North American Computational Linguistics Open competition (NACLO) 2020 is almost here

Starting this year, the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad has been officially renamed to North American Computational Linguistics Open competition. To know more about the competition, click here.

- January 10, 2020

Congratulations to Dralia Tulley-Patton and Shelby Hobohm, recipients of a 2016-17 Undergraduate Research Fellowship (URF)

This academic distinction is sponsored by the Offices of the President, Provost, Vice President for Finance and Administration, Vice President for Research and Economic Development, and the Dean of TAMS and the Honors College. The award enhances academic excellence via the expansion of mentor-based undergraduate research across all disciplines and their curricula. The $500 fellowship rewards undergraduates who enter and contribute to guided- research environments. Students who achieve URF distinction will present posters and papers at UNT Scholars Day (April 2017).

Dralia plans to advance research in the area of insider threat detection, exploring the use of NLP and ML in analyzing the differences between the language of a typical employee and the language of an insider who poses a security threat. Dralia is pursuing this research with Drs. Rodney Nielsen and Hassan Takabi.

Shelby Hobohm's research in the HILT lab focuses on training robots to learn about the world around them using a vision- and dialogue-based game, I Spy. Specifically, Shelby is researching techniques to improve human-robot interaction during the game, with an emphasis on new gaze tracking methods and how they can facilitate natural interactions.

- June 22, 2016

Natalie Parde Wins Inaugural Golden Eagle

A very big congratulations to our Ph. D. student Natalie Parde who won an Inaugural Golden Eagle Award, the most prestigious award that UNT bestows on a student leader. Recipients are those who show a tremendous commitment to co-curricular activities and enhancing campus life at the University of North Texas. Among many roles, Natalie’s considerable service and leadership includes being president of UNT’s Women in Computing organization, outreach to K-12 students, volunteering for the National Center for Women & Information Technology, and mentoring TAMS students.

- May 3, 2016

HiLT Lab Member Dralia Tulley-Patton Wins SWSIS Scholarship

Congratulations to our very own undergrad Dralia Tulley-Patton for being awarded a scholarship by the Applied COmputer SEcurity Associations, the CRA-W, and the Hewlett Packard Enterprice. The Scholarship for Women Studying Information Security (SWSIS) supports exceptional students in their final two years as an undergrad.

- May 3, 2016

Dan Jarvis Wins CSE Department Award for Outstanding Senior in Computer Science

Congrats to HiLT lab member Dan Jarvis, an undergrad, who won this year's CSE department award for Outstanding Senior in Computer Science.

- May 3, 2016

Women of the HiLT Lab Receive CRA-W Grad Cohort Awards

We would like to congratulate our Ph.D. students Andrea Godea, Nishitha Guntakandla, Natalie Parde, Zahra Sarabi, and Alakananda Vempala who all received CRA-W Grad Cohort awards.

- May 3, 2016

HiLT Lab Members Solve Code-Breaking Puzzles at Escape Room

Taking a break from research, the women of the HiLT Lab recently spent the evening deciphering codes and solving logic puzzles at the new escape room on the Denton Square! The group, including Andreea Godea, Nishitha Guntakandla, Natalie Parde, Lexi Peak, Zahra Sarabi, and Alakananda Vempala, worked together to successfully crack all of the clues and break out of the room before the time ran out. They're already looking forward to tackling more problem-solving challenges in the future!

- Feb 19, 2016

Sara Adams Wins NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award

Sara Adams won a DFW NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award! The Aspirations in Computing Award is a prestigious award sponsored by the National Center for Women & Technology that honors female high school students for their exemplary achievements in computer science. Sara has been a member of the HiLT Lab since the Spring 2015 semester, working on the lab's I Spy project.

- Jan 27, 2016

Natalie Parde Serves on NCWIT Panel

Natalie Parde was selected to be the graduate student panelist at the DFW NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award Ceremony! The panel brought together female leaders from academia and industry from across the DFW metroplex to speak to award winners and their guests about the challenges and exciting opportunities for women in STEM fields.

- Jan 27, 2016

Welcome new members to the lab

We'd like to welcome our many new members to the HiLT lab. Andrea Godea, Aniket Sakinala, Dralia Tulley-Patton, Florin Bulgarov, Namratha Urs, and Stephanie Barbie have all joined us recently.

