University of Hamburg - to research, to teach, to educate and form, to homepage
Language Technology Group (LT)
Department of InformaticsLanguage Technology Group (LT)

Photo: alt left

Language Technology

Özge Alaçam

Position: Post-doctoral Researcher  
Address: University of Hamburg,
Department of Informatics,
Vogt Koelln Str. 30,
22527 Hamburg, Germany
Office: F-435
Phone: +49 40 42883-2392
Email: alacam at informatik.uni-hamburg.de

Now at U Bielefeld!


Research Interests

  • Extraction of Speaker Intention
  • Multimodal Communication (Language, graphical representations and gesture)
  • Spatial and Embodied Cognition
  • Haptic & Visual Perception
  • Representation of Information
  • Human Computer Interaction
  • Eye-tracking methodology

Projects involved

  • SFB TRR CML C7 (Ongoing): Cross-modal Learning for Improving Human Reading
  • ProExzellenzia 4.0 Post-doc Project (Ongoing): integration of world-knowledge and situation-specific information into crossmodal parsing solutions
  • SFB TRR CML C5 (Complete): Combining active vision with multimodal speech comprehension
  • DFG IRTG 1247 (Complete): Cross-Modal Interactions in Artificial and Natural Cognitive Systems

Short Biography

  • Ph.D. Departments of Informatics, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • M.Sc. Cognitive Science, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
  • B.Sc. Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

