Background

In research, I have led the Artificial Intelligence Group since 1989 and have been able to initiate, obtain funds, and supervise over 12 projects in basic and applied artificial intelligence research. This research has been prinicpally in the areas of knowledge-based expert systems and in language engineering. The research funding, valued at about a 1.25 million pounds-sterling over a period of 7 years, was obtained from the EPSRC, ESPRIT, and other peer-review bodies. I have presented my work at international conferences in Europe and in the USA; I have been a keynote speaker at two major international conferences and was invited speaker at five others. To date, I have supervised six successful PhD students (and one MPhil student) in Expert Systems, Language Engineering and Neural Networks. Currently,I have four full-time PhD students and two part-time PhD students. My current research interests include Modular Neural Network Architectures, Text-Based Knowledge Acquisition, Information Extraction including summarisation, Multimedia systems specifically involving speech and texts. I have taken the initiative in streamlining the process by which Ph. D. students are examined by introducing the concept of open-public lectures for the Ph. D. eaminees. This public presentation, attended also by the external examiner, allows the examinee to present to as wide an audience as possible the key points of his or her research. Such an approach introduces a degree of openess to an otherwise quite a closed system of examination.

I am extensively involved in Technology Transfer projects and have worked for organisations like British Aerospace, the European Commission, the University of South Australia, and, currently for the UK Science Research Council's Teaching Company Programme. I am proud of my association with the Women Returnees Programme, founded by the late Prof. Daphne Jackson: I am supervising my third Returnee, having helped two others to find full-time positions within UK universities. Outside the University, I have worked as a Consultant to companies in the UK and Germany, and was appointed Technical Director of InKE Ltd at Surrey. I have acted as a referee for research councils in the United Kingdom and Australia, and serve on the Advisory Committee of the Austrian- based InfoTerm, a UNESCO-sponsored organisation. I have been involved in the United Nations Programme for Transfer of Knowhow Through Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN) and have served as a Consultant to the Planning Commission of the Government of Pakistan (1985-1991) and have also worked as a Consultant for the UN's Food and Agricultural Programme in Pakistan in 1986/87.

I am the author/co-author of over 100 publications including refereed and contributed papers and technical reports. My co-authored book "Computer Assisted Language Learning and Language Teaching" (Cambridge Uni. Press) has sold over 25,000 copies and was used as a standard text. I have edited and extensively contributed to two edited books "Translator's Workbench: Tools and Terminology for Translation and Text Processing" (Springer-Verlag) and "Standards for Multilingual and Multifunctional Lexica" (in press).

Current Work

Over the last 10 years, I have been involved in using software systems for examining theories and observations, particularly those of psychologists and linguists, that relate to decision making, to knowledge and its dissemination through text, and to the development of and disorder in human language. Current work in mathematical cognition and multimodal information processing is extending this approach.

Successfully completed projects, sponsored by the the European Commission and others, and doctoral dissertations have led to published at international conferences. These include critiques of theories and observations in corpus and text linguistics, in child language development and in automatic knowledge acquisition. These critiques were articulated through software systems developed or adapted by members of my Group including a text and terminology management system System Quirk, a text summarisation system, Telepattan, and neural network-based systems for simulating language development (System ACCLAIM) and for simulating aphasia, System LISA.

I have worked closely with European industry and government agencies through contract research, technology transfer projects and consultancies. Expert Systems have been developed for, amongst others, the UK National Rivers Authority (now ENVAGE) and for UK water companies and consultancies. Terminology management systems have been developed for collaborators like Mercedes-Benz, Siemens-Nixdorf Systems, Aerospatiale and Electricite de France. I have been the principal investigator in the EU's Multilingual Action Plan Project POINTER and have been involved in putting forward proposals for a terminology infrastructure for Europe.

I have been the principal investigator in the following EU sponsored projects on text-based terminology at Surrey and have served as a member of the management committees of these projects:

ACE: Analyst's Control Environment (1996-1998)
INTERVAL: Interlinguistic Terminology Validation (1996-1998)
POINTER: Proposals for an Operational Infrastructure for Terminology in Europe (1995)
TRANSTERM: Creation, reuse, normalisation and integration of terminologies in natural language processing systems (1993-1996)
TWB: Translator's Workbench I & II (1989-92, 1992-1995)
MULTILEX: Multifunctional Lexica: Specification of European Standards (1990-1993)
VALUE (MULTILEX II): Electronic Publishing Tools for Dictionaries in MULTILEX Format (1993-1994)

I have been the principal investigator in the following expert systems projects:

EPSRC/DTI Safety Critical Systems Advanced Technology Programme: "Safe Design of networks by the use of Information Systems" (SAFE-DIS) (1993-1996)
NRA-sponsored ELSIE: Expert Licensing System and Information Environment (1992-1994)
NRA-sponsored Water Resources Management Intelligent Assistant (W-RAISA) (1990-1991)
EU-sponsored Expert Systems for Maintenance: Project PLAIM (Platform Lifetime Assessment through Analysis, Inspection and Maintenance)(1988-1989)
PRIME Inc., (USA)'s Expert systems for (Tolerance in Mechanical) Design: Tolerancing Expert System for Specification and Analysis (TESSA)(1986-1988)
Alvey (DTI/SERC) sponsored Expert systems for operational control and procedural planning: The Water Industry Expert Systems Club (WIESC Alvey Project No. IKBS 060)(1985-1987)
HR-sponsored Intelligent Front-Ends for Simulation Programs: WASSP Intelligent Front-End (WIFE)(1985-1987)

Technology transfer projects include in-house workshops on terminology management in France, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway, and Expert Systems workshops organised in the UK and Australia. I have been the principal investigator in the following technology transfer projects:

EPSRC Teaching Company Scheme sponsored project on neural nets for knowledge mining (with IML Ltd) (1996-1999)
ESPRIT-Neues Bundeslander Special Action sponsored LEXICIM: A multi-language lexicon of CIM terms for use in CIM environments (1994-1995)
EU-COMETT sponsored TECHWARE Project: Advanced IT in Urban Drainage (1990-1993)
UK Computer Board sponsored Intelligent Teaching and Learning Systems for business students(ITLS) (1986-1988)
UK Eng. Industries Training Board's sponsored Surrey Journeymen's Programme in AI, (SoJOURN), (1985-1986)

I have devised three undergraduate courses. Two of the courses are for the final year of mathematical and computing sciences degrees: the first course is on advanced topics in Artificial Intelligence and the second for advanced topics in Neural Networks (and Chaos). The third course is an introduction to knowledge-based expert systems for the second year students.