Email: ronald.cardenas [at] ed [dot] ac [dot] uk


About me


I hold a PhD from the CDT in NLP programme in the University of Edinburgh, under the supervision of [Shay B. Cohen] and [Matthias Galle]. Previously, I completed my master studies at the Language & Communication Technologies programme (LCT), and my bachelors at the National University of Engineering in Lima, Peru.

I am mainly interested in the following problems in natural language understanding and generation. In NLU, my research has focused on using memory efficient ways to do deep semantic understanding over long inputs of text (long documents or collections of documents). In NLG, I have focused on controlling for properties of text (e.g. writing style) during generation. I draw ideas from psycholinguistics by looking at how human memory works, and from linguistics models of information organization. Previously, I developed language tools for under-resourced languages of the Peruvian Amazon.

Google Scholar: [here]

Experience


  • Applied Scientist Intern

    Alexa Team
    Amazon Research Cambridge

    June 2019 - August 2019

  • Research Intern

    Information Sciences Institute
    University of Southern California

    May 2018 - August 2018

  • Visiting Researcher

    School of Informatics
    University of Edinburgh

    Jun 2017 - Dec 2017

  • Research Programmer

    Rural Telecommunications Research Lab
    Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

    Nov 2016 - Jun 2017

  • Research Assistant

    Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
    Pennylvania State University

    Jan 2016 - Jul 2016

  • Research Assistant

    Research Institute of Mechanics and Software
    National University of Engineering, Peru

    Aug 2014 - Dec 2015

  • Student Representative

    Artificial Intelligence and Control Systems Research Lab
    National University of Engineering, Peru

    Aug 2014 - Dec 2015

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant

    Artificial Intelligence and Control Systems Research Lab
    National University of Engineering, Peru

    Jul 2013 - Aug 2014

Education & Training


  • PhD Sep 2019 - Jan 2024

    CDT in NLP

    University of Edinburgh

  • M.Sc. Sep 2017 - June 2019

    Language and Comunication Technologies

    Charles University in Prague

    University of Malta

  • B.Sc. 2015

    Mechatronics Engineering

    National University of Engineering (Lima, Peru)

  • Attendee,Panelist,Tutor 2014,2020,2022

    Lisbon Machine Learning Summer School

    Technological Institute of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal)

  • Attendee 2022

    Mediterranean Machine Learning Summer School

    Milano-Bicocca University in Milan, Italy

  • Attendee 2021

    Advanced Language Processing Winter School

    University of Grenoble, Alpes, NAVER Labs Europe

  • Attendee 2015

    Machine Learning Summer School

    Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan)

  • Attendee 2015

    Summer by Design: Peru

    ESAN University & Penn State U. (Lima, Peru)

  • Attendee 2013

    Competitive Programming Summer School

    Campinas State University (Sao Paulo, Brasil)