Informatics: ILCC: Language Processing, Speech Technology, Information Retrieval, Cognition MPhil

The University of Edinburgh

Strongly interdisciplinary in nature, the Institute for Language, Cognition and Communication (ILCC) is dedicated to both basic and applied research in the computational study of language, communication, and cognition, in both humans and machines.

As technology focuses increasingly on language-based communication tools, research into the automation of language processing has become vital. ILCC offers you the broadest research scope in the UK, and a strong computational focus.

Our primary areas of research are:

• natural language processing and computational linguistics

• spoken language processing

• dialogue and multimodal interaction

• information extraction, retrieval, and presentation

• computational theories of human cognition

• educational and assistive technology

• visualisation

Much of our research is applied to software development, in areas as diverse as social media, assisted living, gaming and education.

You may find yourself working closely with other departments of the University, particularly the School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences.

Many of our researchers are involved in cross-disciplinary research centres, for instance:

Centre for Speech Technology Research (CSTR)

The Centre for Speech Technology Research (CSTR) is an interdisciplinary research centre linking Informatics and Linguistics. Founded in 1984, it is now one of the world's largest concentrations of researchers working in the field of language and speech processing.

CSTR is concerned with research in all areas of speech technology including speech recognition, synthesis, signal processing, acoustic phonetics, information access, multi-modal interaction and dialogue systems.

The Centre is home to state-of-the-art research facilities including specialised speech and language-orientated computer labs, a digital recording studio, perception labs and a meeting room instrumented with multiple synchronised video cameras and microphones. There is also access to high-performance computer clusters, the University storage area network, a specialist library, and many speech and language databases.

Centre for Design Informatics

Data driven innovation is transforming society and the economy. In the Centre for Design Informatics, we design systems for better human data interaction, in diverse settings such as health, culture, mobility and finance.

We explore design from, with, and by data: the central concern is the design of flows of data which sustain and enhance human values. Relevant technologies range from the internet of things, through blockchains, to robotics, speech recognition, data visualisation, interaction design, and social computing.

UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Natural Language Processing

The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Natural Language Processing (NLP) is jointly run by the School of Informatics and the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences. Its aim is to equip students with the fundamental skills for advanced research in NLP and language science, giving them foundations in: linguistics; machine learning, statistics, algorithms; programming; working with other modalities such as vision; and design, ethics, and responsible innovation as they apply to NLP systems.

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Accredited by the EFMD Quality Improvement System.

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