Dr. Alassane NDIAYE Senior Software-Engineer DFKI - German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Campus D3_2 Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3 D-66123 Saarbruecken Federal Republic of Germany E-Mail: ndiaye@dfki.de Phone: +49-681-85775-5396 Fax: +49-681-85775-5341

Brief Introduction

Background

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, granted by the Saarland University for the dissertation Rollenübernahme als Benutzermodellierungsmethode -- Globale Antizipation in einem transmutierbaren Dialogsystem [Role-taking as a user modeling technique -- Global anticipation feedback in a transmutable dialog system]
• Diploma in Computer Science with the Master Thesis FSS-WASTL -- Ein interaktives Wissensakquisitionssystem zur Erweiterung des semantischen Lexikons im natürlichsprachlichen Zugangssytem XTRA [FSS-WASTL -- An interactive knowledge acquisition tool for the semantic lexicon within the NL-System XTRA]

He has been working as Senior Software Engineer affiliated to the Intelligent User Interfaces Laboratory and the Transfer Center AICommerce at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Currently, he is responsible for the software integration and module coordination activities of the project VirtualHuman.

From 1991 to 1997 he had been working as a full-time Researcher and Teaching Assistant at the Computer Science Department of the Saarland University. Until January 1996, he had been engaged in the PRACMA project of the SFB 314, Special Collaborative Program on Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge-based Systems, funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG). From January 1996 to December 1997 he has been working in the READY project of the SFB 378, Special Collaborative Program on Resource-Adaptive Cognitive Processes funded by the German Science Foundation.

Before starting as a full-time researcher in 1991, he had already gained two years experience as a research assistant during the second funding period of the XTRA project (Natural Language Access System to Expert Systems).

Interests/Themes

• Intelligent User Interfaces
• Multi-modal Dialog Systems
• Virtual Characters
• AI in E-Business
• Ambient Intelligence
• System Architecture and Software Integration
• Natural Language Access Systems
• User Modeling, Role-Taking

Selected Projects

• Theseus Research Program: Research program on new technologies for the Internet of Services.
• Ligabot: Natural Language Interaction with a Virtual Character. This resulted in a permanent exhibition at the German Museum for Science and Technology Deutsches Museum in Munich. Here you can find a flyer to the project (in German).
• Virtual Constructor: Ambient Intelligence in Edutainment: Tangible Interaction with Life-Like Exhibit Guides. This resulted in a permanent exhibition at the theme park of the Volkswagen company in Wolfsburg (Germany) . Here you can find a flyer to the project.
• SharedLife: Sharing augmented personal memories in intelligent environments
• VirtualHuman: Anthropomorphic Interaction Agents.
• SmartKom: Dialog-based human-technology interaction by coordinated analysis and generation of multiple modalities.
• Verbmobil - Verbmobil is a speaker-independent and bidirectional speech-to-speech translation system for spontaneous dialogs in mobile situations. Mobile Speech-to-Speech Translation of Spontaneous Dialogs.
• Ready - Resource-adaptive dialog: Investigation of various fundamental issues in a decision-theoretic approach to adaptation to a user's situationally determined time pressure and cognitive load.
• Pracma - Processing Arguments between Controversially-Minded Agents: Modeling of interest-based dialog systems.
• Xtra - Expert Translator: A natural language access system to expert systems.

Publications

• Sonntag, D., Huber, M., Möller, M., Ndiaye, A., Zillner, S. and Cavallaro, A.: Design and Implementation of a Semantic Dialogue System for Radiologists. In: K. A. Haffner (ed.): Semantic Web: Standards, Tools and Ontologies, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2010.
  

• Herzog, G. and Ndiaye, A.: Building Multimodal Dialogue Applications: System Integration in SmartKom. In: W. Wahlster (ed.): SmartKom - Foundations of Multimodal Dialogue Systems, Springer, Series: "Cognitive Technologies Series", pp. 439--452, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2006.
  

• Kipp, M., Kipp, K.H., Ndiaye, A., and Gebhard, P.: Evaluating the Tangible Interface and Virtual Characters in the Interactive COHIBIT Exhibit. In: J. Gratch et al. (eds.): Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA'06), LNAI 4133, pp. 434--444, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2006
  

• Reithinger, N., Gebhard P., Löckelt, M., Ndiaye, A., Pfleger, N., and Klesen, M.: VirtualHuman - Dialogic and Affective Interaction with Virtual Characters. In: M. Maybury et al (eds.): Proceedings of the 8th international Conference on Multimodal interfaces (Banff, Alberta, Canada, November 02 - 04, 2006), ICMI '06, ACM, New York, NY, pp. 51--58.
  

