ITU is the Leader in Natural Language Processing Studies

The impact-oriented research conducted by Prof. Dr. Gülşen Eryiğit, Head of ITU Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering Department, together with ITU Natural Language Processing Group on Turkish natural language processing plays an important role in the development of technologies that contribute to national security and eliminate foreign dependency.

ITU Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering Department, which produced its first graduates in the last academic year and ranked first among artificial intelligence departments in university preferences, continues to stand out with its pioneering academic studies. Our Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering Department draws attention with its Turkish natural language processing studies, which are important for our country’s technological and digital transformation and security, and can also be used as a reference in the development of language resources of countries we cooperate with, including the Turkic world. 

In the list of most influential scientists with the synergy of Turkish and artificial intelligence  

ITU Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering Department Head Prof. Dr. Gülşen Eryiğit has been included in the list of the world’s most influential scientists announced through the cooperation of Elsevier and Stanford University for her artificial intelligence studies on Turkish natural language processing. Thus, for the first time, a scientist from both the Faculty of Computer and Informatics, which is among the youngest faculties of ITU with its history of 14 years, and the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering, succeeded in entering the “Career-Long Impact” category of the most influential scientists list published by Elsevier. 

Underlining that all of her publications which contributed to her inclusion in the list of the most influential scientists are related to Turkish natural language processing, Prof. Dr. Eryiğit said: “Generative artificial intelligence and large language models are currently the hottest topic in the field of artificial intelligence and all the major artificial intelligence companies in the world are conducting research on this topic. Unfortunately, most of the research is focused on languages ​​such as English and Chinese. Hence, studies conducted on Turkish in our country are of great importance.” 

Technologies that will reduce foreign dependency 

In computer science terminology, human languages ​​are distinguished from programming languages and referred to as “natural languages.” Natural language processing studies involve analyzing and making sense of speech and writing. Natural language processing research at ITU is mainly in the following areas: Automatic processing of financial documents, Turkish language learning, Turkish large language models, virtual assistants, crowdsourcing, creation of Turkish language resources, and Turkish language processors. The research at ITU Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering Department also aims to play a leading role in the development of technologies that will reduce foreign dependency in this field.

Prof. Dr. Gülşen Eryiğit said, “Turkish sets a very good example for all other languages ​​with complex and rich lexical structure, and the work initiated at ITU in this field is becoming a global reference,” to explain the reason behind the intense interest in Turkish natural language processing studies not just from Turkish-speaking countries but from all over the world. Our faculty member also said that when she decided to work on Turkish natural language processing, artificial intelligence research focusing on Turkish was not very popular, but the intense scientific interest from around the world and contributing to the scientific literature with the members of the ITU Natural Language Processing Group have been a source of great satisfaction. 

About Prof. Dr. Gülşen Eryiğit 

Prof. Dr. Gülşen Eryiğit is the most cited researcher in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Türkiye. She is currently serving as a senior action editor at ACL RR (Association of Computational Linguistics), the global umbrella organization for NLP, Head of the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering at Istanbul Technical University, the coordinator of ITU Natural Language Processing Group, and the director of ITU TOMER.