- Jan 27, 2016

HiLT member Noelle Davis talks about TAMS

Noelle Davis is interviewed about her experiences as a TAMS student and how working at the HiLT Lab has helped her in her success. Read more.

- Nov 16, 2015

Denton Ranked Fifth Best College Town in the Nation

According to Livibility Denton is fifth best in the US as a college town. While we've always loved Denton, read here about why this is the best town in Texas!

- Aug 10, 2015

HiLT member Kevin James receives award

Kevin James recieved the Oustanding Undergraduate Student in Computer Engineering Award. Kevin is a member of the SEEDING team where he works on supporting and expanding an online educational system that is being used in science classrooms. Along with the back-end development of this system, Kevin also performs other tasks such as database management, web design and development, documentation, and team support.

- May 1, 2015

HiLT member Tanner Van De Walle receives award

Tanner Van De Walle has receieved an Outstanding Computer Science and Engineering Awad. Tanner has been working on the SEEDING project while also working on some software projects of his own. His most recent project has been working with some friends to develop gminspiration.com, an online repository for "homebrewed content" for tabletop games.

- May 1, 2015

17th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education

Karen Mazidi will be presenting at the AIED Conference 2015, a biennial international conference for high quality research in intelligent systems and cognitive science for educational computing applications. This summer the conference will be in Madrid during June 22-26.

- Mar 27, 2015

HiLT Newsletter

A lot has happened in the HiLT lab this month! Read about some of the labs accomplishments and goings on in the HiLT Newsletter.

- Mar 25, 2015

Wes Solomon wins 1st place in Graduate Exhibition

HiLT member Wes Solomon won first place in the Computer Science and Information Technology category of the 2015 Graduate Exhibition! He presented in Predicting Changes in Systolic Blood Pressure Using Longitudinal Patient Records. Read more about Wes and his work.

- Mar 9, 2015

UNT Named Tree Campus USA University for 7th Year in a Row

The Arbor Day Foundation has recognized the University of North Texas as a 2014 Tree Campus USA university for its dedication to campus forestry management and environmental stewardship. This marks the seventh year in a row UNT has earned this recognition. Read more.

- Feb 27, 2015

UNT Hosts 2015 Regional Competition for Linguistics Olympiad

UNT's College of Engineering goes into detail about our hosting of NACLO back in January. Sachit Menon, a first year TAMS student from Plano, will be back on March 12 as he qualified to continue to the next round!

- Feb 25, 2015

Keerat Baweja wins an NCWIT Aspirations in Computing award

Our own HiLT Member, Keerat Baweja, won a NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award for the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.The award recognizes high school females who are dedicated to computing related activities, such as research, hackathons, or robotics and who show leadership and community service within these areas.

- Feb 20, 2015

President Smatresk on Creativity

President Neal Smatresk firmly believes that creativity in students is a very important part of education. Read his letter here.

- Mar 25, 2015

Latest HiLT Lab News in CSE Newsletter

From new members to recent awards, we made the CSE Newsletter this month. Participation, awards, NACLO, and more on the HiLT lab was described in this month's newsletter.

- Feb 1, 2015

NACLO Competition

The HiLT Lab participated in hosting the North American Computational Linguistics Olymiad (NACLO) 2015. 32 students participated in this challenging competition that was held next door in the LARC lab. Read more about the competition.

- Jan 29, 2015

Welcome new member to the lab

We'd like to welcome Fran to the lab. Fran Chadwick is joining the HiLT lab as a first year PhD student in Computer Science. She has worked as a software developer in industry for 33 years for a variety of companies including Boeing, Microsoft, and Bank of America. Her main research interest is in recruiting and retaining women and other underrepresented groups into Computer Science. One avenue that she intends to pursue is improving the classroom experience of women and minorities in the first few Computer Science courses not only in college, but also in high school.

- Jan 23, 2015

Latest HiLT Lab News in CSE Newsletter

From new members to recent awards, we made the CSE Newsletter this month. Participation, awards, and new members of the HiLT lab were described in this month's newsletter.

