News

Margreet Vogelzang is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge Section of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics.She researches different aspects of language processing using a combination of psycholinguistic, neuroscientific, statistical and cognitive modeling methods.Her current research on syntactic parsing during reading, learning …

Ahmed Zaidi is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge Department of Computer Science and Technology, and a member of the Institute of Automated Language Teaching and Assessment (ALTA).His research focuses on machine learning for educational applications – how we learn, and how we can use technology and AI to improve our learning. …

Barbara McGillivray is a senior research associate at the University of Cambridge Section of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Turing Research Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute, and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Open Humanities Data.Her research focuses on how words change meaning over time and how to model this change in computational way…

An article by Stefanie Ullmann, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change, University of CambridgeHave you ever wondered what flirting with artificial intelligence would look like? Research scientist and engineer Janelle Shane has given us an idea by training a neural network – an algorithm loosely inspired by bio…

Congratulations to Professors Marta Mirazon Lahr and Geoffrey Khan, who have each won advanced grants from the European Research Council, Europe's premier research funding body.Marta Mirazon Lahr, from the Department of Archaeology, was awarded funding for her NGIPALAJEM project, which will bring a new understanding of how the evolution of our spec…

In her recent TEDxCambridgeUniversity talk Cambridge Language Sciences network member Dr Dora Alexopoulou discusses the positive impact of learning activities that reflect how learners' native language influences second language learning.Multilingualism is more important than ever in an increasingly interconnected world: languages are important for…

An article by Stefanie Ullmann, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Cambridge and Danielle Saunders, Research Student, Department of Engineering, University of CambridgeOnline translation tools have helped us learn new languages, communicate across linguistic borders, and view foreign websites in our native tongue. But the artificial int…

We are delighted to announce that three more projects have been awarded seed funding through the Language Sciences Incubator Fund.Successful applicantsSuccessful applicants from the latest call, which closed in February 2021, were announced on 1 March.All three projects address highly-topical research questions with potentially significant societal…

The new, interdisciplinary Cambridge Festival will take place from 26 March to 4 April 2021, with more than 350 free online events and activities: from panel discussions, film premieres, and self-guided walking tours, to ‘try this at home’ activities for the whole family. The following is a selection of language sciences related talks from the prog…

The Cambridge Language Sciences Annual Symposium is an annual meeting of minds, bringing together language scientists of all disciplines from the University of Cambridge and beyond. The 2020 event took place on 17 November and was attended by 200 colleagues from across the University of Cambridge and other leading research institutions working in t…

Following the success of Dr Kirsty McDougall and her team in securing funding for their research on ‘Improving Voice Identification Procedures’ (IVIP), a new PhD studentship in forensic phonetics has now been established to work in this area.The studentship is a collaboration between the University of Cambridge Phonetics Laboratory, Oxford Wave Res…

We are delighted to announce that Dr Guy Emerson has taken on a formal role as Executive Director for Cambridge Language Sciences working alongside the Co-Directors Prof. Ann Copestake and Prof. Brechtje Post.Dr Emerson takes on this position as part of his Departmental Early Career Academic Fellowship in the Dept. of Computer Science & Technology.…

Cambridge Language Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Centre has concluded a new inter-institutional agreement of cooperation with the Chuo University Institute of Cultural Sciences.The aim of the agreement is to further facilitate research exchange and collaboration across countries and disciplines through activities such as joint research and ac…

A new research centre focused on improving support for lifelong learning and cognitive agility opened on 1 October 2020 in Singapore.The Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualised Cognition (CLIC) is a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), and is funded by Singapo…

For geographers, maps are everyday tools. I’m a historical linguist, and to me a map is a selection of locals’ speech presented in a visual manner. Here’s how I developed an appreciation for the zoomable maps available on the National Library of Scotland’s website and the University of Edinburgh’s Edina Digimap facility, and the Ordnance Survey Nam…