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Although this campaign has concluded, if you would still like to make a donation to support the Dr. Jan Wiebe Memorial Fund, you may always do so here.
Janyce Wiebe – known by her friends and colleagues as “Jan” – was a Professor of Computer Science and the former director of the Intelligent Systems Program at University of Pittsburgh, and a fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics. She was an expert in the areas of opinion analysis, discourse processing, pragmatics, and word-sense disambiguation. She was one of the first to carry out research on methodology in text annotation, just in time for the rapid rise in the need for text annotation for supervised learning methods. She was a pioneer in the research area of “subjectivity analysis” – recognizing and interpreting expressions of opinions and sentiments in text, to support NLP applications such as question answering, information extraction, text categorization, and summarization.
Jan was a leader in the ISP program. The main goals of the ISP are based on the idea that solving difficult, important, real problems in specific fields of study (domains) is a key way to achieve fundamental advances in Artificial Intelligence. She will also be remembered for her terrific sense of humor and infectious laugh.
Supporting The Dr. Jan Wiebe Fund helps current and future SCI students. Your donations will be distributed in support of Pitt SCI students with the extra costs associated with pursuing their education. Some of the various ways this funding could be used include scholarships for students, travel grants for career development site visits in other cities, and student program support in the form of conference fees. Not only does making a gift support Jan’s legacy, it will also help students embark on their educational journey. Much like Jan, your gift will give an undergrad something extra that they need.
Thank you to all of those who attended the memorial service on Saturday, April 27. It was wonderful to see everyone gathering in Jan's memory and honor the impact she made on so many lives. If you were not able to attend the memorial service, please click here to watch the video.
TOPICS IN INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS: Support students pursuing research and study in the world of AI through the School of Computing and Information.
ADVANCED TOPICS IN INTELLGENT SYSTEMS: Help contribute to the cost associated with student conference attendance and/or research.
FOUNDATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Help support Dr. Wiebe’s teaching spirit to be continued in the Pitt School of Computing and Information so that students create their own legacy.
MACHINE LEARNING: Help students have an opportunity work on small team-based projects that provide them with real-world consulting experience. Small teams work together under faculty supervision to produce real deliverables for local stakeholders.
INTRODUCTION TO NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING: Provide funds to promising students who run into unanticipated financial difficulties that can prevent them from finishing their education and reaching their professional goals.
ADVANCED TOPICS IN NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING: Help students succeed in an interdisciplinary environment that fosters intellectual curiosity, scientists and scholars conduct cutting-edge research that leads to innovations and new ways of thinking that make a meaningful impact on society.
