Mai Ha Vu

Mai Ha Vu

Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Linguistics
Language Studies

Undergraduate Cross-Appointment: Mathematical and Computational Sciences

Mai Ha started out with applying formal language theory to linguistic patterns to answer the following question: If human cognition is a type of computer that outputs natural language, how powerful does this computer need to be? Since then, she has developed a broad research repertoire that ranges from the study of Hungarian syntax to protein language models. As a teaching stream faculty of Linguistics and Computer Science, Mai Ha seeks to develop classes that can foster a deep sense of curiosity and engagement in students from different academic backgrounds. In her free time, Mai Ha enjoys boardgames, YouTube video essays, and long walks with interesting conversations.

Current Courses

Fall/Winter 2024-25:

  • LIN240 (Computer Programming for Linguists)
  • LIN340 (Computing with Natural Language)
  • LIN341 (Linguistics and Computation)
  • CSC236 (Introduction to the Theory of Computation)
  • CSC311 (Introduction to Machine Learning)

Education

  • PhD, Linguistics, University of Delaware
  • MA, Linguistics (by examination), University of Delaware
  • BA, Psychology major and Linguistics concentration, Grinnell College 

Areas of Teaching and Research Interests

  • Computational/Mathematical modeling of language
  • Theoretical syntax
  • Formal language theory
  • Linguistic typology
  • Large language models

Selected Publications

Articles

  • Mai Ha Vu, Rahmad Akbar, Philippe A. Robert, Bartlomiej Swiatczak, Geir Kjetil Sandve, Victor Greiff, and Dag Trygve Truslew Haug (2023). Linguistically inspired roadmap for building biologically reliable protein language models. Nature Machine Intelligence, 5, 485–496. doi: 10.1038/s42256-023-00637-1 
  • Mai Ha Vu, Nazila Shafiei, and Thomas Graf. (2019). Case assignment in TSL syntax: a case study. Proceedings of the Society for Computation in Linguistics, 2(28), doi: 10.7275/sywz-xw23 
  • Mai Ha Vu and Karoliina Lohiniva (2019). In situ wh-hell: The view from Hungarian. In M. Baird and J. Pesetsky (Eds.), NELS 49: Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, 3. 275 – 284. 
  • Mai Ha Vu, Ashkan Zehfroosh, Kristina Strother-Garcia, Michael Sebok, Jeffrey Heinz, and Herbert G. Tanner (2018). Statistical relational learning with unconventional string models. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5(76), doi: 10.3389/frobt.2018.00076 
  • Amanda Payne, Mai Ha Vu, and Jeffrey Heinz (2017). A formal analysis of correspondence theory. In Proceedings of the Annual Meetings on Phonology, 4, doi: 10.3765/amp.v4i0.3987 

Dissertation