Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering
Faculty of Engineering Sciences
My life before BGU:
I was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in Nice, France. I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and cognition sciences, a master’s in cognition sciences and a doctorate in computer sciences – all from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I did my postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I have been working on natural language processing beginning with my master’s studies.
My research:
I study natural language processing, a field that deals with the interactions between human and computer languages. Specifically, I study how computers understand language, answer questions in different languages and present users with a detailed and clear reflection of a complex text. I am also interested in the link between natural language processing and psycholinguistics, specifically in the process of language acquisition by children. This link makes it possible to model language acquisition using language processing tools and can also improve existing language processing systems and make them more efficient.
An insight from my research:
In my research field, the ability of language processing systems to translate, simplify a complex sentence, or answer questions is usually quantified in numbers. Part of the research process is questioning such numbers and checking carefully to see if they are truly representative. Sometimes, the numbers only tell part of the story, because they were obtained under certain conditions and at a certain cost (for example, computing or human labeling power). Sometimes the story is simply wrong, for example, when the methods used to obtain those numbers are inappropriate or unreliable.
Something that doesn't appear on my CV:
I really love reading in Hebrew, English and French.
When I grow up:
As a child I wanted to combine languages and computing. I am happy to have realized my dream.
If I wasn’t a researcher, I would...
Be an educator
In Brief:
» Trekking or the spa? Trekking
» Car or train? Train
» Classical Europe or India? Classical Europe
» Ocean or pool? Ocean
» Night or morning? Morning
» Winter or summer? Summer
» City or country? City
» Film or play? Both
» Phone call or text message? Phone call
» Savory or sweet? Sweet
» Android or iPhone? Android
