Robert Knippen
Education
M.A. in Computer Science. Brandeis University,
Waltham, MA. (May 2005)
- Computational Linguistics.
Ph.D. Program in Linguistics. (ABD, incomplete) University
of Chicago, Chicago, IL. (1989 - 1994)
- Dissertation Proposal: Making Sense of Names: Meaning,
Reference, and Semantic Competence. James McCawley, Salikoko Mufwene,
Jerrold Sadock.
- Qualifying exams in Lexical Semantics and Pragmatics.
- Century Fellowship.
B.S. in Cognitive Psychology. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
(1988)
Teaching Experience
Teaching Fellow. Department of Computer Science, Brandeis
University (2003-2005).
- Cognition and Culture
- Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence
- Introduction to the Theory of Computation
- Computational Linguistics
ESL Tutor. Brandeis University (January 2003 - May 2004).
Lecturer. Departments of English and Philosophy. Texas A&M
University, College Station, TX
(August 1998 - June 2000).
Designed and taught 10 sections:
- Introduction to Symbolic Logic
- Introduction to Linguistics (Honors)
- Structure of Present-day English
- Sound Structure of Language
Teaching Assistant. Department of Linguistics, University of
Chicago, Chicago IL (1992 - 1994).
- Language
- Introduction to Linguistics I: Syntax
- Introduction to Linguistics II: Phonetics, Phonology, and
Morphology
Other Professional Experience
Associate Editor, Dictionary Department. Houghton-Mifflin Corporation. Boston, MA (since July 2005)
- Wrote entries for computer/technology and science dictionary
- Lexicographic editing and citation work
Research Assistant. Brandeis University. Lab for Linguistics
and Computation. (2003-2005)
TimeML (TANGO and TARSQI projects): a US ARDA-funded effort to develop
techniques for processing time and event information in texts:
- Developed algorithms for temporal information extraction and
temporal inference.
- Extracting event-referring expressions from text.
- Participated in developing a standard for XML markup of temporal and event information.
- Java programming on TANGO tool for graphical annotation
of temporal links.
- XML processing and maintenance of training corpus.
Categorization Consultant. Unveil, Corp., Waltham, MA (January
- March 2004)
- Annotated sentences for speech-processing software
Editorial Consultant-Lexicography. Houghton-Mifflin Corp., Boston,
MA. (May - August 2003).
- Created and reviewed entries for trade thesaurus.
- Collaborated with other editors to create a useful and intuitive
lexical network.
Technical Consultant. Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA. (June 2003).
- Collaborated with an international team developing a graphical
annotation tool and an XML
standard for marking up temporal information in texts.
Principal Knowledge Architect, Senior Computational Linguist.
LingoMotors, Inc. Cambridge, MA.
(June 2000 - September 2002)
- Lead
knowledge architecture and engineering projects for commercial language
processing and information retrieval systems.
- Designed and developed resources for language processing and
knowledge management (lexicons, thesauri, grammar rules, linguistic pattern
matching rules, categorization rules, taxonomies, xml schemas, controlled
vocabularies).
- Analyzed user requirements and user text domains.
- Lead a team of developers and analysts.
- Designed and developed core language processing and information
retrieval modules, including:
- Ontology-based query expansion.
- Ontology-based categorization.
- Developed training plan and trained customers to use categorization
software.
Research Assistant. University of Chicago Hospitals. Chicago,
IL. (1995 - 1997)
- "Improving Communication with Patients with Dementia of the
Alzheimer's Type," Dr. Daniel Brauner, M.D., principal investigator.
- Participated as part of a multidisciplinary team in the design,
implementation, and analysis of observational studies of the language
of Alzheimer's patients.
Assistant Map Librarian, Bibliographic Assistant. University
of Chicago Libraries. (1990 - 1997).
-
Developed and maintained databases of bibliographic
and spatial data.
- Online bibliographic cataloging and searching.
- Digital cartography using GIS and imaging software.
