CCRI: Planning-C: Facilitating Language Technologies for Crisis Response (LT4CR)

数字时代的到来使得自然语言处理(NLP)技术在灾难应对中具有广阔的前景和重要的作用。例如，语言技术可用于根据短信对即时援助的需求进行分类，翻译与正在进行的流行病有关的大量数据，或参与对话以指导自然灾害受害者。然而，这些进展仅限于当今世界上使用或签署的6500多种语言中的几十种，忽视了数百万人，扩大了“数字鸿沟”，有效地降低了这些技术在现实世界中的实用性。这项CESE计算研究基础设施(CCRI)规划拨款将为应对危机/灾难的语言技术铺平一条具体的道路，对每个人都有用。这需要发展关键的基础设施，以支持研究能够在危机情况下实现和支持通信的技术解决方案。具体地说，该项目将对应对危机的语言技术进行彻底调查，以查明利益攸关方和文献方面的差距。然后，该小组将策划研究机构的计划，其中将包括适用于精心策划的危机/灾难情景的数据集，这些情景与与弱势群体交流所必需的典型语言情景挂钩。规划阶段将通过研讨会传播结果，研讨会将汇集专注于NLP的研究人员、灾难救援、语言学和人机交互专家，以及来自当地语言社区的代表，以促进一个专注于危机应对的语言技术的研究社区，所有利益相关者都有代表。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The advent of digital era has made natural language processing (NLP) technology both promising and important for disaster response. Language technologies can, for instance, be used for triaging the need for immediate assistance based on text messages, translating vast amounts of data related to ongoing pandemics, or engage in conversations to guide natural disaster victims. However, these advances are only limited to a few dozen of the more than 6500 languages spoken or signed in the world today, neglecting millions of people and widening the "digital divide", effectively reducing the technologies' real-world utility.This CISE Computing Research Infrastructure (CCRI) planning grant will lay out a concrete path to language technologies for crisis/disaster response that will be useful for everyone. This requires developing crucial infrastructure to support research towards technological solutions that enable and support communications in crisis scenarios. Specifically, the project will produce a thorough survey of language technologies for crisis response, in order to identify stakeholders and literature gaps. The team will then curate plans for research instrastructure, which will consist of datasets applicable to carefully curated crisis/disaster scenarios tied to prototypical language scenarios that are necessary for communicating with vulnerable populations. The planning phase will disseminate the results via a workshop, which will bring together researchers focusing on NLP, experts in disaster relief, linguistics, and human-computer interaction, as well as representatives from local speech communities, to facilitate a research community focused on language technologies for crisis response with representation from all stakeholders.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.