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Integrated Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) Program
Funded by the NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
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Unifying the Science of Language
| What computational
and biological structure in the human brain makes language possible,
and where does this structure come from? What mental representations
and operations constitute language processing in the human mind/brain?
Is there a precise, mathematical science of human language? What can
the recent dramatic advances in computer processing of human language
tell us about the nature of language, the computational system of the
human language processor, and the processes by which children learn
language? And why, despite major progress, is language processing in
computers still so much less effective than language processing in the
human mind/brain? |
With the support
of the NSF-funded
IGERT training grant centered in the
Cognitive Science Department
at
Johns
Hopkins University, students are trained to pursue these and many
other related questions. Studying with scientists at the forefront of
research in this area, trainees acquire a set of theoretical,
experimental, and computational tools constituting a uniquely
multidisciplinary range of research methods:
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Psychological experimentation on
adult and
child language processing and learning.
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Computational and mathematical modeling of language processing and
learning,
including symbolic methods and neural networks, in a range of linguistic
formalisms.
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Neuroimaging of brain activity during language processing.
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Grammatical analysis of the language of adults, children, and
second-language learners.
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Neuropsychology of language deficits from acquired and developmental
neurological damage.
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Computational methods of
automatic
speech and language processing.
Trainees receive a
comprehensive interdisciplinary education through courses on the
neurobiological, psychological, computational, linguistic, and
philosophical perspectives on cognition, ranging from integrative courses
on the foundations of cognitive science to advanced seminars aimed at
unifying the science of language by overcoming the significant
intellectual barriers that separate theoretical linguistics, mathematical
linguistics, psycholinguistics, and computational linguistics. An
International Program provides trainees the opportunity to study and
conduct research on a wide range of languages in a variety of
collaborating universities and laboratories around the world.
Support: IGERT trainees are awarded a generous
support package consisting of a yearly stipend, tuition waiver, and
health benefits for 5 years. Trainees are also eligible for research and
travel funds to supplement resources available through their home
departments and their advisors’ labs.
Members of
groups under-represented in science and engineering are especially
encouraged to apply.
This training program builds directly on our
previous IGERT program,
“Problem-Centered Research Training: Integrating Formal and
Empirical Methods in the Cognitive Science of Language.”
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Core
Faculty |
Affiliation |
Research
Specialties |
Badecker, William, Ph.D.
Linguistics
Indiana U., 1983 |
JHU, Department of Cognitive Science, Associate
Professor, Director of
Undergraduate Studies |
Language processing & representation; syntax & morphology;
neurolinguistics |
Burzio, Luigi, Ph.D.
Linguistics & Philosophy
MIT, 1981 |
JHU, Department of Cognitive Science, Professor |
Theoretical phonology, morphology, & syntax; Romance; associative
networks |
Frank,
Robert, Ph.D.
Computational Linguistics
U. of Pennsylvania, 1992 |
JHU, Department of Cognitive Science, Professor |
Syntactic theory; computational
linguistics; psycholinguistics:
sentence processing |
Jelinek, Frederick,
Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering
MIT, 1962 |
JHU, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Julian Sinclair Smith
Professor;
Director, Center for Language & Speech Processing
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Speech recognition; statistical natural language processing;
information theory |
Landau, Barbara,
Ph.D.
Psychology
U. of Pennsylvania,
1982 |
JHU, Department of
Cognitive Science, Dick & Lydia Todd Professor & Cognitive Science
Department Chair |
Grammatical & lexical acquisition; cognitive development; spatial
representation |
Legendre, Géraldine,
Ph.D.
Linguistics
UCSD, 1987 |
JHU, Department
of Cognitive Science, Professor, Director of Graduate Admissions
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Syntactic theory & acquisition; Optimality Theory; Romance & Balkan
morphosyntax |
McCloskey, Michael,
Ph.D.
