The BYU Translation Research Group which maintains TTT, currently has three active members and three emeritus members.

Active members:
Alan K. Melby
Deryle Lonsdale. [Note: this link will take you to Deryle’s departmental homepage].
Arle R. Lommel
Michael Rushforth
Daniel Roundy

Emeritus members:
Aaron Alder
Ryan Corradini
Aaron Alder

Active Members

Alan K. Melby

Overview of Scholarly Research Interests

My research interests focus on translation and include both a theoretical branch and an applied branch. The theoretical branch is very long term and investigates the differences between various types of language, based on factors such as fluidity and generality, and examines their possible connections with translation and human agency. The applied branch is more immediate and attempts to foster the development and use of data exchange standards, in hopes of increasing interoperability between various translation tools.

Although it is not obvious at first glance, there are connections between the theoretical and applied branches of my research other than the fact that they both involve translation. For example, my theoretical studies suggest that because of fundamental differences between various types of language, machine translation will neither fade away nor replace all human translators. This, together with the commercial fact that there are several competing vendors of translation technology products, leads to the conclusion that data exchange standards will be needed to allow various products to interoperate.

Alan Melby’s curriculum vita is available.

One type of data exchange standard that is needed is a standard
format for exchanging terminology databases (often called termbases) between various translation technology products. MARTIF (Machine-Readable Terminology Interchange Format) is a draft international standard. I am co-editor of the MARTIF standard and, as a member of the United States delegation to ISO Technical Committee 37, have been given a mandate to test MARTIF on real-world data by writing software to automatically convert termbases from one format to another using MARTIF as a pivot point and keeping information loss to a minimum.

In the BYU Translation Research Group, we have done preliminary testing and have made adjustments to MARTIF based on deficiencies identified during testing. Now we have additional test data from
IBM, Logos, Star Corporation, and several other sources. What remains in order to keep my commitment to ISO is to do further testing and to report on our findings at the next meeting of ISO Technical Committee 37, which will be held in Copenhagen in August, 1997.

James Hayes

Brief bio coming soon…

Kaden Carr

Brief bio coming soon…

Emeritus Members

Aaron D. Alder

Aaron received his masters degree from BYU and moved to Oregon to become a localization project manager for a small translation company. He is now a localization project manager for Intel Corporation.

Ryan Corradini

Ryan is now living and working in Las Vegas.

Daniel Hardman

Daniel is working for PowerQuest in Orem, Utah

Arle Lommel

Arle Lommel was previously a master’s student in comparative literature at BYU. His interests include languages and folk music. Arle can be contacted at fenevad@ttt.org.

Michael Rushforth

Michael was a masters student in Spanish with an emphasis in linguistics. His course work includes classes in translation, NLP, speech recognition and general hispanic linguistics. He currently develops XSLT filters for the SALT project. In his limited free time, he enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife. He can be reached at michael@ttt.org.

Daniel Roundy

Daniel Roundy was the ttt.org webmaster. He studyied Spanish translation and is currently working part time for a small localization company in Orem, Utah. In his free time, Daniel enjoys playing the piano and guitar and wrestling with his one-year old twin boys.