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Yan Cong is an Assistant Professor in the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University. His research focuses on the interaction between language, humans, and machines, particularly in the fields of natural language processing (NLP), semantics, pragmatics, and speech language technology. He is currently developing text analysis models that quantify, understand, and improve language learning. Previously, he worked as an NLP researcher at the Feinstein Institutes. Yan completed his PhD in Linguistics at Michigan State University. His specializations include the assessment of semantic and pragmatic competence using large language models, Chinese linguistics, and a computational approach to speech language fluency. His work is motivated by the potential applications of language science, contributing to fields like language education and healthcare. He is particularly interested in exploring how NLP and AI methods can be translated into effective tools for learners, teachers, and practitioners. Additionally, Yan aims to utilize linguistic frameworks to assess the capacities of AI systems, striving for a deeper understanding of 'understanding' beyond heuristic methods, ultimately committing to the development of robust AI systems in applied linguistics contexts.
GRE is not required.