Dr. Yuval Pinter

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Department of Computer Science
Faculty of Natural Sciences

My life before BGU: 

I was born and grew up in Haifa, where I graduated from Leo Baeck high school. I completed my undergraduate degree in mathematics and computer science at Tel Aviv University, where I also got a master’s in theoretical linguistics at the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students. I then spent five years working in the hi-tech industry (on Ginger’s spell checker, and later doing research on language processing and data retrieval at the Yahoo labs). I obtained my doctorate in computer science at Georgia Tech.

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My research:

My field of research is called natural language processing, a field in which we ask if and how automatic systems can communicate with humans using their language. On the one hand, this is very much an applied field and includes developments we are all familiar with, such as translation services, chatbots, and personal assistants, which can reach high levels of accuracy thanks to their access to countless examples of language on the internet. On the other hand, this field also raises profound questions that touch on the humanities and social sciences, such as ‘does a computer that can answer questions understand human language?’ or ‘how do social biases expressed in internet texts infiltrate our system and feed back into our society?’ My research attempts, among other things, to blend the applied and the theoretical by drafting questions and tests for computer systems where the solution requires human knowledge that cannot be obtained merely through memorization of examples; and by digging into the systems’ innards to discover how to characterize the precise ways in which they represent the different structures and components of language. 

​Why BGU?

Aside from the fact that the department I am joining at BGU, the Department of Computer Science, has excellent researchers and a great environment, I was also attracted by the potential for collaboration with researchers from other departments. There are people working on AI and big data in information systems and software engineering; and in the humanities there is a strong niche in digital humanities and in theoretical linguistics, both of which I share common goals with. Finally, I haven’t had the opportunity to interact much with students yet, but thus far I have heard only good things about the talent thriving in the Negev.​

An insight from my research:

The solution to a problem is almost always, and almost completely, dependent upon the way we define the problem. And a follow-up insight from applied computer scientists: the key to solving the problem lies with the experts in that field, and one should work with them closely.

Something that do​esn’t appear on my CV:

I run long distances, am a photography and film buff, graduate of four trivia shows, married to Moran and father to two wonderful girls.

A source of inspira​tion:

My interest in languages began early on, but after reading Guy Deutscher’s The Unfolding of Language I realized just how fascinated I was by this phenomenon of human language. I still think of this book quite a bit when I’m trying to write a research narrative for a project. ​

When I grow up:

My serious fixations as a child were archaeology and architecture. today I feel that I’ve found my place; I would like to contribute from my experience to the study of language processing and train the next generation of researchers and professionals who are curious about human language and computing.​

If I were not a researcher, I w​ould…

Be a writer.

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In brief​​​: 

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