Wendy Lehnert facts for kids
Wendy Grace Lehnert is an American computer scientist. She is well-known for being a pioneer in teaching computers to understand human language, a field called natural language processing. She also helped develop ways for computers to learn on their own, which is known as machine learning. She was a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst before she retired.
Education and Career
Wendy Lehnert studied mathematics and earned her first degree from Portland State University in 1972. She then got a master's degree from Yeshiva University in 1974. Later, she went to Yale University and studied with a famous computer scientist named Roger Schank.
She earned her Ph.D. (a very high degree) from Yale in 1977. Her special project was about how computers can answer questions. After that, Yale hired her as a professor. In 1982, she moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Many students earned their Ph.D.s under her guidance there, including Claire Cardie and Ellen Riloff. She retired from teaching in 2011.
Books
Wendy Lehnert has written many books about computers and the internet. Some of her books explain how computers think, while others help people learn to use the internet.
- The Process of Question Answering: A Computer Simulation of Cognition (1978)
- Light on the Web: Essentials to Make the 'Net Work for You (1981)
- Strategies for Natural Language Processing (with Martin Ringle, 1982)
- The Web Wizard's Guide to Freeware and Shareware (1982)
- Internet 101: A Beginner's Guide to the Internet and the World Wide Web (1998)
- The Web Wizard's Guide to HTML (2001)
- Web 101: Making the Net Work for You (with Richard Kopec, 3rd ed., 2007)
Recognition
In 1991, Wendy Lehnert was chosen as an AAAI Fellow. This is a special honor given to people who have done amazing work in the field of artificial intelligence.
