Engineer Manager

G IANLUCA S TORTO

*** ****** *** #* *** Angeles, CA 90024 U.S.A. ******@****.***

+1-310-***-**** (home ) +1-310-***-**** (mobile ) http://storto.bol.ucla.edu

O BJECTIVE

Research Analyst / Engineer or Product Manager position parlaying my skills and research experi-

ence in Linguistics and Cognitive Science into the design, implementation and evaluation of tools and

methodologies for information retrieval and knowledge extraction from texts and document collections.

QUALIFICATIONS AND S KILLS

Areas of Expertise

Linguistics (formal semantics, syntax, and phonology); Cognitive Science (psycholinguistics, HCI); Logic.

Technical Skills

Excellent analytical and quantitative ability; self-starter, exible, able to manage multiple priorities.

Very strong oral and written communication skills; very effective speaker and instructor.

Great team player; able to effectively collaborate with and supervise / direct a multi-disciplinary team.

In-depth knowledge of the semantic, structural and phonological properties of natural language.

Extensive experience with experimental design and methodologies (questionnaires, RT, eye-tracking).

Extensive experience with databases and data manipulation, data analysis, and related software (CELEX,

TreeBank, WordNet, MS Access, Excel and FoxPro, SQL, Unix tools [sed, grep, emacs], SuperANOVA).

Solid experience with programming / scripting languages (Prolog, Visual Basic, Perl, HTML, CSS, LTEX).

A

Pro cient with multiple software packages (Photoshop, Graphic Converter, Final Cut, Sound Studio,

Praat, PsyScope, Microsoft Of ce, SubEthaEdit, a.o.) and environments (Mac OS, Unix, Windows).

Fluent in Italian, English and Dutch; good knowledge of French, Spanish and German.

E DUCATION

Postdoctoral Training Brain and Cognitive Sciences. University of Rochester. (2003 2005)

Linguistics. University of California, Los Angeles.

Ph.D. 2003

Linguistics. University of California, Los Angeles.

M.A. 2000

Laurea in Scienze della Comunicazione. Universit` di Siena, Italy.

Diploma 1997 a

Master in Logic Programme. Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, Uni-

Certi cate 1996

versiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

S ELECTED E XPERIENCE

May 2005 present

Quality Evaluator. Google Inc., Santa Monica, California.

(Full-time contract assignment through ABE Services.)

Quality evaluation of the AdWords and AdSense ad-matching products:

Conducting evaluation of the products performance and comparative analysis w.r.t. competitors.

Reviewing and updating the automatic content-based vertical clustering of websites.

Providing input for revision and improvement of the underlying ontology.

Providing input for improvement of evaluation tools and guidelines.

May 2005 present

Programmer, UCLA Speech Error Corpus project. Department of Linguistics, UCLA.

Revision and upgrade of the structure, query system, and web interface of the UCLASEC database:

HTML, PHP and CGI / Perl scripting for the web interface and query system.

Designing and implementing a new structure and search algorithm for the database.

Apr 2003 Apr 2005

NIH National Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow. Center for Language Sciences, University of Rochester.

Theoretical research on the role of contextual information in the resolution of semantic ambiguity.

Experimental research on the processing of meaning in natural language:

Lead investigator in a team of 7 researchers / assistants.

Designed experimental eye-tracking methodology.

Prepared audio-visual materials and computer scripts for 6 experiments.

Trained and supervised team of research assistants assigned to data collection and coding.

Led data analysis and presented results at professional conferences.

Jan 1999 Jun 2002

Teaching Assistant / Associate. Department of Linguistics, UCLA.

Organized and led training sessions on:

Logic, set theory, functions, and basic algebraic structures.

The implementation of parsing strategies in Prolog.

Methodologies, software and corpora for experimental linguistic research.

Apr 1998 Aug 2000

Research Assistant. Department of Linguistics and Department of Biology, UCLA.

Learning and Intelligent Systems project (machine learning, language, and arti cial life):

Member of a multidisciplinary team of 10+ researchers (Biology, CS, Linguistics, and Psychology).

Investigated the mapping from linguistic symbols to conceptual representations.

Implemented a lexical acquisition algorithm in Prolog, based on Siskind (1996).

UCLA Speech Error Corpus project :

Led the reorganization and upgrade of the UCLASEC database.

Prepared technical documentation, trained coders and supervised the expansion of the database.

Managed the distribution of the database and provided technical support for end users.

Feb May 1997

Visiting Researcher. Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Conducted research on dynamic logic, question-answering, focus, and discourse structure.

S ELECTED AWARDS

Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship. National Institute of

Health & Center for Language Sciences, University of Rochester. April 2003 April 2005.

Edwin W. Pauley Foundation Fellowship. UCLA Humanities Division & Department of Linguistics.

September 1997 June 1998 and September 2000 June 2001.

ERASMUS Fellowship. European Union. September 1995 August 1996.

P UBLICATIONS AND R EFERENCES

Available upon request.

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