The Department of Computer Science & Engineering
cse@buffalo
CSE 740:
SEMINAR:
CONTEXTUAL
VOCABULARY
ACQUISITION
Fall 2004

SYLLABUS

(This is a living document; the latest version will always be available on the Web at:
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/740/F04/syl.html )

Last Update: 5 October 2004

Note: NEW or UPDATED material will be highlighted in future versions.


Index: Other Relevant Links:
  • Course Description
  • CSE 740 homepage
  • Prerequisites
  • Directory of Documents
  • Instructor
  • Email Archive
  • Class Meetings
  • Important Dates & Tentative Schedule
  • Attendance, Newsgroup
  • CVA Summaries
  • Final Report
  • How to Read
  • How to Study
  • How to Write
  • Grading
  • Incompletes
  • Academic Integrity

  • COURSE DESCRIPTION:

    This seminar will be devoted to a research project being conducted by Prof. William J. Rapaport (Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Center for Cognitive Science) and
    Prof. Michael W. Kibby (Department of Learning and Instruction, and Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction):

    CONTEXTUAL VOCABULARY ACQUISITION: From Algorithm to Curriculum

    We are developing a computational theory of how natural-language-understanding systems can automatically acquire new vocabulary by determining from context the meaning of words that are unknown, misunderstood, or used in a new sense, and adapting the algorithms for doing this to a curriculum so that these methods can be taught to students in a classroom setting.

    We are:

    (a) extending and developing algorithms for computational contextual vocabulary acquisition (CVA): learning, from context, meanings for unfamiliar words: nouns (including proper nouns), verbs, adjectives, and adverbs,

    (b) unifying a disparate literature on the topic of CVA from psychology, first- and second-language (L1 and L2) acquisition, and reading science, in order to help develop these algorithms, and

    (c) using the knowledge gained from the computational CVA system to build and to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational curriculum for enhancing readers' abilities to use deliberate (i.e., non-incidental) CVA strategies: teaching methods and guides, materials for teaching and practice, and evaluation instruments.

    The knowledge gained from case studies of students using our CVA techniques feeds back into further development of our computational theory.

    The seminar will involve reading research literature on CVA from computational linguistics, psychology, and education; using the SNePS knowledge representation and reasoning system, and/or using natural-language-processing techniques such as ATN (augmented-transition-network) grammars. PREREQUISITE: Graduate standing, or permission of instructor.

    PROFESSOR:

    CLASS MEETINGS:

    CLASS INSTRUCTOR REGIS. NO. DAYS HOURSLOCATION
    SeminarRapaport464044 Tuesdays9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Baldy 45

    IMPORTANT DATES & TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

    UPDATED Note: I have adjusted some of the dates below to reflect what we actually did, rather than on what I had hoped to do:-)

    DAY MONTH DATE TOPIC READINGS
    T Aug 31 Intro to CVA project;
    discuss individual projects
    Rapaport & Ehrlich 2000
    Rapaport & Kibby 2002b
    Rapaport (forthcoming)
    T Sep 7 The CVA Project.
    Intro to the SNePS KRR system

    SNePS Tutorial assigned

    Shapiro & Rapaport 1987
    Shapiro & Rapaport 1995
    Martins 2002
    M   13 Presentation by Dima Dligach
    on "SNePS and WordNet" for CVA

    SNePS Research Group
    1-3 p.m., Bell 242

     
    T   14 SNePS (cont'd.) CVA readings
    T   21 SNePS (cont'd.)

    SNePS TUTORIAL REPORT DUE!

     
    T   28 UPDATED
    SNePS & CVA

    SNePS TUTORIAL REPORT DUE!

     
    T Oct 5 UPDATED
    SNePS & CVA (concluded)
    student progress reports begin
     
    T   12 UPDATED
    student progress reports
    continue till end of semester
     
    F Oct 22 Last Day to Resign

    student progress reports

     
    T Dec 7 Last Class: summary reports  
    Th Dec 16 FINAL REPORTS DUE  

    ATTENDANCE, NEWSGROUP:

    1. You will be expected to attend and participate in all sessions.

    2. You are also welcome to attend either the CVA Research Group meetings on DAYS, TIMES, in Baldy 17, or the SNePS Research Group (SNeRG) meetings on Mondays, 1:00 p.m.--3:00 p.m., in Bell 242 (or both, of course :-)

    3. You should be automatically subscribed to the cse740-fa04-list@listserv.buffalo.edu listserv email list. If you normally read your mail at an address different from the one that UB officially recognizes, please be sure to have your mail forwarded. You may post questions and comments there that are of general interest to the entire class. I will archive the emails at http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/740/F04/email.txt.

    4. You should notify Prof. Rapaport within the first two weeks of class if you have a disability that would make it difficult to carry out course work as outlined (requiring note-takers or readers).

    SUMMARIES OF CVA READINGS

    PROJECT & FINAL REPORT

    HOW TO READ

    HOW TO STUDY

    HOW TO WRITE

    GRADING:

    Since this is a seminar, it will be graded on an S/U basis. However, my determination of S vs. U will be determined by a weighted average of your attendance, seminar presentations, seminar participation, CVA-paper critiques, and final report.

    Incompletes:

    It is University policy that a grade of Incomplete is to be given only when a small amount of work or a single exam is missed due to circumstances beyond the student's control, and that student is otherwise doing passing work. I will follow this policy strictly! Thus, you should assume that I will not give incompletes :-)

    Any incompletes that I might give, in a lapse of judgment :-), will have to be made up by the end of the Spring 2004 semester. This is one semester SOONER than the default university policy.

    For more information on Incomplete policies, see the web page, "Incompletes".

    ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

    While it is acceptable to discuss general approaches with your fellow students, the work you turn in must be your own. It is the policy of this department that any violation of academic integrity will result in an F for the course, that all departmental financial support including teaching assistanceship, research assistanceship, or scholarships be terminated, that notification of this action be placed in the student's confidential departmental record, and that the student be permanently ineligible for future departmental financial support. If you have any problems doing the assignments, consult Prof. Rapaport. Please be sure to read the webpage, "Academic Integrity: Policies and Procedures", which spells out all the details of this, and related, policies.




    Copyright © 2004 by William J. Rapaport (rapaport@cse.buffalo.edu)
    file: 740/F04/syl-2004-10-05.html