HLTCon: Cracking the Code to the Next Breakthrough in Machine Translation

CIA’s Chief of Human Language Technology Speaks at HLTCon, March 31, 2016

No one believes that machine translation is a completely solved problem, but Dr. Patricia O’Neill-Brown, the Chief of Human Language Technology at the CIA, has part of the answer. Dr. O’Neill-Brown has been carrying out research and development aimed at improving machine translation accuracy through novel techniques. As she explains, good translation is one where the meaning of the source is preserved, and it is rendered correctly in the target language. Users expect accuracy on all of the various levels–grammar, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Dr. O’Neill-Brown will give the keynote at the Human Language Technology Conference (HLTCon) being held March 31, 2016 at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, Virginia.

Her work includes the development of novel methods that take advantage of semantics and pragmatics to increase user understanding of machine translated results. She will present the results of these research and development efforts, and discuss how these techniques aid user understanding of machine translated results and boost machine translation quality.

This year’s HLT Conference theme is Understanding Today’s Refugee Crisis, which explores new advancements that can speed the flow of refugees in need of assistance, while reliably identifying individuals who represent national security risks. Other featured speakers include leading experts and innovators in text analytics and machine translation. Presentations and open discussions will focus on how new technological improvements available now can further agency missions through:

  • Faster and more reliable identity verification at border crossings
  • Improved machine translation to address a worldwide shortage of human translators
  • Detection, prediction of suicide and medical issues from analysis of helpline chats and social media
  • Predictive analytics to spot potential public health or security threats before they reach crisis levels

Among the speakers are representatives from the CIA, Luminoso, Prattle, Diffeo, MIT, Virginia Tech, SDL Government, Elastic, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Basis Technology. Stay posted for additional blog posts throughout the week highlighting a few of these presentations.

This annual conference is sponsored by Basis Technology. It will be held at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, Virginia on March 31, 2016. Registration is free to U.S. government employees with an active government ID. Register today to join us for this unique look into the HLT arena, and networking opportunities with its key leaders.

For more information, please visit www.hltcon.org, email conference@basistech.com, or call +1-617-386-2090.