About ALTA

Most human knowledge, and most human communication, is represented and expressed using language, both in written and spoken forms. Language technologies permit computers to process human language, providing more natural human-machine interfaces, and more sophisticated access to stored information. Language technologies will play a central role in the multilingual information society of the future.

Download the ALTA brochure

ALTA's Mission

The purpose of the Australasian Language Technology Association is to promote language technology research and development in Australia and New Zealand. ALTA will organise regular events for the exchange of research results and for academic and industrial training, and will co-ordinate activities with other professional societies.

Collaboration

ALTA is a founding regional organisation of the Asian Federation of Natural Language Processing.

ALTA manages funds for OzCLO, the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad.

Organisation

ALTA operates according to the ALTA Constitution. For 2023-2024, the ALTA Executive Committee is:

Former ALTA Executive Committee members

2021-2022

• President: Maria Kim
• Secretary: Sarvnaz Karimi
• Treasurer: Mel Mistica
• Student representative: William Lane
• Past President: Sarvnaz Karimi
• General members: Diego Mollá, Massimo Piccardi, Afshin Rahimi

2019-2020

• President: Sarvnaz Karimi
• Secretary: Stephen Wan
• Treasurer: Andrew MacKinlay
• Student representative: Xiang Dai
• Past President: Stephen Wan
• General members: Maria Kim, Diego Mollá

2017-2018

• President: Stephen Wan
• Secretary: Ben Hachey
• Treasurer: Andrew MacKinlay
• Student representative: Yitong Li
• Past President: Ben Hachey
• General members: Trevor Cohn, Sarvnaz Karimi, Diego Mollá

2015-2016

• President: Ben Hachey
• Secretary: Karin Verspoor
• Treasurer: Andrew MacKinlay
• Student representative: Kellie Webster
• Past President: Karin Verspoor
• General members: Trevor Cohn, Sarvnaz Karimi, Diego Mollá

2013-2014

• President: Karin Verspoor
• Secretary: Tim Baldwin
• Treasurer: Andrew MacKinlay
• Student representative: Kellie Webster
• Past President: Tim Baldwin
• General members: Diego Mollá, Scott Nowson, Stephen Wan

2011-2012

• President: Tim Baldwin
• Secretary: Andrew Lampert
• Student representative: Li Wang
• Past President: Diego Mollá
• General members: Mark Johnson, David Martínez, Scott Nowson

2009-2010

• President: Diego Mollá
• Secretary: Andrew Lampert
• Student representative: Pawel Mazur
• Past President: Rolf Schwitter
• General members: Dominique Estival, David Martínez

2007-2008

• President: Rolf Schwitter
• Secretary: Diego Mollá
• Student representative: Andrew Lampert
• Past President: Cécile Paris
• General members: Dominique Estival, Lawrence Cavedon

2005-2006

• President: Cécile Paris
• Secretary: Diego Mollá
• Student representative: Patrick Ye
• Past President: Steven Bird
• General members: Dominique Estival, James Curran, Andrew Lampert

2003-2004

• President: Steven Bird
• Secretary: Diego Mollá
• Student representative: Stephen Wan
• General members: Robert Dale, Alistair Knott, Cécile Paris