- Dec 1, 2014

Dr. Rodney Nielsen Wins UNT Research and Creativity Award

Congratulations to CSE Associate Professor Dr. Rodney D. Nielsen on winning the Competitive Funding Award, one of the Office of Research and Economic Development’s highest honors. This is part of UNT’s Faculty Research and Creativity Award recognition process. The Competitive Funding Award goes to the Principal Investigator who promoted the mission of the University of North Texas in being responsible for the highest total amount of research funding on their competitive extramural grants during the preceding fiscal year.

- Sept 27, 2014

Latest HiLT Lab News in CSE Newsletter

From new members to recent awards, we made the CSE Newsletter this month. Papers, awards, and new members of the HiLT lab were described in this month's newsletter.

- Sept 1, 2014

Welcome new student to the lab

Welcome Kevin to the lab. We finally added Kevin to the site. Kevin has been working with us throughout the summer.

- Aug 15, 2014

Welcome new student to the lab

Welcome Adam to the lab. We finally added Adam to the site. Adam has been working with us throughout the summer.

- Aug 14, 2014

Natalie Parde in the North Texan

Lab member Natalie Parde was featured on page 10 of the Summer 2014 issue of the North Texas, UNT's alumni magazine. Read the North Texan issue here.

- Aug 1, 2014

Karen Mazidi participates in AAAI-14

Lab member Karen Mazidi participated in a great movement for AAAI to expand participation to more women and underrepresented minorities. Read more about their workshop.

- July 31, 2014

Latest HiLT Lab News in CSE Alumni Newsletter

From new members to recent awards, we made the CSE Newsletter this month. Announcement of our new co-director Eduardo Blanco who will arrive in the Fall made the Alumni Newsletter this month.

- June 1, 2014

Latest HiLT Lab News in CSE Newsletter

From new members to recent awards, we made the CSE Newsletter this month. Lab crew members Natalie Parde and Karen Mazidi won awards and were celebrated on the CSE newsletter.

- Apr 1, 2014

Latest HiLT Lab News in CSE Newsletter

From new members to recent awards, we made the CSE Newsletter this month. Karen Mazidi wins 1st place in the UNT Graduate Exhibition.

- Mar 1, 2014

Latest HiLT Lab News in CSE Newsletter

From new members to recent awards, we made the CSE Newsletter this month. Read all about our hosting of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO) and about HiLT members Natalie Parde and Karen Mazidi.

- Feb 1, 2014

Welcome new students to the lab

Welcome Chengyuan, Dan, Milad, and Tailyr to the lab.

- Jan 24, 2014

Natalie and Jim visit TAMS Students

Natalie and Jim visited UNT TAMS students to personally invite them to the NACLO Olympiad. All high school students invited for NACLO Olympiad.

- Jan 13, 2014

HiLT Lab participates in SURE Poster Competition

Recently, HiLT Lab members competed in SURE Poster Competition at UNT. This month's CSE Newsletter covered our activity.

- Nov 28, 2013

NACLO announced in CSE Newsletter Nov 2013

We are hosting a local Open Competition site for the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO).

- Nov 28, 2013

Linguistics Puzzle Competition for High School Students

On January 30, 2014, the Computer Science and Engineering Department at University of North Texas will host a local Open Competition site for the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO). Read more on the competition of NACLO.

- Nov 18, 2013

Latest HiLT Lab News in CSE Newsletter

From new members to recent awards, we made the CSE Newsletter this month. Read all about our new members and awards.

- Nov 1, 2013

New Site for HiLT Lab

We are happy to announce a new site for the HiLT Lab. Feel free to contact us with questions or feedback. Read about our research and projects, and consider joining us in the future.

- Oct 13, 2013

HiLT Lab welcomes 2 new Nao Robots

We are happy to welcome Bobby and Grace, our two newest Companionbots. These two Nao robots are going to be used as part of our Companionbot research project. Check out more info on the project. Both Bobby and Grace have their own Twitter accounts. Follow them for new updates on their progress and fun info about the lab.

- Oct 8, 2013

Latest HiLT Lab News in CSE Newsletter

From new members to recent awards, we made the CSE Newsletter this month. Several of our undergraduates will showcase their research at the College of Engineering's inaugural showcase for Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE).

- Sept 20, 2013

UNT CSE Department Hiring Professor/Lecturer

Our department is hiring a position. If you are interested, please check out the new postings.

- Sep 11, 2013