Solving the gaps in deep learning models and improving communication between humans and machines is the aim of the DECOLLAGE project, for which André Martins received the European Research Council grant.
Researcher in Técnico and the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), André Martins has received a consolidation grant from the European Research Council (ERC) worth about EUR two million.
The grant awarded to the Portuguese researcher will be applied to the DECOLLAGE project, which aims to find solutions for fundamental problems in natural language processing (NLP). To do so, André Martins and his team will use an interdisciplinary methodology that combines artificial intelligence, sparse modeling, neuroscience and cognitive science tools.
The project’s goal is to contribute to the improvement of effective communication between humans and machines and to promote collaboration in the resolution of increasingly complex problems. The team hopes to find solutions to the existing gaps in natural language processing deep learning models, such as the inability to generalize into new domains or to take advantage of context information, which would make these models more reliable. André Martins is a professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico. He is a specialist in artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning.
This is the second time André Martins has won an ERC grant. In 2017, he received EUR 1.4 million to pursue his work on structured statistical learning methods combined with artificial neural networks. Now, with the new grant, he will be able to continue his research in this ambitious project that has the potential to revolutionize the way machines and humans communicate.
Along with André Martins, two other Portuguese researchers received the ERC’s consolidation grant: Eugénia Chiappe, from the Champalimaud Foundation, and Susana Viegas, from NOVA University of Lisbon. Altogether, the ERC awarded 321 consolidation grants worth EUR 657 million in its last round.
