Dr. Heriberto Cuay‡huitl

 

Postdoctoral researcher at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) - Language Technology Lab in SaarbrŸcken Germany.

Member of the Talking Robots Group and the ALIZ-E project.

 

Email:

Mailing Address: Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3, Building 3.1, 66123, SaarbrŸcken, Germany

Telephone: +49 (0)-681-85775-5318

Skype: h.cuayahuitl

 

 

I am a computer scientist interested in the research and development of conversational machines that can talk, listen, see and move. The research and development of such kind of machines is challenging and interesting at the same time because they bring together several subfields within artificial intelligence. I am particularly interested in the innovation of conversational systems applied to information-seeking, situated and human-robot domains. My current research interest consists in investigating computational methods based on the reinforcement learning paradigm for building multilingual and multimodal dialogue systems exhibiting adaptive behaviour in unknown and uncertain environments. The goal behind these research interests is to understand how to build conversational systems that learn to optimize the tradeoffs derived from effective, efficient, flexible, non-monotonous and robust interaction in a wide-range of task-oriented scenarios.

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

 

Adaptive dialogue systems, spoken language processing, multimodal interaction, applied machine learning, intelligent robotics.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS:

 

ECAI Workshop on Machine Learning for Interactive Systems (MLIS 2012): Bridging the Gap Between Language, Motor Control and Vision.

 

 

EDUCATION:

 

Ph.D. in Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Master in Computer Science, University of the Americas Puebla, Mexico

Bachelor in Computer Engineering, Autonomous University of Tlaxcala, Mexico

 

 

 

JOURNAL ARTICLES AND THESIS:

 

 

Cuay‡huitl, H. and Dethlefs, N. Spatially-Aware Dialogue Control Using Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning. In ACM Transactions on Speech and Language Processing (Special Issue on Machine Learning for Robust and Adaptive Spoken Dialogue Systems), vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 5:1-5:26, 2011. [PDF | Bibtex]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Renals, S., Lemon, O., Shimodaira, H. Evaluation of a Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning Spoken Dialogue System. In Computer Speech and Language, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 395-429, 2010. [PDF | Bibtex]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Spoken Dialogue Systems. Ph.D. Thesis, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, 2009. [PDF | Bibtex]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP PAPERS:

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Dethlefs, N. Dialogue Systems Using Online Learning: Beyond Empirical Methods. Position paper to appear in the NAACL-HLT Workshop on Future Directions and Needs in the Spoken Dialog Community: Tools and Data, Montreal, Canada, Jun 2012.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H. and Kruijff -Korbayov‡, I. An Interactive Humanoid Robot Exhibiting Flexible Sub-Dialogues. Demo paper to appear in the conference of the National Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics - Human Language Technologies (NAACL-HLT), Montreal, Canada, Jun 2012.

 

Dethlefs, N. and Cuay‡huitl, H. Comparing Graphical Models for Surface Realisation in a Joint Learning Framework for Situated Interaction. To appear in the National Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics - Human Language Technologies (NAACL-HLT), Montreal, Canada, Jun 2012.

 

Dethlefs, N. and Cuay‡huitl, H. Combining Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning and Bayesian Networks for Natural Language Generation in Situated Dialogue. In proceedings of the European Workshop on Natural Language Generation (ENLG), Nancy, France, Sep 2011.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H. and Kruijff-Korbayov‡, I. Towards Learning Human-Robot Dialogue Policies Combining Speech and Visual Beliefs. In proceedings of the Workshop on Paralinguistic Information and its Integration in Spoken Dialogue Systems (IWSDS), Granada, Spain, pp. 133-140, Sep 2011.

 

Kruijff-Korbayov‡, I., Athanasopoulos, G., Beck, A., Cosi, P., Cuay‡huitl, H., Dekens, T. et al. An Event-Based Conversational System for the Nao Robot. In proceedings of the Workshop on Paralinguistic Information and its Integration in Spoken Dialogue Systems (IWSDS), Granada, Spain, 125-132, Sep 2011.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H. and Dethlefs, N., Optimizing Situated Dialogue Management in Unknown Environments. In proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (INTERSPEECH), Florence, Italy, 1009-1012, Aug 2011.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H. Learning Dialogue Agents with Bayesian Relational State Representations. In proceedings of the IJCAI Workshop on Knowledge and Reasoning in Practical Dialogue Systems (IJCAI-KRPDS), Barcelona, Spain, pp 9-15, Jul 2011.

 

Dethlefs, N. and Cuay‡huitl, H. Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning and Hidden Markov Models for Task-Oriented Natural Language Generation. In proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (ACL-HLT), Portland, OR, USA, pp. 654-659, Jun 2011.

