From July 8-12, 2024, the UTM Faculty of Computers, Informatics, and Microelectronics became a true hub of linguistic innovation, hosting an international summer school dedicated to computational linguistics. Organized under the UniDive COST Action CA21167 (Universality, Diversity, and Idiosyncrasy in Language Technology) project, this event gathered over 65 young researchers from approximately 30 countries, providing them with a unique platform to explore the latest trends in the field and collaborate with renowned experts.
Participants at the UniDive Summer School represented countries such as the USA, China, India, Iran, Ethiopia, Tunisia, and many European nations. They engaged in an intensive and diverse program focused on developing high-quality linguistic resources and applying natural language processing techniques in various contexts.
The summer school offered a perfect blend of linguistic theory and practical applications, cultivating valuable skills in computational linguistics under the guidance of distinguished scholars:
- Sylvain KAHANE, Professor of Linguistics at Université Paris Nanterre, PhD in Mathematics, Paris, France
- Voula GIOULI, Professor of Linguistics and Researcher at the Institute for Language and Speech Processing, ATHENA Research Center, Greece
- Daniel ZEMAN, PhD in Mathematical Linguistics at the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Czech Republic
- Bruno GUILLAUME, Research Scientist at INRIA, Paris, France
- Verginica BARBU MITITELU, PhD in Philology, Principal Researcher at RACAI, Romanian Academy of Sciences, Bucharest, Romania
- Agata SAVARY, PhD in Computer Science, Professor of Computer Science at Université Paris-Saclay, France
These international experts presented participants with methods for creating linguistically annotated resources, techniques for verifying annotation accuracy, quality assessment, and loading resources into global projects like Universal Dependencies and Parseme.
The UniDive Summer School at UTM, organized by Associate Professor Victoria BOBICEV from the Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, was an exceptional event that brought together young researchers passionate about computational linguistics from around the world. This event highlighted UTM’s role as a pillar of education and research, open to new horizons and committed to training the next generation of specialists in language technologies. Participation in such international initiatives enhances the University’s reputation, providing a unique learning experience and an opportunity to contribute to a more connected and inclusive future.
The UniDive project, which includes the Summer School, aims to revolutionize our approach to the diversity of natural languages. By creating a global network of researchers, the project seeks to develop linguistic tools and technologies that facilitate international communication and collaboration. The summer school held at UTM represents a significant step in this direction, demonstrating Moldova’s active role in the international research landscape in computational linguistics.
Planned for 2022-2026, the UniDive project brings together approximately 250 interdisciplinary experts (linguists, computational linguists, computer scientists, psycholinguists, and programmers) from nearly 40 countries.
