has identified a set of priority research axes in which it is seeking to further strengthen its know-how and foster its existing research assets. These spans seemingly diverse areas such ranging from multimodal communication focusing on richer human-machine interactions and emotion-aware devices; to multimedia and text processing targeting the analysis, indexing and reuse of language-rich content to facilitate knowledge extraction and harvesting; and to language learning & learning disabilities, addressing the challenge of developing targeted assessment and remediation procedures.
LangTERRA's main objective was to enhance ILSP's research capacity in these areas through extensive networking, transfer of know-how and upgrade of research infrastructure, creating the conditions for it to scale up its research performance in the next period. LangTERRA has been particularly successfully in this respect:
Strong links have been established and reinforced between ILSP and prominent research throughout Europe and transfer of know-how has been achieved through bilateral exchanges and visits, collaborative activities and joint plans for future research. Additionally, ILSP had a strong presence in major international scientific events presenting recent research results and connecting with the research and academic community.
Experienced researchers and an experienced innovation manager have been recruited, all of them possessing solid recent research experience, and having an academic profile with high quality publications and in-depth involvement in R&D projects. This fused considerable know-how and hands-on experience in key areas increasing ILSP's research potential that as these merits are expected to last beyond the duration of the project.
LangTERRA has also invested in research equipment, with the acquisition of cutting-edge hardware and software for capturing, analyzing and modelling multimodal language and behavior data as well as for digitizing language material. This way, a contemporary, high-tech lab has been established, the "HUBIC Lab" ("Human Behaviour, Interaction and Communication Lab"), which is powerful and versatile enough to serve a large breadth of the Institute's current and future research needs.
LangTERRA had a very active dissemination and outreach agenda, with the organization of five scientific workshops, some of them in context of major international conferences; three Info Days in three different cities in Greece targeting wider audiences and disseminating information on ILSP's activities, research topics and new technologies; and an active presence to CeBIT 2015, Europe’s largest and most international information technology expo. In addition, a wide range of informational and promotional material has been designed and produced, including a range of leaflets, a booklet and video clips, to serve ILSP's future communication needs and support its presence in future events.
In overall, LangTERRA has been a valuable instrument for enhancing the overall research potential of the Institute for Language and Speech Processing. Except from the immediate benefits of the project that have already started to pay off, this investment is expected to have multiple effects in the following period, as the intensified networking, increased know-how and cutting-edge equipment has fertilized a wide range of research, development and innovation activities of the Institute. This is improving ILSP's position significantly, bringing it to the current state-of-the-art in the targeted priority research areas and creating the conditions for its research performance to scale up in the next period.
Project Context and Objectives:
The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) of the “Athena” Research Center is the oldest and one of the largest R&D organizations in the area of Language Technologies (LT) in Greece, and a centre of excellence for basic and applied research in the field. Ever since its establishment, twenty five years ago, ILSP has been closely following and contributing to the evolution of language technologies; a fact that shaped its profile and defined its character. The Institute’s agenda covers a range of scientific areas from linguistic studies to information technology and signal processing.
Language technology is now adopting a broader view on what language comprises, placing language in a richer communication context and examining it in relation to other humans and their environment. This has fertilized the research in LT with approaches stemming from the areas of interaction, cognition and multimodality. In view of this, ILSP has identified a set of priority research axes in which it is seeking to further strengthen its know-how and foster its existing research assets. These are:
- multimodal communication, addressing challenges such as the analysis, recognition, description and synthesis of multimodal behaviors, including speech, gestures, and facial expressions opening the way to rich human-machine interactions and emotion-aware devices.
- multimedia processing, addressing the automatic analysis, processing, indexing and reuse of the digitized information, be it handwritten documents, textual information in video sequences or music content.
- language learning & learning disabilities, addressing the challenge of developing targeted assessment and remediation procedures in the context of school, language class, special education or speech and language therapy, and informing the processes of designing and developing educational software accordingly.
- text mining, focusing on aspects such as dependency parsing, event/fact recognition, as well as sentiment analysis and emotion recognition in order to facilitate knowledge extraction and harvesting.
With a focused set of priority research areas to complement its set of core competencies and existing expertise, ILSP has formulated a set of objectives that will allow it to address the future challenges, maintain its edge, and remain competitive. These objectives are:
- Enhance its research capabilities in the identified priority research areas. This would help maintain the Institute's excellence in the field and efficiently keep up with the latest state-of-the-art and the research challenges faced at an EU and/or international level.
- Enhance the abilities of its research personnel. This would allow it to address its needs for new experienced personnel that will be able to fuse knowledge and open up novel research paths. In close cooperation with the existing research personnel, effective research strategies to will be set up enabling the Institute to maintain its excellence in the new digital era.
