Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing

We are interested in computational analyses of the ways humans communicate. We focus on algorithms that allow the extraction and use of meaning from natural language and other forms of communication.

Natural language processing has been an important aspect of computing research at the Open University for many years. The group is highly interdisciplinary, having a long history of collaboration with other disciplines within computer science and software engineering, and with disciplines outside computing.

We also believe that the study of language allows us to develop a deeper understanding of how humans communicate. We attempt to apply the same algorithms to a range of means of communication, including natural languages, music, diagrams, pictures and gesture.

Our research in natural language processing, information retrieval (IR) and next generation networks addresses problems associated with understanding, managing and using online, networked resources at scale. Resources may be human language texts, rich interactive media, web services/web APIs and online users engaged in collaborative activities