Jessica Johnson

I am a computational linguist who has developed my skills through research, and coursework, and in the field. I have reinforced those skills by teaching undergrads different aspects of how language can be manipulated through computational means.

Research: To be filled in shortly

University of Southern California: Teaching Assistant for undergraduate courses

2022 Language & Technology; general education course and required for 2nd year linguistics majors

• Supervisor: Dr.

  Mary Byram

  Washburn (Spring 2020 and Spring 2022 semesters)

• Course summary: Using computer programming (Matlab and Python) to investigate natural speech sounds and artificial speech generation and recognition;

  Some concepts covered: phonetics, signal processing, speech recognition, speech synthesis, neural networks

2021 Human Language as Computation; required course for 3rd year linguistics majors

• Supervisor: Dr.

  Khalil

  Iskarous (Fall 2021 semester)

• Course summary: An introduction to modern neural network approaches to natural language processing, based on Deep Learning, e.g., using computer programming (python) and machine learning to investigate sentence structure.

  Some concepts covered: recursive and recurrent neural networks, backpropagation, n-gram models.

2020 Human Speech; honors degree track general education course

• Supervisor: Dr. Dani Byrd ( Fall 2020 semester)

  Course summary: Learn about all aspects of natural spoken and signed languages, child language acquisition, as well as speech and language disorders, and the implications for technology

2018 Language & Society; general education course 

• Supervisors: Dr.

  Andrew

  Simpson (Fall 2018 and Fall 2019 semesters)

• Created handouts each week for guided discussion and applying sociolinguistic concepts

2018 University of Southern California; PhD Linguistics program (Jan 2018-May 2022; received masters)

Masters Thesis: Vowel Height and Backness are Unequally Distributed in the Spectrum

2017 The Australian National University; M.A. General and Applied Linguistics

Masters Thesis: Disentangling Tone in Ḍanḍagaon Tamang: The Tonology of a Western Tamang Variety 

2013 Central Connecticut State University; B.A.

Studies in Linguistics

2011 Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea; exchange year studying linguistics and learning Korean