Received: from GLINDA.OZ.CS.CMU.EDU by A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa25298; 27 Sep 95 19:11:49 EDT Date: Wed, 27 Sep 95 19:10:52 EDT From: AI.Repository@GLINDA.OZ.CS.CMU.EDU To: ai+ai-predoc@cs.cmu.edu Subject: Predoc: NLP at Univ. of Durham (UK) Sender: ai@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU From: Russell Collingham Subject: JOB: RA POST WORKING ON NL-DATABASE INTERFACE Date: 8 Sep 1995 09:16:45 +0100 Organization: University of Durham, Durham, UK UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM LABORATORY FOR NATURAL LANGUAGE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE Applications are invited for a research assistant to work on the DEAR project which is building a natural language database interface using the LOLITA natural-language processor and the Glasgow Haskell Compiler. Candidates should have experience in the use of functional languages for programming substantial software systems (preferably with lazy functional languages). Experience in natural language processing and databases would also be helpful. The post is available immediately for a period of two years (but applicants should be able to start by mid October at the latest). The salary will be on the research 1A scale (14,317 to 17,466 pounds sterling), depending on experience. Applicants should contact Rick Morgan: Email: R.G.Morgan@durham.ac.uk Phone: +44 (0)191 3743654 Fax: +44 (0)191 3742560 Address: Department of Computer Science University of Durham Science Laboratories South Road Durham DH1 3LE UK WWW: http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dcs0rjc/lnle/lnlehome.html The DEAR Project The DEAR (Database EAsy Retrieval) project aims to build a sophisticated natural language interface for a commercial database. This will be achieved by building on four pieces of technology :- - LOLITA (Large-scale, Object-based, Linguistic Interactor, Translator and Analyser) a sophisticated natural-language processor which is the result of as eight year research programme at the University of Durham. LOLITA has been designed as a general purpose NL base system upon which specific applications can be built. It is written in Haskell and, at over 40,000 lines, is one of the world's largest lazy functional programs. - GHC, the Glasgow Haskell Compiler, aims to provide Haskell programmers with a state-of-the art compiler and to serve as the driving force behind, and test-bed for, research in language design and implementation technology. GHC is intended to compile code for parallel machines. - A large commercial database provided by the project's `heavy uncle' Rolls Royce and Associates. - A commercial multiprocessor (Sun SparcCentre 2000) The system will take NL queries, translate them into SQL, pass them on to the (unmodified) underlying database and display the result. The project aims to speed the analysis by executing LOLITA on a multiprocessor using a parallel implementation of the functional language Haskell. The significance of the project goes well beyond a single Rolls Royce database. Firstly, since the interface to the database is achieved through SQL, the system should be usable with almost any database. Secondly the work will be applicable to knowledge bases other than relational DBMSs. Finally, the project will be a convincing (and demanding) application of parallel Haskell which will identify the important issues in large-scale programming in the purely functional paradigm. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message | Submissions ai+ai-predoc@cs.cmu.edu was sent via | Subscribe/Unsubscribe ai+query@cs.cmu.edu the AI-PREDOC | Available mailing lists include mailing list. | AI-JOBS, LISP-JOBS, PROLOG-JOBS, AI-POSTDOC, AI-PREDOC