Helena Wedig

Helena Wedig

Data Scientist, Communication Specialist & Linguist

About me

Hi, I am Helena!

After graduating in linguistics with a focus on computational linguistics in 2019, I used the last few years to first explore the industry while working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS), where I was able to develop skills in client communication, business proposal writing, and (agile) project management. After one year, I continued my academic career as a Pre-doctoral Research Fellow in Antwerp, Belgium. As a Pre-doctoral Research Fellow, I enlarged my knowledge about corpus linguistics, natural language processing (NLP), statistical methods, academic writing, (academic) project management, and conference presentations. I obtained my PhD in March 2025.

Education

  • B.A. in (Computational) Linguistics, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, 2017
  • B.A. in German studies, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, 2017
  • M.A. in (Computational) Linguistics, Ruhr University Bochum, 2019
  • Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of Antwerp, March 2025
    • Topic: “A corpus-based analysis of connectives in L2 German. Insights into the effect of learners’ native language on academic writing in a foreign language”
    • Funded by Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)

Work experience

Jan 2021 - Oct 2024: Pre-doctoral Research Fellow

  • University of Antwerp, Belgium
  • Tasks
    • Project management
    • NLP
    • Research
    • Paper writing
    • Conference presentations
    • Corpus annotation & analysis
    • Statistical analysis (with R)
  • Skills: Microsoft Word · Microsoft PowerPoint · Writing · NLP · Project Management · Annotation · Statistics · Student Recruiting · Natural Language Processing (NLP) · Academic Writing · Microsoft Excel · Python · R · Microsoft Office · Data Processing · Data Collection · Conference Presentations · Publication Writing

Sep 2019 - Dec 2020: Research Engineer

  • Fraunhofer IAIS, Dresden, Germany
  • Tasks
    • Client communication
    • Project management
    • NLP
  • Skills: Annotation · Data Processing · Office Administration · Scrum · Client Relations · Client Communication · Presentations · Project Management · Python · Microsoft Office · NLP · Microsoft Word · Microsoft Excel · Microsoft PowerPoint · Apple iWork

Oct 2017 - Aug 2019: Academic Tutor for Computational Linguistics (3 semesters) and Psycholinguistics (1 semester)

  • Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
  • Tasks
    • Giving tutorials about the lecture’s content
    • Supporting students
    • Correcting assignments and exams
  • Skills: Teaching · Peer Tutoring · Presentations · Python · Microsoft PowerPoint

Apr 2015 - Aug 2019: Student Research Assistant

  • Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
  • Tasks
    • Manual annotation of an Early New High German corpus with POS, sentence boundaries, morphology and normalized word forms (Anselm Project)
    • Processing learner data (Litkey)
    • Programming various applications with Python
    • Data processing (Tagging, Parsing, Converting)
  • Skills: Annotation · Data Processing · Data Cleaning · Project Management · Python · NLP

Oct 2014 - Mar 2017: Student Assistant

  • Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
  • Tasks:
    • Student Assistant in the Students’ Office of Linguistics
    • Administrative tasks
    • Supporting teachers and tutors
    • Student counselling
    • Supporting students with eCampus
  • Skills: Student Counseling · Office Administration · Microsoft Office

Voluntary work

  • Apr 2011 - Jan 2019: Youth group leader
    • Herne, Germany
  • Apr 2015 - Jun 2019: Elected member of the students’ representatives (Linguistics)
    • Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
  • Apr 2018 - Jun 2019: Speaker of the students’ representatives (Linguistics)
    • Ruhr University Bochum, Germany

Other activities

  • Panel chair at LCR 2024, NITS 2024, Graduate Student Conference in Learner Corpus Research 2023 & Learner Language Day UAntwerp 2023
  • Member of the local organizing committee and website administrator of NITS2024.
  • Lecturer of sessions on “Introduction to Computational Linguistics” (2021, 2022 & 2023), University of Antwerp, Belgium
  • Editorial assistant Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies (Sep 2021 - Oct 2024), University of Antwerp, Belgium
  • Reviewer for Finnish Journal of Linguistics (2022)
  • Teacher “Duits ophalen” (Sep 2023 – today), Pannehoef Oosterhout, Netherlands

Skills

  • Languages
    • German - Native proficiency (C2)
    • English - Professional working proficiency (C1)
    • Dutch - Limited working proficiency (B2)
    • French - Elementary proficiency (A2/B1)
  • Programming: Python, R, Java, C, C++
  • Tools: Microsoft Office, Apple iWork, PyCharm, R Studio, Google Analytics

Publications

Talks