Julie Weeds

Professor Julie Weeds is a faculty member at the School of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex. Her academic journey includes a DPhil in Natural Language Processing (2003), MPhil in Computer Speech and Language Processing (2000), and MA in Computer Science (1998). She has held positions including Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2003-2005, 2012-2016, part-time), Lecturer in Data Science (2016-present), and Professor of Artificial Intelligence (2023-present).

• MA Computer Science - Trinity Hall, Cambridge University (1995-1998)
• MPhil Computer Speech and Language Processing - Cambridge University (1999-2000)
• DPhil Natural Language Processing - University of Sussex (2000-2003)

Her research spans Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, and Computational Linguistics, focusing on semantic compositionality, vector representation analysis, and linguistic variation. Recent work applies NLP to dream reports, wildlife conservation, and mental health support. She leads grants related to hate speech analysis, suicide prevention, and illegal wildlife trade detection.

Publications reveal trends in semantic entailment modeling, dream analysis using LLMs, and ecological informatics applications. Key themes include syntax-driven compositionality, multilingual modeling, and structure-aware paraphrase identification.

Professor Weeds supervises research projects and teaches courses including Advanced Natural Language Engineering, Natural Language Processing, and Data Science methods. Collaborators include David Weir, Luca Bertolini, and Qi Peng, with affiliations to CASM Consulting LLP and Innovate UK projects.