Eleni Efthimiou

Areas of interest

• Natural Language Analysis
• Natural Language Processing
• Language based Assistive Technology
• Sign Language Technologies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Educational Applications of Language Technology

CV data

Dr Eleni Efthimiou is Research Director at ILSP/ATHENA RC, where she has been working as a researcher since 1992.

In 1982 she graduated from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Athens and in 1986 she received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Linguistics of the University of Salzburg (Austria).

Her main research interests focus on theoretical linguistic analysis of natural language, Natural Language Processing based prototype development and optimisation techniques for Human-Computer Interaction.

In 1999 she founded the ILSP Team for Basic Research and Resources Collection for the Greek Sign Language (GSL). Work of the team resulted to methodologies for lexicon collection and terminology creation in GSL, creation of the first electronic resources collection for GSL, as well as to the first lexicographical products for the language. She currently heads the Sign Language Technologies Lab and co-ordinates the Assistive Technology Group at ILSP/ATHENA RC. The SLT Lab focuses on creation of wide scale electronic sign language resources (corpora, vocabularies and grammar), SL synthesis by means of virtual agent (avatar) technologies, SL recognition, development of sign language educational and communication tools, as well as implementation of principles of Universal Access for system architecture. In the context of language based Assistive Technology activities, ILSP is a member of the national accessibility network GR-DeAN (www.e-accessibility.gr) and the European accessibility network Ε-DeAN (www.e-accessibility.com ).

Having coordinated and/or participated in the development teams of various R&D projects in the domain of language technology in the past, she currently co-ordinates DICTA-SIGN project (FP7-ICT)(http://www.dictasign.eu/ ).

In parallel, she presents a continuous teaching activity in Theoretical and Computational Linguistics (University of Kreta: 1987-1990 - Lecturer, University of Umea - Sweden: 1990 - Invited Lecturer, University of Athens: 1991 and 1993-1994 - Reader, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA): 1991 - seminars, University of Salzburg - Austria: 1993 - Invited Lecturer, Language Technology: Interdisciplinary M.S. Program (NTUA, University of Athens, ILSP / ATHENA RC): 1999-).

Her publications include four books, series of ILSP internal editions and conference proceedings, numerous scientific articles, two electronic dictionaries of GSL (http://www.ilsp.gr/noema_eng.html), a trilingual educational tool for the training of the Deaf in the ECDL context (http://www.ilsp.gr/diolkos.html) and the educational software “MtN1” (http://www.ilsp.gr/noimata.html), which is part of the official curriculum of Nursery and Primary School education level of Special Education in Greece.

Contact

Indicative recent publications:

Books, Chapters and articles in edited volumes

1. Β. Κουρμπέτης & Ε. Ευθυμίου: Τα πρώτα μου νοήματα. Εκδόσεις Καστανιώτης, Αύγουστος 2004.
    

2. Μ. Κατσογιάννου, Ε. Ευθυμίου. "Θεωρία, μέθοδοι και πρακτικές της ορολογίας" στο Ελληνική Ορολογία: Έρευνα και Εφαρμογές. Μ. Κατσογιάννου & Ε. Ευθυμίου (επιμ.) εκδόσεις Καστανιώτης, Ιούλιος 2004.
    

3. Ο. Γιαννούτσου, Α. Φούρλα, Ε. Ευθυμίου. "Διαχείριση ορολογίας στη μηχανική μετάφραση: το παράδειγμα EC-SYSTRAN" στο Ελληνική Ορολογία: Έρευνα και Εφαρμογές. Μ. Κατσογιάννου & Ε. Ευθυμίου (επιμ.) εκδόσεις Καστανιώτης, Ιούλιος 2004.
    

4. E. Efthimiou, G. Sapountzaki, K. Karpouzis, S-E. Fotinea. “Developing an e-Learning platform for the Greek Sign Language”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), Eds. K. Miesenberger, J. Klaus, W. Zagler, D. Burger, Springer (ISBN: 3-540-22334-7), Vol. 3118, 2004 pp. 1107-1113.
    

5. E. Efthimiou, S-E. Fotinea, “GSLC: Creation and annotation of a Greek Sign Language Corpus for HCI”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), C. Stephanidis (Ed.): Universal Access in HCI, Part I, HCII 2007, LNCS 4554, pp. 657–666, 2007.
    

6. E. Efthimiou. “Processing cumulative morphology information in GSL: the case of pronominal reference in a three-dimensional morphological system” στο «Γλώσσης Χάριν»,τόμος προς τιμήν του Γ. Μπαμπινιώτη, Α. Μόζερ, Χ. Χαραλαμπάκης, Α. Μπακάκου-Ορφανού & Δ. Χειλά-Μαρκοπούλου (επιστημονική επιμέλεια), Ελληνικά Γράμματα, 2008.
    

7. E. Efthimiou, S.-E. Fotinea, J. Glauert (eds): Emerging Technologies for Deaf Accessibility in the Information Society, Special Issue. Universal Access in the Information Society (UAIS) Journal, Springer, 2008.
    

Papers in Journals

1. Ε. Efthimiou, S.-E. Fotinea, G. Sapountzaki. "E-accessibility to educational content for the deaf" in EURODL, 2006/II, electronically available since 15.12.06 at: http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2006/Eleni_Efthimiou.htm EURODL
    

2. K. Karpouzis, G. Caridakis, S-E. Fotinea, E. Efthimiou. “Educational Resources and Implementation of a Greek Sign Language Synthesis Architecture”, Computers & Education, 49 (1): Web3D Technologies in Learning, Education and Training, pp.54-74, Aug 2007, Elsevier (electronically available since Sept 05).
    

3. Ε. Efthimiou, S.-E. Fotinea, G. Sapountzaki. "Feature-based natural language processing for GSL synthesis” Sign Language and Linguistics Journal (SL&L) 10:1, pp. 3-23, 2007. John Benjamins.
    

4. S.-E. Fotinea, E. Efthimiou, G. Caridakis, K. Karpouzis “A Knowledge-based Sign Synthesis Architecture” accepted for publication at Universal Access in the Information Society (UAIS) Journal, Springer, 2008.