Alex Lascarides

Research Interests

  • Theoretical Linguistics:
    formal semantics and pragmatics of discourse and conversation;
    the interaction between discourse coherence and semantics;
    formal models of gesture and embodied conversation;
    strategic conversation.
  • Natural Language Processing:
    dialogue systems;
    human robot interaction;
    interactive task learning;
    symbol grounding;
  • Artificial Intelligence:
    learning optimal policies in complex games (e.g., Settlers of Catan, Monopoly);
    solving planning and game problems using expert play;
    learning from demonstration
    learning optimal policies while adapting to unforeseen possibilities.

Projects

  • Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) Governance Node, CoI, PI Ram Ramamoorthy, funded by UKRI, 2021--2024
  • Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT), ongoing work funded by several projects
  • Semantics of Gesture, ongoing work funded by several projects

  • Strategic Conversation (STAC), funded by ERC, 2011--2017
  • Joint Action for Multimodal Embodied Social Systems (JAMES), funded by the EU, 2011--2014

  • Robust Semantic Interpration (ROSIE), funded by Scottish Enterprise, 2001--2005.

  • Data Intensive Acquisition of Rhetorical and Temporal Structure (DART), funded by EPSRC, 2001--2004.

  • Data Intensive Semantics and Pragmatics (DISP), funded by ESRC, 1999--2001.