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Communication Understanding Lab
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A lab that studies communication understanding, connecting people through language and supporting them through information.
AboutAbout the lab
Connecting through language, supporting through information
The Communication Understanding Lab studies the process of human language understanding, as well as the understanding of communicative intent that connects people and communities.
The lab also works on "norm-mediating alignment," which mediates multilayered norms spanning individuals, organizations, groups, and cultures.
Its research rests on information access, which supports access to social information, and on natural language processing, which aligns large language models with the norms of people and society.
The lab welcomes motivated non-degree research students and undergraduates, and invites them to start by coming to an open lab or a lab visit.
Key terms
- norm-mediating alignment
- Research on aligning large-scale models with norms while mediating multilayered norms that span individuals, organizations, groups, and cultures
- information access
- A field of technology that helps people reach social information that existing services cannot provide
- natural language processing
- A field of technology that, based on language understanding, aligns large language models with the norms of people and society
NewsLab news
The lab held an open lab (10/15)
A student received the Student Encouragement Award from the Special Interest Group on Database Systems (DBS) of the Information Processing Society of Japan
A paper was accepted at the international conference EMNLP 2026
A student received the Outstanding Interactive Presentation Award at DEIM 2026
A student received the Student Presentation Award at DEIM 2026
ResearchResearch themes
The Communication Understanding Lab studies the process of human language understanding, the understanding of communicative intent that connects people and communities, and "norm-mediating alignment," which mediates multilayered norms. Its research rests on three pillars: "norm-mediating alignment of large-scale models," "support for access to social information," and "support for social communication."
*Illustrative imageNorm-Mediating Alignment of Large-Scale Models
Research on norm-mediating alignment of large-scale models. Examples include multilingual, multimodal sustainability auditing and a dataset of multilingual corporate commitments.
*Illustrative imageSupporting Access to Social Information
Research that supports access to social information. The lab works on comparing citizen opinions across cities and on predicting the stance of citizen opinions.
*Illustrative imageSupporting Social Communication
Research that supports social communication. Examples include research on detecting the risk of gaming addiction and research on dialogue agents that focus on counselors' self-disclosure.
MembersFaculty
- ProfessorYohei Seki
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Sign language interpreter, 2012 (01)” Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (boellstiftung) / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Norm-Mediating Alignment of Large-Scale Models: “Vertical bifacial solar panels on farm field” Wikideas1 / CC0 (cropped)
- Supporting Access to Social Information: “Boca Raton Town Hall historical marker - Boca Raton Old City Hall 71 North Federal Highway Boca Raton FL 33432 United States (other side)” Spudgun67 / CC0 (cropped)
- Supporting Social Communication: “Minimo” Poule (talk) / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Fusion Intelligence Design Lab): “Estimating Greenhouse Gas Concentration from Space using Machine Learning at Laboratoire LMD” Ecole polytechnique / Jérémy Barande / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Human Information Interaction Lab (Hideo Joho)): “Photograph of West Search Room and Library - DPLA - 7c2b6f10cd5bcfdf7cb2b52f200d74ce” General Services Administration. National Archives and Records Service. Office of Educational Programs. Education Division. ?-4/1/1985 / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Information Retrieval Lab (Pham Huu Long)): “Strand Bookstore shelves” Acebarry / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Information Retrieval Lab (Masao Takaku)): “St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Wash. D.C In 1918 - Corner of reading room - American Library Association - NARA - 20801166 (cropped)” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
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