VISTA Score: Verification In Sequential Turn-based Assessment
arXiv preprint (Under review)
About Me
I am a PhD candidate in Computational Linguistics at The Ohio State University, where I work with Dr. Michael White. My research focuses on mitigating hallucinations in dialogue systems through efficient, data-driven approaches. I am graduating in May 2025 and actively seeking opportunities in research and industry.
Prior to my PhD, I received my BA in English and BA in Linguistics from the University of Kentucky in 2013. Before starting grad school, I spent three years abroad teaching English—one year in Poland and two years in South Korea.
My international experience and background in linguistics inform my approach to NLP research, giving me a unique perspective on language understanding and human-AI interaction.
Research
My research focuses on mitigating hallucinations in interactive dialogue systems through efficient, data-driven approaches, with the goal of enhancing the usability of AI-driven systems in resource-constrained environments.
Hallucination Mitigation
Investigating scalable methods such as knowledge distillation, self-training, and synthetic data generation to improve factual accuracy and reliability of domain-specific dialogue models.
Evaluation Frameworks
Developing robust evaluation frameworks to better quantify hallucinations in dialogue settings, combining automated metrics with human evaluation for more effective assessment.
Efficient NLP
Optimizing training and evaluation methodologies to reduce misinformation while maintaining system efficiency, particularly for deployment in resource-constrained environments.
Publications
2025
Winning Big with Small Models: Knowledge Distillation vs. Self-Training for Reducing Hallucination in QA Agents
GEM Workshop @ ACL 2025, Vienna, Austria
2024
Smoothed Embeddings for Robust Language Models
Safe Generative AI Workshop @ NeurIPS 2024
OSU CompLing at the GEM'24 Data-to-Text Task
INLG 2024, Tokyo, Japan
Insights of a Usability Study for KBQA Interactive Semantic Parsing: Generation Yields Benefits over Templates but External Validity Remains Challenging
HumEval Workshop @ LREC-COLING 2024, Torino, Italy
2023
Mitigating Harms of LLMs via Knowledge Distillation for a Virtual Museum Tour Guide
TLLM Workshop @ INLG 2023, Prague, Czech Republic
Roll Up Your Sleeves: Working with a Collaborative and Engaging Task-Oriented Dialogue System
SIGDIAL 2023, Prague, Czechia
2022
Towards Transparent Interactive Semantic Parsing via Step-by-Step Correction
Findings of ACL 2022, Dublin, Ireland
INSPIRED: A Large-Scale Dataset and Simulation Framework for Exploring Interactive Learning in Knowledge-Based Question Answering
InterNLP Workshop 2022
Bootstrapping a User-Centered Task-Oriented Dialogue System
Alexa Prize TaskBot Challenge 2022
Invited Talks
I enjoy speaking about AI hallucination, dialogue systems, and making NLP research accessible. Available for speaking engagements — reach out via LinkedIn.
Upcoming
May 2026
May 2026
Huntington National Bank's 2026 Analytics & Data Expo
Feb 2026
AI Ethics Workshop at Tsukuba University
Tokyo, Japan
Feb 2026
Past
Dec 2025
Dublin City University's NLP Group Meeting
Oct 2025
DataConnect Conference 2025
Hallucination in AI Dialogues: Detection and Mitigation
Sep 2025
Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences Fall Retreat
Introducing VISTA Score: Verification in Sequential Turn-Based Assessment
Jun 2025
Columbus Data Analytics Wednesdays
Hallucination in the Wild: A Field Guide for LLM Users
Spotting, Understanding, and Reducing AI Mistakes
Curriculum Vitae
A summary of my academic background, research experience, and achievements.
Education
- PhD in Computational Linguistics — The Ohio State University (Expected May 2025)
- BA in English — University of Kentucky (2013)
- BA in Linguistics — University of Kentucky (2013)
Experience
- Graduate Research Assistant — The Ohio State University
- English Teacher — South Korea (2 years)
- English Teacher — Poland (1 year)
Awards
- See CV for full list
Embroidery
When I'm not researching NLP, I embroider. I'm available for commissions — check out more of my work on Instagram.
Contact
I'm always happy to chat about research, collaborations, job opportunities, or speaking engagements. The best way to reach me is via LinkedIn.