 

Dethlefs, N., Cuay‡huitl, H. and Viethen, J. Optimising Natural Language Generation Decision Making for Situated Dialogue. In proceedings of the Annual Meeting on Discourse and Dialogue (SIGDial), Portland, OR, USA, pp. 78-87, Jun 2011.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Dethlefs, N., Frommberger, L., Richter, K.-F., and Bateman, J. Generating Adaptive Route Instructions Using Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning. In proceedings of the International Conference on Spatial Cognition (Spatial Cognition VII), Portland, OR, USA, pp. 319-334, Aug 2010.

 

Dethlefs, N., Cuay‡huitl, H. Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive Text Generation. In proceedings of the International Conference on Natural Language Generation (INLG), Dublin, Ireland, pp. 37-45, Jul 2010.

 

Dethlefs, N., Cuay‡huitl, H., Richter, K.-F., Andonova, E., Bateman, J. Evaluating Task Success in a Dialogue System for Indoor Navigation. In proceedings of the Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue (SemDial), Poznan, Poland, pp. 143-146, Jun 2010.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Dethlefs, N., Richter, K.-F., Tenbrink, T., Bateman, J. A Dialogue System for Indoor Wayfinding Using Text-Based Natural Language. In the International Journal of Computational Linguistics and Applications, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 285-304. Part of the proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Text Processing and Computational Linguistics (CICLing), Iasi, Romania, Mar 2010.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Montiel-Hern‡ndez, J. A Policy Switching Learning Approach for Adaptive Spoken Dialogue Agents. In proceedings of  the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (INTERSPEECH), Brighton, England, pp. 276-279, Sep 2009.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Renals, S., Lemon, O., Shimodaira, H. Hierarchical Dialogue Optimization Using Semi-Markov Decision Processes. In proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (INTERSPEECH), Antwerp, Belgium, pp. 2693-2696, Aug 2007.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Renals, S., Lemon, O., Shimodaira, H. Reinforcement Learning of Dialogue Strategies With Hierarchical Abstract Machines, In proceedings of IEEE/ACL Workshop on Spoken Language Technology (SLT), Palm Beach, Aruba, pp. 182-185, Dec 2006.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Renals, S., Lemon, O., Shimodaira, H. Learning Multi-Goal Dialogue Strategies Using Reinforcement Learning With Reduced State-Action Spaces, In proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (INTERSPEECH) INTERSPEECH, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, pp. 469-472, Sep 2006.

 

Ortiz-Cornejo A. I., Cuay‡huitl, H., PŽrez-Corona C. WISBuilder: A Framework for Facilitating Development of Web-Based Information Systems, In proceedings of IEEE CONIELECOMP, Puebla, Mexico, pp. 46, Feb 2006.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Renals, S., Lemon, O., Shimodaira, H. Human-Computer Dialogue Simulation Using Hidden Markov Models, In proceedings of IEEE Workshop on Automatic Speech Recognition and Understanding (ASRU), San Juan, Puerto Rico, pp. 290-295, Nov 2005.

 

Ortiz-Cornejo A. I., Cuay‡huitl, H., PŽrez-Corona C. An Approach for Facilitating Development of Web-based Information Systems, In proceedings of Research in Computing Science, Vol. 10, ISBN 970-36-0194-4, pp. 291-302, 2004.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Rodr’guez-Moreno, M. A., Montiel-Hern‡ndez, J. VoiceBuilder: A Framework for Automatic Speech Application Development, In proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (INTERSPEECH), Jeju, Korea, pp. 2621-2624, Oct 2004.

 

Montiel-Hern‡ndez, J., Cuay‡huitl, H. SUIML: A Markup Language for Automatic Speech Application Development, In proceedings of Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (MICAI) - Workshop on Intelligent Computing, Mexico City, Mexico, pp. 376-387, Apr 2004.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H. A Syllabification Algorithm for Spanish, In proceedings of the International Conference on Text Processing and Computational Linguistics (CICLing), Seoul, Korea, pp. 412-415, Feb 2004.

 

Varela, A., Cuay‡huitl, H., Nolazco, A. Creating a Mexican Spanish Version of the CMU Sphinx-III Speech Recognition System, In proceedings of the Iberoamerican Congress on Pattern Recognition (CIARP), Habana, Cuba, pp. 251-258, Nov 2003.

 

Farf‡n, F., Cuay‡huitl, H., Portilla, A. Evaluating Dialogue Strategies in a Spoken Dialogue System for Email, In proceedings of the IASTED Artificial Intelligence and Applications, Manalm‡dena, Spain, Sep 2003.

 

Cuay‡huitl, H., Serridge, B. Out-Of-Vocabulary Word Modeling and Rejection for Spanish Keyword Spotting Systems. In proceedings of the Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (MICAI), Merida, Mexico, pp. 156-165, Apr 2002.

 

 

RESEARCH PROJECTS:

 

ALIZ-E, Adaptive Strategies for Sustainable Long-Term Social Interaction, EU FP7 Project.

 

I5-DiaSpace, Flexible Dialogue Control for Intuitive Spatial Communication, SFB/TR8 Project.