Ghazaleh Kazeminejad

AI Client Engineer · IBM watsonx · CV · ghazaleh DOT kazeminejad AT ibm DOT com
Website last updated on Oct 2023.

As an AI Client Engineer at IBM watsonx, I specialize in Foundation Models and AI systems. My mission is to harness the power of the watsonx platform to co-create value through AI for businesses. My work involves collaborating with clients to develop and deploy AI systems that tackle real-world business challenges across diverse industries worldwide.
Prior to my current role, I had the privilege of serving as an NLP Research Scientist at RedShred. In this capacity, I had the opportunity to work on projects at the intersection of AI and real-world business challenges, with a particular focus on neural information retrieval, fine-tuning, harnessing, and deploying Large Language Models (LLMs). My expertise extended to performing Named Entity Recognition (NER), information extraction, and entity linking, utilizing a mastery of both machine/deep learning and generative AI techniques.
In my current position, I continue to build upon this foundation of experience, guiding AI solutions through every stage of the lifecycle, from Data Engineering and Training to Validation, Tuning, Deployment, AI Operations, and AI Governance. My goal is to build end-to-end AI solutions that are not only effective but also trusted.
Beyond my professional endeavors, I am passionate about contributing to the AI community. In addition to actively serving as a reviewer for years, in 2023, I served as an area chair in the *SEM2023 workshop, co-located with ACL2023 in Toronto, Canada. Looking ahead to 2024, I am excited to take on the role of Reproducibility Chair at the NAACL2024 conference.
I hold a PhD in Computational Linguistics, with a research focus on neuro-symbolic AI and natural language understanding, earned from the University of Colorado Boulder, advised by the illustrious Professor Martha Palmer. Working under her mentorship, I was privileged to embrace an interdisciplinary perspective that allowed me to constantly learn, evolve, and push the boundaries of my passion. My academic background complements my practical experience, enabling me to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world AI applications.

Machine Learning · Deep Learning · Natural Language Underdtanding · Semantic Search · Machine Reading Comprehension · Generative AI

Professional Experience

AI Client Engineer @ IBM WatsonX -- Oct 2023 - Present

I'm absolutely thrilled to embark on this exciting new chapter as an AI engineer at IBM WatsonX. In this role, I'll be at the forefront of crafting cutting-edge AI solutions tailored for enterprises, pushing the boundaries of technology to empower businesses with AI-driven insights and capabilities. The opportunity to contribute to the future of AI in such a dynamic and innovative environment fills me with immense enthusiasm, and I can't wait to dive in and make a meaningful impact.

NLP Research Scientist @ RedShred -- Jan 2022 - Sep 2023
Venturing into the realm of cutting-edge innovation, I embarked on an exhilarating journey during my tenure @ RedShred, where I had the privilege to work on projects at the intersection of AI and real-world business challenges. Here's a glimpse into what I accomplished:

  • Pioneering Innovation: My role revolved around the conception and development of innovative technologies that harnessed the power of AI to address complex problems in cross-modal document understanding, automation, search, and information extraction. I constantly pushed the boundaries, leveraging the latest advancements in the field.
  • Neural Search Mastery: I delved into the realm of neural search, crafting techniques for information retrieval at scale, employing vector databases like Milvus and Pinecone. I harnessed the might of Large Language Models (LLMs) using platforms and frameworks such as HuggingFace, PyTorch, and TensorFlow to make document retrieval smarter and more efficient.
  • Data Enrichment: I played a pivotal role in expanding our domain-specific datasets. Leveraging generative AI and machine learning algorithms, I created end-to-end solutions for automatic annotation, empowering our systems with rich, context-aware data.
  • Optimizing LLMs: My expertise extended to fine-tuning Large Language Models, including causal and MLM techniques, to optimize their performance for downstream applications.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: My journey was marked by close collaboration with cross-functional teams, including product, engineering, data science, and research. Together, we ensured our customers' success with RedShred's products and helped shape the company's future through meaningful contributions to the roadmap.
  • Leadership in Proposal Initiatives: I assumed a leadership role in spearheading proposal writing initiatives for AI-related topics, fostering collaboration both within our organization and with external partners. These endeavors helped articulate our vision and expertise to the broader AI community.
Graduate Research Assistant @ University of Colorado Boulder -- Jan 2015 - Dec 2021

Exploring the Frontiers of AI and NLP, under the supervision of Dr. Martha Palmer.

  • Embarked on a deep research journey, pioneering neuro-symbolic AI methods, with a dedicated focus on Machine Reading Comprehension and the ever-evolving realm of Explainable AI. These endeavors laid the foundation for my PhD dissertation.
  • Weaved the power of semantic web technologies and harnessed the potential of knowledge graphs to elevate multiple NLP projects. These efforts breathed life into information extraction, clustering, and text classification across six distinct initiatives.
  • Delved into the intricate world of linguistic analysis, utilizing these insights to craft enhanced features for our machine learning models. It's in the details that true innovation often resides.
  • Demonstrated a knack for enhancing NLP lexical resources, a critical facet in optimizing the performance of NLP systems. Every word counts, and every improvement matters.
  • Tackled the formidable challenges of low-resource languages head-on, applying NLP techniques that led to the creation of language-specific models and invaluable tools. Bridging linguistic divides, one project at a time.
  • Contributed extensively to the academic landscape, with a robust portfolio of 14 published papers gracing conferences, workshops, and journals.

