Research Spotlight: Understanding Events and Beliefs Expressed in Text
Professor Janyce Wiebe will create methods to understand events and beliefs expressed in text
This project is funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ( http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic ) as a University Affiliate Research Center (UAC). The center has been awarded $2.4 million over the next three years to develop accurate and robust techniques for extracting and summarizing information about events and beliefs from text. The center will focus on three areas of research.
- We will create easily trainable learning algorithms that can automatically create domain-specific patterns to identify facts and relations associated with relevant events, such as infectious disease outbreaks.
- We will develop trainable learning algorithms that can distinguish factual assertions from subjective (non-factual) assertions, identify beliefs that are held by an entity, and assess the intensity, polarity, and motivation and attitude types of those beliefs.
- We will create methods for understanding event and belief progressions over time.
The purpose of the DHS UAC program is to fund basic research and education, and to foster research collaborations among universities and the National Laboratories. The other UACs are at Rutgers University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
More information:
- Post-Gazette Article (August 11, 2006)
Security grant on text analysis - Pittsburgh Business Times Article (August 7, 2006)
Homeland security gives Pitt 'decoding' deal - Pitt Press Release (August 7, 2006)
Pitt Awarded $2.4 Million by U.S. Department of Homeland Security to Develop Computing Technology