• Ndiaye, A., Gebhard, P., Kipp, M., Klesen, M., Schneider, M., and Wahlster, W.: Ambient Intelligence in Edutainment: Tangible Interaction with Life-Like Exhibit Guides. In: M. Maybury et al. (eds.): Proceedings of the Conference on INtelligent TEchnologies for interactive enterTAINment (INTETAIN'05), LNAI 3814, pp. 102--111, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 2005
  

• Herzog, G., Ndiaye, A., Merten, S., Kirchmann, H., Becker, T., and Poller, P.:. Large-Scale Software Integration for Spoken Language and Multimodal Dialog Systems. In: Journal of Natural Language Engineering (2004), Volume 10, Issue 3-4, September 2004, Pages 283-305, Cambridge University Press.
  

• Reithinger, N., Herzog, G., Ndiaye, A.:. Situated Multimodal Interaction in SmartKom. In: Computers & Graphics, Volume 27, Issue 6, December 2003, Pages 899-903
  

• Herzog, G., Kirchmann, H., Merten, S., Ndiaye, A., and Poller, P.:. MULTIPLATFORM Testbed: An Integration Platform for Multimodal Dialog Systems. In: H. Cunningham and J. Patrick (eds.), Proceedings of the HLT-NAACL'03 Workshop on the Software Engineering and Architecture of Language Technology Systems (SEALTS), pp. 75--82, Edmonton, Canada, 2003.
  

• Klüter, A., Ndiaye, A., and Kirchmann, H.: Verbmobil From a Software Engineering Point of View: System Design and Software Integration. In: W. Wahlster, (ed.), Verbmobil: Foundations of Speech-to-Speech Translation, Springer, Series: "Artificial Intelligence", Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2000, pp. 637--660.
  

• Kirchmann, H., Ndiaye, A., and Klüter, A.: From a Stationary Prototype to Telephone Translation Services. In: W. Wahlster, (ed.), Verbmobil: Foundations of Speech-to-Speech Translation, Springer, Series: "Artificial Intelligence", Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2000, pp. 661--672.
  

• Ndiaye, A.: Rollenübernahme als Benutzermodellierungsmethode: Globale Antizipation in einem transmutierbaren Dialogsystem [Role Taking As a Method of User Modeling: Global Anticipation in a Transmutable Dialog System].
  

• Ndiaye, A.: Rollenübernahme in einem Dialogsystem. In: Künstliche Intelligenz 4/96. 1996.
  [Abstract]

• Ndiaye, A., Jameson, A.: Global anticipation feedback as a user modeling technique for dialog systems In: P. Moukeli, (ed.), Actes du 3e Colloque Africain sur la Recherche en Informatique (CARI'96), Libreville, Gabon, pp. 730--744, 1996.
  

• Ndiaye, A., Jameson, A.: Predictive role taking in dialog: Global anticipation feedback based on transmutability. In: S. Carberry and I. Zukerman, (eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on User Modeling (UM-96) in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA, pp. 137--144, 1996.
  [Abstract]

• Ndiaye, A., Jameson, A.: Supporting Flexibility and Transmutability: Multi-Agent Processing and Role-Switching in a Pragmatically Oriented Dialog System. In: Ph. Jorrand and V. Sugurev, (eds.), Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence: Methodology, Systems, Applications (AIMSA '94). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, pp. 381--390, 1994.
  [Abstract]

• Wahlster, W., Jameson, A., Ndiaye, A., Schäfer, R., and Weis, T.: Ressourcenadaptive Dialogführung: Ein interdisziplinärer Forschungsansatz. In: Künstliche Intelligenz 6/95 (Themenheft KI und Kognition), pp. 17--21, 1995.
  [Abstract]

• Jameson, A., Kipper, B., Ndiaye, A., Schäfer, R., Simons, J., Weis, T., Zimmermann, D.: Cooperating to Be Noncooperative: The Dialog System PRACMA. SFB 314 (PRACMA), Bericht Nr. 106, Juni 1994. In: B. Nebel and L. Dreschler-Fischer (eds.): KI-94: Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Proceedings of the Eighteenth German Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Saarbrücken, Germany, September 1994, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 106-117.
  [Abstract]

• Ndiaye, A. and Jameson, A.: Global Anticipation Feedback in a Transmutable Dialog System. In: Proceedings of ABIS-95: Workshop on Adaptivity and User Modeling in Interactive Software Systems, Munich, October 1995.

• Jansen-Winkeln, R., Ndiaye, A., Reithinger, N.: FSS-WASTL: Interactive Knowledge Acquisition for a Semantic Lexicon. In: E. Ardizonni et al. (eds.), Trends in Artificial Intelligence. Proceedings of the Second AI*IA, 1991. Lecture Notes on Artificial Intelligence 529, Springer, pp. 108--116, 1991.
  [Abstract]