School of Computer Science

School Seminar – Mari Ostendorf

Professor Mari Ostendorf of the University of Washington is visiting
Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews as part of a SICSA Distinguishing
Fellowship.

Title: Rich Speech Transcription for Spoken Document Processing

Abstract:
As storage costs drop and bandwidth increases, there has been rapid growth of spoken information available via the web or in online archives — including radio and TV broadcasts, oral histories, legislative proceedings, call center recordings, etc. — raising problems of document retrieval, information extraction, summarization and translation for spoken language. While there is a long tradition of research in these technologies for text, new challenges arise when moving from written to spoken language. In this talk, we look at differences between speech and text, and how we can leverage the information in the speech signal beyond the words to provide a rich, automatically generated transcript that better serves language processing applications. In particular, we look at how prosodic cues can be used to recognize segmentation, emphasis and intent in spoken language, and how this information can impact tasks such as topic detection, information extraction, translation, and social group analysis.

Event details

  • When: 27th November 2012 15:00 - 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Format: Seminar

School Seminar – Andy Gordon

Reverend Bayes, meet Countess Lovelace: Probabilistic Programming for Machine Learning

Andrew D. Gordon, Microsoft Research and University of Edinburgh

Abstract: We propose a marriage of probabilistic functional programming with Bayesian reasoning. Infer.NET Fun turns the simple succinct syntax of F# into an executable modeling language – you can code up the conditional probability distributions of Bayes’ rule using F# array comprehensions with constraints. Write your model in F#. Run it directly to synthesize test datasets and to debug models. Or compile it with Infer.NET for efficient statistical inference. Hence, efficient algorithms for a range of regression, classification, and specialist learning tasks derive by probabilistic functional programming.

Bio: Andy Gordon is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge, and is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh. Andy wrote his PhD on input/output in lazy functional programming, and is the proud inventor of Haskell’s “>>=” notation for monads. He’s worked on a range of topics in concurrency, verification, and security, never straying too far from his roots in functional programming. His current passion is deriving machine learning algorithms from F# programs.

Event details

  • When: 8th October 2012 15:00 - 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Format: Seminar

Virtual Worlds Research: NuiLib & Armadilo

Exciting update on two pieces of software from the Open Virtual Worlds research group.

The first is NuiLib
(available at NuiLib.org), a utility library for facilitating
development with NUI (Natural User Input) devices (such as the Microsoft
Kinect).

It puts an abstraction layer over the top of the NUI device to
hide the gory details of the original API and allows the developer to
focus on what they are trying to use the device for. It aims to ease
cross platform support, support for different devices, development and
experimentation with new NUI input parsing algorithms, integration of
new algirithms and code clarity.

The second is Armadillo.

This is a Virtual World client modified to support Kinect input. Users
can perform gestures to move their avatar through the world without having to interact with the computer itself. Helpful in museum or school installation
projects.

A video of Armadillo in action is available on the Open Virtual Worlds’ facebook timeline.
Kinect integration in Armadillo was achieved solely using NuiLib.

NuiLib has been featured on Microsoft’s Channel9 Coding for Fun blog
and by the DevelopKinect
community.

Talks are underway to include Armadillo in an
educational pilot program across 38 schools in Ireland and as part of a
Virtual World performance art project.

Both projects were developed by John McCaffery. You can find him in Room 0.09 (Jack Cole Building).

If you are starting on a Kinect project and want
to look at NuiLib or would like to superman your way through the Open
Virtual Worlds group’s reconstruction
of St Andrews Cathedral send him an email or pop in for a chat.

Postgraduate Computer Science BBQ

After a busy week of welcome talks and induction, orientation week drew to a close with the postgraduate BBQ.

MSc and PhD students had an opportunity to meet each other, discuss their diverse backgrounds, previous studies, eat burgers, twiglets and consume the local delicacy Irn Bru.

Images Courtesy of Anne Campbell

Orientation Week BBQ

It was great to see so many undergraduate computer science students at the Orientation Barbecue yesterday. New and returning students had the opportunity to discuss the merits of studying computer science, eat burgers and consume the traditional Irn Bru in a friendly setting.

The Gaming/Programming Competition winners also received their prize in the form of Amazon vouchers. Congratulations to Maclej, Simon and Daniel.

PhD Reading Party 2012

The PhD Reading Party was held at the Burn House, just outside Edzell in the
North East of Scotland.

It was an opportunity for the research students to
give a talk in a relaxed atmosphere, about their research interests.
It also allowed for some socialising while wandering through the nearby
woods and rivers.

Each student gave a 20 minute talk including time for questions and discussions.

In the free time some went off to explore the nearby forest and salmon
rich river while others decided to take a trip to Montrose and test the
North Sea.

Text and Images Courtesy of Ruth Hoffmann


MSc Poster Demo Session 2012

After a summer of hard work the MSc student poster presentations and project demos took place earlier today. Dissertations were submitted on Monday. We wish them every success as they approach graduation and look forward to seeing them again in November!



Computer Science Graduates

Congratulations to Comp Sci grads Robert MacInnis, Allan Boyd and Angus Macdonald who are launching their software company AetherStore™ this week at the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference. Read about their new business in the press release and in the University Alumni Network. Visit their websites at www.AetherWorks.com and www.AetherStore.com.
We wish you every success in your new business venture.

Update

Read more about AetherStore in Scottish PhDs hoist kilt to reveal storage array killer at The Register.