Professional Service
Prism Working Group: Publishing Requirements
for Industry Standard Metadata (2001 - 2002)
- Collaborated
with publishers, aggregators, and software vendors developing an XML metadata
standard for the publishing and media industry.
Customizing Knowledge
in NLP Applications: Strategies, Issues and Evaluation; a workshop
at the Third International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation;
May
29-31, 2002
- Organized by Federica Busa, Robert Knippen, Antonio Sanfilippo,
Evelyne Viegas.
Chicago
Linguistic Society (1989 - 1997)
- Abstract
Selection Committee Chair
- Publications Officer, 1993-1994
Languages
German: Good reading knowledge; speaking ability.
French: Reading knowledge.
Czech: Beginner (Currently studying).
West Greenlandic (Eskimo): One year of coursework.
Publications
forthcoming (James Pustejovsky, Roser Sauri, Jessica Littman, Robert Knippen)
"Temporal and Event Information in Natural Language Text." Language Resources and Evaluation
2005 (Verhagen, Marc, Inderjeet Mani, Roser Sauri, Robert
Knippen, Jess Littman and James Pustejovsky). "Automating Temporal Annotation with TARSQI." Demo Session. Proceedings of ACL 2005.
2004 (contributing
editor) American Heritage College Thesaurus, First Edition. Boston,
MA: Houghton-Mifflin.
(Roser Sauri, Jessica Littman,
Bob Knippen, Robert Gaizauskas, Andrea Setzer, and James Pustejovsky) TimeML
Annotation Guidelines. http://timeml.org/timeMLdocs/annguide12wp.pdf/
1997
"Against the Notion that Names Refer Directly." CLS 32: Papers
from the 32nd Regional Meeting of the Chicago
Linguistic Society.
1996 "Implicature
as Cognition," in L. Grenoble, L. Whaley, and M. Przezdziecki (eds.) Proceedings of the Eastern States Conference on Linguistics
'95. Ithaca, NY:Cornell
University.
(L. A. Lane,
J. Denton, D. Suslak, and R. Knippen) "Reaching Criterion in Phonetic Transcription: Validity
and Reliability of Non-Native Speakers." In D.S.
Embick, & M. Meyerhoff (eds.). (N)WAVES and MEANS: A selection
of papers from NWAVE 24, Working Papers in Linguistics Volume 3, Number
1. Philadelphia:
Department of Linguistics, The University of
Pennsylvania, 87-110.
1995 CLS
30: Papers from the 30th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, compiled and edited by Katherine
Beals, Jeannette Denton, Robert Knippen, Lynette Melnar, Hisami Suzuki,
and Erica Zeinfeld. Chicago:Chicago
Linguistic Society.
Presentations
2005 (Roser Saurí, Robert Knippen, Marc Verhagen, James Pustejovsky) "Evita: A Robust Event Recognizer For QA Systems,"
a poster presented October 7, 2005, at the Human Language Technology Conference, Vancouver, BC.
2002 (R.
Knippen, R. Daniel, and L. Burman) “Metadata: a guide to implementation.”
A half-day tutorial presented December 9, 2002 at XML Conference & Exposition
2002. Baltimore,MD.
1999
"How much do we reason about context?" May 14, 1999, at the Sixth International Colloquium on Cognitive Science.
San Sebastian, Spain.
"Names in syntax and semantics."
October 9-11, at the 27th annual meeting of the
Linguistic Association of the Southwest. Tempe,AZ
1998
“Singular referring terms, scope, and modality in discourse.” January 10, at the 1998 Annual Meeting
of the Linguistic Society of America. New York, NY.
1997
"Propositional attitude sentences, direct reference, and
the discourse model." January
3, at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America.
1996
"Against the notion that names refer directly." April 12, 1996, at the 32nd Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic
Society. Chicago,IL.
1995
"Implicature as cognition." November 3, 1995, at the Eastern States Conference on Linguistics '95. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.
1994
"Defining names." November 13, 1994, at the 51st South East Conference on Linguistics.
Baltimore, MD.