- Expand the Institute’s existing pool of potential partners. This would strengthen and expand the Institute's links with important actors in the European research area, improving its potential to create dynamic synergies and participate in future R&D projects and consortia.
- Acquire new and upgrade existing research equipment and infrastructure. Specialized, state-of-the-art equipment is a prerequisite for performing ambitious research in novel research areas such as the ones targeted by the project.
- Disseminate at an international level. Wide dissemination of scientific research and results at a European and international levels through specialized workshops addressed to scientists and open info days addressed to the wider public are crucial elements that can help the Institute improve its visibility and extend its collaborations and reach.
Project Results:
Due to its nature and funding rules, the LangTERRA project involved no research or development activities per se. So, no foreground has been explicitly generated by the project. Nevertheless, with its focus on increasing the Institute's research capacity through extensive networking, transfer of know-how and upgrade of research infrastructure, LangTERRA has been a valuable instrument for enhancing the overall research potential of the Institute for Language and Speech Processing / "Athena" Research Center, creating the conditions for it to scale up its research performance in the next period.
Networking has been a central aspect of LangTERRA. Strong links have been established and reinforced with prominent research throughout Europe and transfer of know-how has been achieved through bilateral exchanges and visits, collaborative activities, hands-on workshops, scientific presentations and joint plans for future research. Furthermore, in the context of LangTERRA ILSP researchers have actively participated to major international scientific events presenting their work and networking with the research and academic community.
In the duration of the project, 6 experienced researchers and one experienced innovation manager have been recruited, all of them possessing solid recent research experience, and having an academic profile with high quality publications and in-depth involvement in R&D projects. This experienced personnel worked at ILSP closely collaborating with the existing teams in the respective fields and actively participating to the activities of the project. This knowledge and hands-on experience fused in key areas of ILSP's research agenda not only reinforced ILSP's capacity during the recruitment period but also considerably increased its research potential after that, as these merits are expected to last beyond the duration of the project.
LangTERRA has also invested in research equipment, with the acquisition of state-of-the-art hardware and software for capturing, analyzing and modelling multimodal language and behavior data as well as for digitizing language material. This way, a contemporary, high-tech lab has emerged, the "HUBIC Lab" ("Human Behaviour, Interaction and Communication Lab"), which is powerful and versatile enough to serve a large breadth of the Institute's current and future research needs.
LangTERRA has been very dense in terms of scientific dissemination and outreach. Five scientific workshops have been co-organized, some of them in the form of special tracks in the context of major international conferences with high visibility in the fields of interest to the project. These events also featured keynotes and presentations from ILSP, partnering organizations and invited speakers. Proceeding of some of these events were published by prestigious publishers such as IEEE and ACM and indexed in all major scientific databases.
In addition, three Info Days were successfully organized in three different cities in Greece. Their goal was to inform on the activities, research topics and new technologies of ILSP / R.C. "Athena". Combined with other outreach activities of the Institute, these Info Days offered a wide visibility to ILSP. ILSP has also participated to Europe’s largest and most international information technology expo, CeBIT 2015, exhibiting recent research activities and outcomes. In this context, ILSP had a wide range of B2B meetings, a considerable traffic to its stand and exposure to media.
Finally, LangTERRA has designed and produced a wide set of informational and promotional material regarding the Institute and its research, including a range of leaflets, a booklet and video clips, targeting a wider audience and covering the different fields of activities and the relevant accomplishments of the Institute. These were not solely meant to be used for the needs of the project itself, but also to serve ILSP's future communication needs and support its presence in future events and fora.
Potential Impact:
The LangTERRA project represented ILSP’s strong commitment to continuously reinforcing its excellence and remaining at the forefront of developments at a European level in its areas of expertise.
In overall, LangTERRA has been crucial in increasing ILSP's research capacity and enhancing the Institute's overall potential to excel at a European level in the domain of language technologies and in closely related fields. Except from the immediate benefits of the project that have already started to pay off, this investment is expected to have multiple effects in the following period, as the intensified networking, increased know-how and cutting-edge equipment has fertilized a wide range of research, development and innovation activities of the Institute, significantly improving its position and bringing it to the current state-of-the-art in the priority research areas targeted by the project.
List of Websites:
Website; www.langterra.eu
Contact:
Dr. Spyros Raptis
LangTERRA project co-ordinator
Deputy Director
Institute for Language and Speech Processing /
“Athena” Research Center
e-mail: spy@ilsp.gr
Web: http://www.ilsp.gr | http://www.athena-innovation.gr