Publications

  • Alaçam, Ö., Ruppert, E., Salama, A.R, Staron, T. and Menzel, W. (accepted-2020). Eye4Ref: A Multimodal Eye Movement Dataset of Referentially Complex Situations. Language Resources and Evaluation Conference.
  • Alaçam, Ö., Li, X., Staron, T. and Menzel, W. (2020). Crossmodal Language Comprehension - Psycholinguistic Insights and Computational Approaches. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, Vol. 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2020.00002
  • Alaçam, Ö. (2019) Enhancing natural language understanding through cross-modal interaction: Meaning recovery from acoustically noisy speech. In Proceedings of the 22nd Nordic Conference on Computational Linguistics (NoDaLiDa) (Turku, Finland: Association for Computational Linguistics), 2019: https://aclweb.org/anthology/W19-6128/
  • Alaçam, Ö., Menzel, W., and Staron, T. (2019). How does visual complexity influence predictive language processing in a situated context? In Proceedings of the 15th KONVENS – Bridging the gap between NLP and human understanding (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany)
  • Alaçam, Ö ., Menzel, W. and Staron, T. (abstract). Syntactic and Semantic Disambiguation in a Situated Language Setting. EuroCogsci, 2019. Bochum.
  • Salama, A. R., Alaçam, Ö. and Menzel, W. (2018). Text Completion using Context-Integrated Dependency Parsing. In the Proceedings of 3rd Workshop on Representation Learning for NLP, ACL 2018. https://aclweb.org/anthology/W18-3005/
  • Staron, T., Alaçam, Ö. And Menzel, W. (2018). Incorporating Contextual Information for Language-Independent, Dynamic Disambiguation Tasks. In the Proceedings of the 11th Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC). https://aclweb.org/anthology/L18-1567/
  • Alaçam, Ö., Staron, T. and Menzel, W. (2018). A multimodal data-set for systematic analyses of linguistic ambiguities in situated contexts. In Juan Antonio Lossio- Ventura et al. (Eds.), Information Management and Big Data, Communications in Computer and Information Science. Springer. (106-122), 10.1007/978-3-319-90596-9.
  • Alaçam, Ö., Staron, T. and Menzel, W. (2017). Towards a Systematic Analysis of Linguistic and Visual Complexity in Disambiguation and Structural Prediction. In the Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information Management and Big Data. Lima, Peru.
  • Alaçam, Ö. and Habel, C. (2017). Negation in Gesture Accompanying Speech: A Cross-Modal Study. Journal of Multimodal Communication Studies. Vol. 4, issue 1-2.
  • Alaçam, Ö. (2015). Verbally Assisted Haptic-Graph Comprehension: Multi-Modal Empirical Research Towards a Human Computer Interface. (Doctoral dissertation). University of Hamburg. http://ediss.sub.uni-hamburg.de/volltexte/2016/7764/
  • Alaçam, Ö., Habel, C. and Acartürk, C. (2015). Switching Reference-frame Preferences during Verbally Assisted Haptic-graph Comprehension. In the Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Spatial Cognition (Cognitive Processing: DOI :10.1007/s10339-015-0730-9)
  • Alaçam, Ö., Acartürk, C. and Habel, C. (2015). Haptic exploration patterns in virtual line-graph comprehension. In A. Marcus (Ed.): Design, User Experience and Usability (DUXU/HCII 2015), Berlin: Springer.
  • Alaçam, Ö., Acartürk, C. and Habel, C. (2014). Referring Expressions in Discourse about Haptic Line Graphs. In V. Rieser & P. Muller (eds.): The Proceedings of the 18th Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue. (pp. 7-17). SemDial 2014 – DialWatt.
  • Acartürk, C., Alaçam, Ö. and Habel, C. (2014). Developing a Verbal Assistance System for Line Graph Comprehension. In A. Marcus (Ed.): Design, User Experience and Usability (DUXU/HCII 2014), Part II, LNCS 8518. (pp. 373–382). Berlin: Springer.
  • Kerzel, M., Alaçam, Ö., Habel, C. and Acartürk, C. (2014). Producing Verbal Descriptions for Haptic Line-Graph Explorations. In V. Rieser & P. Muller (Eds.): The Proceedings of the 18th Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue. (pp. 205-208). SemDial 2014 – DialWatt.
  • Alaçam, Ö., Habel, C. and Acartürk, C. (2014). Verbally Assisted Haptic Graph Comprehension: The Role of Taking Initiative in a Joint Activity. In the Proceedings of the 2nd. European Symposium on Multimodal Communication, University of Tartu, Estonia.
  • Alaçam, Ö., Habel, C. and Acartürk, C. (2014). Perspective Alignment during the Course of Verbally Assisted Haptic Graph Comprehension. In the online Proceedings of the RefNet Workshop 2014 on Psychological and Computational Models of Reference Comprehension and Production. Edinburgh, UK.
  • Alaçam, Ö., Habel, C. and Acartürk, C. (2013). Investigation of Haptic Line-Graph Comprehension through Co-Production of Gesture and Language. Tilburg Gesture Research Meeting, Tilburg
  • Alaçam, Ö., Habel, C. and Acartürk, C. (2013). Towards designing audio assistance for comprehending haptic graphs: A Multimodal Perspective. In C. Stephanidis and M. Antona (Eds.), Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Heidelberg: Springer
  • Habel, C., Alaçam, Ö. and Acartürk, C. (2013). Verbally assisted comprehension of haptic line graphs: referring expressions in a collaborative activity. In Proceedings of the CogSci 2013 Workshop on Production of Referring Expressions, Berlin.
  • Alaçam, Ö., Habel, C. and Acartürk, C. (2013). Gesture and Language Production in Communication through Bar Graphs. In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz and I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, TX, USA. pp. 1714–1719. Cognitive Science Society.
  • Acartürk, C. and Alaçam, Ö. (2012). Gestures in Communication through Line Graphs. In N. Miyake, D. Peebles and R. P. Cooper (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, TX. pp. 66–71. Cognitive Science Society.
  • Alaçam, Ö. and Acartürk, C. (2012). Work in Progress: Annotating Gestures in Communication through Graphs. Proceedings of the Graduate Symposium of 7th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams, Canterbury, UK. pp. 5–7.
  • Alaçam Ö. and Çakır, M. P. (2011). An investigation of the effect of event, task and visualization structures on graph comprehension using fNIR and eye tracking methodology. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). DOI: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00481
  • Alaçam Ö., Hohenberger A. and Çağıltay, K. (2010). Effects of Graph Type in the Comprehension of Cyclic Events. In A. Goel, M. Jamnik, N. Narayanan (Eds.), Diagrammatic Representation and Inference. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6170 (pp. 279-281): Springer Berlin/Heidelberg. Presented at Graduate Symposium and Poster Session at Diagram 2010, Portland, USA.
  • Alaçam Ö., Hohenberger A. and Çağıltay, K. (2010). The Effect of Graph Design Type on Word Preferences in the Description of Trend and Cyclic Events. Poster presented at The 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Portland, USA.
  • Alaçam Ö. (2010). Comparison Strategies of Different Event Types in Different Graph Types (MS. Thesis – The Department of Cognitive Science, Informatics Institute, Middle East Technical University, Ankara)
  • Alaçam, Ö., Hohenberger, A. E. and Çağıltay, K. (2009). Comparison Strategies of Different Event Types in Different Graph Types. In Proceedings of 15th European Conference on Eye Movements, p.94, Southampton, UK, 2009. University of Southampton
  • Alaçam, Ö. and Dalcı, M. (2009). A Usability Study of Web Maps with Eye Tracking Tool: The Effects of Iconic Representation of Information. In Lecture Notes In Computer Science; Vol. 5610, Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Part I: New Trends, San Diego, CA, USA)
  • Acartürk, C., Habel, C., Cagiltay, K. and Alaçam, Ö. (2008). Multimodal comprehension of language and graphics: Graphs with and without annotations. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 1(3):2, 1-15. Also presented as a poster at ECEM 2007, 14th European Conference on Eye Movements, Potsdam, Germany.
  • Acartürk, C., Habel, C., Cagiltay, K. and Alaçam, Ö. (2008). Learning from text and graphs: The role of annotations and sensory modality. In A. Maes & S. Ainsworth (Eds.), Proceedings EARLI Special Interest Group Text and Graphics. Exploiting the Opportunities Learning with Textual, Graphical and Multimodal Representations (pp. 13-16).