Cognitive Psychology
Princeton, 1978 |
JHU, Department of Cognitive Science, Professor |
Cognitive neuropsychology; spatial & lexical representation,
foundations of cognitive science |
Rapp, Brenda, Ph.D.
Psychology
Johns Hopkins, 1991 |
JHU, Department of Cognitive Science, Professor, Director of
Graduate Studies
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Cognitive neuropsychology; reading, writing, spoken production;
fMRI |
Smolensky, Paul,
Ph.D.
Mathematical Physics
Indiana U., 1981 |
JHU, Department of
Cognitive Science, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Cognitive Science, PI
IGERT |
Neural networks & grammatical theory; Optimality Theory: phonology,
learnability |
Stone, Maureen, Ph.D.
Speech Science
U. of Maryland, 1979 |
UMD, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Professor, Director of
Vocal Tract Visualization Lab |
Acoustic & articulatory phonetics; mathematical modeling;
ultrasound, electropalatography |
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Staff |
Affiliation |
Specialty |
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Pat A. Creswell, MA
Arts Administration & Ed., San Francisco University,
College of Creative Arts, 1998 |
JHU, Department
of Cognitive Science, Senior Academic Program Coordinator (IGERT) |
Coordinate national recruitment;
support IGERT Trainees and the Principal Investigator |
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Faculty |
Affiliation |
Research Area |
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Boatman, Dana, Ph.D.
Cognitive Neurology,
University of Pennsylvania |
JHU, Department of
Neurology/Neurosurgery, Professor of
Neurology &
Otolaryngology |
Neural bases of speech perception; electrocortical mapping;
neuroimaging; audition in autism |
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Connor, Charles E., Ph.D.
Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine, 1989 |
JHU, The Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Associate Professor
of Neuroscience |
Neural representation of shape and object |
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Courtney, Susan M., Ph.D.
Bioengineering,
U of Pennsylvania, 1993 |
JHU, Department of
Psychological & Brain
Sciences, Associate
Professor of
Psychological and Brain Sciences |
Neural substrate of working memory, verbal and visual; attention;
neuroimaging (PET, fMRI) |
Eisner, Jason, Ph.D.
Computer Science, U. of
Pennsylvania, 2001 |
JHU, Department of Computer Sciences, Center for Language & Speech
Processing, Assistant Professor of Computer Science |
Statistical & non-statistical parsing; formal phonology (Optimality
Theory); syntax induction |
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Feigenson, Lisa,
Ph.D. Cognitive Psychology, New York
University, 2003 |
JHU, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Assistant
Professor of Psychological and Brain Science |
Cognitive development; object and number representation in infants
and young children |
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Halberda, Justin,
Ph.D.
Cognitive Psychology, New York University, 2001 |
JHU, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Assistant
Professor Psychological and Brain Sciences |
Cognitive development; reasoning & word learning; attention;
symbolic & connectionist modeling |
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Hillis, Argye, Ph.D.
Neurology & Neurosurgery JHU School of Medicine |
JHU Medicine,
Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Professor of Neurology and
Medicine |
Neural representation of language functions and spatial maps;
aphasia; hemispatial neglect |
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Khudanpur, Sanjeev, Ph.D.
Electrical & Computer Engineering U of Maryland, 1997 |
JHU, The Whiting School of Engineering, Assistant Professor of
Electrical & Computer Engineering; CLSP
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Information theory: automatic speech recognition, machine
translation, natural language processing |
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Resnik, Philip, Ph.D.
Computer and Information Science, U of Pennsylvania, 1994 |
UMD, Department of Linguistics & Institute of Advanced Computer
Studies, Associate Professor of Linguistics and Computer Studies
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Cross-language information retrieval, machine
translation; human
lexical acquisition, sentence
processing |
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Yarowsky, David, Ph.D.
Computer & Information Science U of Pennsylvania, 1996 |
JHU, Department of Computer Science Professor of Computer
Science; CLSP |
Machine translation; word sense disambiguation; information
retrieval; minimally supervised learning |
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IGERT Trainees and Associates
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