Hi. I'm Daniel Duma.

I have a background in linguistics and programming, which has led me straight into the fascinating area of Natural Language Processing.


I graduated with Distinction from an MSc in Speech and Language Processing at the University of Edinburgh in 2012, and I am currently enrolled in a PhD on Natural Language Interfaces for Robots at the University of Plymouth.

Learn about my interests See my publications

I'm crazy about life.

I'm also interested in all areas of NLP, but these are my haunts:
  • Semantics (Computational and Formal): I dream of an unambiguous, cross-linguistic representation of meaning. Human communication is optimized for speed, not accuracy. Utterances or communicative acts rely on a common context (situational, cultural, etc.) between the speaker (writer) and hearer (reader), so all communication is dependent on context. I am thinking of how to explicitly and unambiguously capture the context of an utterance. I am also thinking of how to define concepts in a way that is explicit about their grounding and so potentially language-independent. I do enjoy thinking.
  • Natural language generation: More specifically, I am excited about getting computers to tell stories and write poetry. Maybe this is because of all the Literature I studied.
  • Machine translation: This is another one of my dreams, although state-of-the-art phrase-based MT is extremely disappointing, not in its results but in its approach. The MT I am interested in is based on a measure of understanding of the source text, its domain, context, intended audience and author's intention. Professionals and academics currently working in MT quickly dismiss this as "intractable". Challenge accepted.
  • Automatic summarisation: I believe that compressing the information in a text will benefit hugely from the same approach outlined above.
See my publications

CV / Resumé

I have sold computers and seafood, unloaded trucks, stacked shelves, and been a freelance programmer,
translator and designer, but what follows is most relevant to my academic career:

Education

Current PhD Natural Language for Robots (University of Plymouth)
2011-2012 MSc Speech and Language Processing (Distinction) (University of Edinburgh)
2005-2010 BA Linguistics & English Studies (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
July 2009 Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) - Pass B (Westminster Kingsway College, London)
2008-2009 Full year visiting student, Goldsmiths College, University of London: 10 months (Erasmus scholarship)

Work

Current University of Plymouth - PhD Natural Language for Robots - It's also a job!
2010–2011 Eton College, Windsor, UK - Spanish Assistant Teacher
2009 Fyne Centro de Idiomas, S.L., Madrid - Teacher of English
2006–2007 Spanish Army Central Headquarters - Delphi Programmer

Languages


I speak Spanish (native), English (almost native) and French (not quite native), feel free to write/speak to me in any of these. I am also learning Italian and German, with more success at the former.

Here is what I have published so far.

Academically, that is my MSc dissertation and a paper on it.

Want to get in touch?

Email me at dd @ [myname][mysurname] dot com , or find me on these sites: