NACLO 2013 — North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad Madison, WI site

 

(0) What is NACLO? NACLO, the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad, is a contest in which middle-school and high-school students solve linguistic puzzles. In solving the problems, students learn about the diversity and consistency of language, while exercising logic skills. No prior knowledge of linguistics or second languages is necessary. Professionals in linguistics, computational linguistics and language technologies use dozens of languages to create engaging problems that represent cutting edge issues in their fields. The competition has attracted top students to study and work in those same fields. It is an opportunity for young people to experience a taste of natural-language processing in the 21st century. Google's Madison office and the UW Madison Department of Computer Science are pleased to co-host NACLO 2013. The first round of the contest, open to any middle-school or high-school student (including home-schooled students), will take place on January 31, 2013. Well-performing students will be invited to a second round to be held on March 19, 2013. Two training sessions will be held on the UW Campus in January 2013 to help interested participants prepare for the competition and learn more about computational linguistics and natural-language processing. Participants are encouraged to come to either training session (or both) -- attendance at the first session is not required to attend the second session or to benefit from attending it! (1) Site Coordinators and Contact Info: Steve Lacy, Member of Technical Staff at Madison Google Office email: wslacy@google.com mobile: 608-217-3208 T.R. Fitz-Gibbon, Software Engineer at Madison Google Office (2) Important Dates and Times Training Session 1:        Saturday, January 12, 2013, 9am - 12pm Training Session 2:        Saturday, January 26, 2013, 9am - 12pm NACLO Open Round:    Thursday, January 31, 2013, 8am - 12pm (actual competition is 9am - 12pm) NACLO Invited Round:  Tuesday, March 19, 2012, 9am - 2pm (actual competition time including 1 hour break) (3) Location The two training sessions and the competition Open Round will all be held in the same location on the UW Madison campus:   Computer Science Building, 1210 W. Dayton Street   Room CS 1240 (Main Lecture Hall) CS 1240 is on the first floor of the CS Building. The doors to the room are immediately to the left after entering the building. Location of the Invitational Round: TBA (4) Important Info for the Day of the Open Round Competition The competition will start promptly at 9:00 am. Participants may check in starting at 8:10 am. Participants should plan on arriving at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the competition to check in and get settled. While participants are strongly encouraged to register BEFORE the competition day via the NACLO site (http://www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu/reg_student.php), walk-in registrations on the competition day will be accepted from 8:10 am through 8:40 am. With the exception of bottled water, no food or drink will be allowed in the competition room. The reason behind this is to avoid disturbing other participants and to avoid any spills in what is a very nice lecture hall. If you have a special condition or circumstance which makes this policy a hardship, please contact Steve Lacy at wslacy@google.com. IMPORTANT: - Participants will be admitted starting at 8:10 am - No participants will be admitted once seating begins at 8:40 am (5) Walk-In Registration Policy Walk-ins will be accepted on the day of the competition as long as there are vacancies available. If you are planning to register as a walk-in participant, it is advisable to contact the site coordinator (Steve Lacy) the day before or the morning of the competition to see if there are vacancies. Upon arrival, walk-in participants must register via the internet to obtain a registration number. An internet connection will be available for registration of walk-in participants. It is advisable that walk-in participants arrive as early as possible to facilitate a smooth registration process. Participants will be admitted starting at 8:10 am and seating for the competition will begin promptly at 8:40 am. Any walk-in candidate must be properly registered before seating begins at 8:40 am. This implies that 8:30 am is the latest advisable time that walk-in candidates be admitted. (6) Schedule for the Open Round Competition (January 31, 2013) Participant Check-In and Registration of Walk-Ins:  8:10 am - 8:40 am Seating of Candidates:  8:40 am Reading of Rules by Site Coordinator:  8:45 am - 9:00 am Contest Begins:  9:00 am Contest Ends:  12:00 pm (7) Training Sessions The training sessions will include problem solving practices along with an overview/discussion of the field of natural language processing and career opportunities in this area. Again, food and drink (except for bottled water), is not permitted in the room reserved for the training sessions. However, the training sessions will include several breaks during which participants may enjoy a snack and/or drink outside the lecture hall. While formal registration for the training sessions isn't necessary, participants interested in attending one or both sessions are strongly encouraged to send a brief email to Steve Lacy at wslacy@google.com. This will help greatly with planning the sessions. You can also elect to receive a reminder email for the training sessions if you RSVP!