Dr. Jessy Li

Biography

Jessy Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she specializes in computational linguistics and natural language processing. Her research focuses on several key areas including discourse processing, language generation, and the social contexts of natural language processing. She is part of the Computational Linguistics Group and the UT NLP Group. Dr. Li obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017, under the supervision of Ani Nenkova. Her current research interests include discourse processing, where she studies how to ensure that a text is coherent and can be fully comprehended. She also investigates the role of discourse-level devices such as coherence structures and implications of pragmatic contexts. In natural language generation, Dr. Li strives to develop models that simplify text for broader audience accessibility and enhance the efficiency of information retrieval through techniques like summarization and question generation. Additionally, she explores how language is used to express emotions and how societal events shape communication in conventional media.

Research Interests