The dissertation of Andreas Stolcke is approved: University of ...

iAcknowledgmentsLife and work in Berkeley and at ICSI for me are marked by a wonderful wealth of friends,colleagues, collaborators, and acquaintances. It will be hard to do justice to the many ways in which thepeople below, and probably some I will forget to mention, have enriched the years at this extraordinaryplace—but I will try.Jerry Feldman, advisor who patiently guides his students by letting them wander about their ownways—a true Doktorvater.Steve Omohundro, collaborator and friend, an endless source of ideas, insight, and above all,enthusiasm.My extended academic support group, who taught me most of what I know and made Berkeley theplace to be (in approximate order of appearance): John Canny, Bob Wilensky, Stuart Russell, George Lakoff,Chuck Fillmore, Lotfi Zadeh, Jitendra Malik, John Ousterhout, and David Culler.Peter Cheeseman and Wray Buntine, who introduced me to the powers of Bayes’ Rule at just theright moment and have been a willing source of advice ever since—may their book be on the shelves soon.Nelson Morgan, who adopted me into his group, and continues to be a valuable source of adviceabout the real data, and RAP.Subutai Ahmad, Dekai Wu, Terry Regier and Ben Gomes, officemates, friends and collaborators:thanks for making these such fun years.The ICSI AI and realization groups, Bertrand Irissou, Brian Kingsbury, Chris Bregler, ChuckWooters, Dan Jurafsky, David Bailey, David Stoutamire, Eric Fosler, Gary Tajchman, Hervé Bourlard, JeffBilmes, Joachim Diederich, Jonathan Segal, Krste Asanovic, Lokendra Shastri, Nikki Mirghafori, SriniNarayanan, Steve Greenberg, Susan Weber, and Yochai Konig. Apart from being an utterly fun crowd,several of them did much of the work that was crucial in obtaining results.All of the ICSI staff, past and present, who have developed perfection in providing unobtrusivesupport and afternoon tea and cookies. Special thanks go to Alix Collison for friendship and help in feeling,quite literally, at home.The rest of the Berkeley AI and Cogsci crowd, Adele Goldberg, Francesca Barrientos, Jane Edwards,Marti Hearst, Mike Braverman, Mike Schiff, NJ, and Peter Norvig—never short of advice, encouragement,good humor, rhythm, and blue notes.Kathryn Crabtree, who has been indispensable in steering me (as well as everyone else) through,and where possible clear of the thicket of University regulations and requirements.My former academic advisors at Munich, Erwin Kloeck, Christian Freksa, Wilfried Brauer, andTheo Vennemann, who in many ways laid the foundations for the present work and encouraged me to try myluck in Berkeley.Fernando Pereira, who I first ran into on the Internet, and who has since made himself indispensablewith valuable insights and bibliographic references.Our ‘Foster’ parents, Bill and Donna, and everybody at WCPC, who made us feel so welcome inthe very beginning and thereafter.David Blake, Berkeley student par excellence and important source of information about Americanand Berkeley culture.