Publications

2023
  • Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, and Martha Palmer. Event Semantic Knowledge in Procedural Text Understanding. In Proceedings of the The 12th Joint Conference on Lexical and Computational Semantics (* SEM 2023), Toronto, Canada, July 2023.
  • Tao Li, Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Susan W Brown, Martha Palmer, and Vivek Srikumar. Learning Semantic Role Labeling from Compatible Label Sequences. arxIv preprint.
  • Ghazaleh Kazeminejad. Computational Lexical Resources for Explainable Natural Language Understanding. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Colorado at Boulder.
2022
  • Xinya Du, Zixuan Zhang, Sha Li, Pengfei Yu, Hongwei Wang, Tuan Lai, Xudong Lin, Ziqi Wang, Iris Liu, Ben Zhou, Haoyang Wen, Manling Li, Darryl Hannan, Jie Lei, Hyounghun Kim, Rotem Dror, Haoyu Wang, Michael Regan, Qi Zeng, Qing Lyu, Charles Yu, Carl Edwards, Xiaomeng Jin, Yizhu Jiao, Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Zhenhailong Wang, Chris Callison-Burch, Mohit Bansal, Carl Vondrick, Jiawei Han, Dan Roth, Shih-Fu Chang, Martha Palmer, and Heng Ji. RESIN-11: Schema-guided event prediction for 11 newsworthy scenarios. In Proceedings of the 2022 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies: System Demonstrations. Seattle, USA, July 2022.
  • Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Martha Palmer, Susan Windisch Brown, and James Pustejovsky. Componential analysis of english verbs. In Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. May 2022.
  • Susan Windisch Brown, Julia Bonn, Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Annie Zaenen, James Pustejovsky, and Martha Palmer. Semantic Representations for NLP Using VerbNet and the Generative Lexicon. In Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. April 2022.
2021
  • Claire Bonial, Susan W Brown, Martha Palmer, and Ghazaleh Kazeminejad. The rich event ontology. Book Chapter in Computational Analysis of Storylines: Making Sense of Events. Cambridge University Press. November 2021.
  • Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Martha Palmer, Tao Li, and Vivek Srikumar. Automatic entity state annotation using the verbnet semantic parser. In Proceedings of The Joint 15th Linguistic Annotation Workshop (LAW) and 3rd Designing Meaning Representations (DMR) Workshop. November 2021.
  • Piyush Mishra, Akanksha Malhotra, Susan Windisch Brown, Martha Palmer, and Ghazaleh Kazeminejad. A graphical interface for curating schemas. In Proceedings of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 11th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing: System Demonstrations. August 2021.
  • Kevin Stowe, Jenette Preciado, Kathryn Conger, Susan Windisch Brown, Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, James Gung, and Martha Palmer. Semlink 2.0: Chasing lexical resources. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computational Semantics (IWCS). June 2021.
2019
  • Sarah Moeller, Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Andrew Cowell, and Mans Hulden. Improving low-resource morphological learning with intermediate forms from finite state transducers. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Computational Methods for Endangered Languages. February 2019.
2018
  • Sarah Moeller, Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Andrew Cowell, and Mans Hulden. A neural morphological analyzer for Arapaho verbs learned from a finite state transducer. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Computational Modeling of Polysynthetic Languages. August 2018.
  • Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Claire Bonial, Susan Windisch Brown, and Martha Palmer. Automatically Extracting Qualia Relations for the Rich Event Ontology. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Computational Linguistics. August 2018.
2017
  • Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Andrew Cowell, and Mans Hulden. Creating lexical resources for polysynthetic languages--the case of Arapaho. In Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on the Use of Computational Methods in the Study of Endangered Languages. March 2017.
2014
  • Ghazaleh Kazeminejad. Pronominal Complex Predicates in Colloquial Persian. Master's Thesis. July 2014.

Beyond the Code: My Personal Passions

While my professional life revolves around the exciting world of AI and NLP, I firmly believe that a well-rounded existence is one that nurtures both the mind and the soul. Beyond the lines of code and academic pursuits, my life is colored by a kaleidoscope of non-academic passions that I hold dear.


  • Wanderlust and Exploration: Traveling is my ultimate escape from the daily grind. Whether it's exploring the bustling streets of a vibrant metropolis or immersing myself in the tranquility of a remote natural wonder, every journey brings with it the promise of new experiences and cultural discoveries.
  • Escaping into Fiction: A voracious reader of fiction, I find solace and inspiration between the pages of books. Diving into different worlds, encountering unique characters, and unraveling intricate plots is a constant source of joy and intellectual stimulation.
  • Fitness and Well-being: The gym is my sanctuary, a place where I recharge both mentally and physically. Regular exercise not only keeps me in shape but also sharpens my focus and energy for the challenges ahead.
  • Harmony in Music and Dance: My love for classical music and the vibrant rhythms of Iranian music allow me to tap into the emotional and creative depths of the human experience. Whether it's swaying to the melodies of Bach or losing myself in the infectious beats of Persian tunes, music has the power to transport me to another realm.
  • Virtual Adventures: In the digital realm, I don my Meta Quest VR headset to embark on thrilling virtual adventures. From exploring immersive VR worlds to enjoying interactive experiences, this technology offers a unique blend of entertainment and innovation.
  • Cherished Moments with Loved Ones: Amidst the whirlwind of professional pursuits and personal hobbies, I find my truest sense of peace in the company of my beloved wife, Mahshab, and our loyal canine companion, Leemoo. Whether it's a leisurely stroll in the park, cozy evenings by the fireplace, or simply sharing laughter and stories, these moments of togetherness are the heart and soul of my life. In their presence, I find the balance and serenity that complete the tapestry of my passions and aspirations, reminding me of the importance of love, connection, and the joy of shared experiences.
These diverse passions form the mosaic of my life, enriching my perspective and nurturing my creativity. They remind me that while AI may be my professional calling, there's a world of wonder and inspiration waiting to be explored outside.