Pete Smith Jr

[Samuel H Smith Jr]

Professor, Modern Languages

Last Updated: July 28, 2021

psmith@uta.edu

about me

Research Interests

His research focuses natural language processing and natural language understanding, machine translation, computed culture, and “big data” in education.

Teaching Interests

Dr. Smith also oversees and teaches foundational courses in UTA’s Localization and Translation certificate program and minor, offered to students of eight languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish) as an introduction to localization and the translation industry.

Biography

Dr. Pete Smith is Chief Analytics Officer at the University of Texas Arlington, where he founded and oversees the office of University Analytics, and co-founded the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge (LINK) lab, a learning analytics research laboratory. He is a Professor of Modern Languages, and he previously served for 18 years as Assistant and later Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, as well as Vice Provost for Digital Teaching and Learning.

Education

- 1992 PhD in Foreign Language Education
  University of Texas at Austin
- 1988 MA in Slavic Languages and Literatures
  University of Texas at Austin
- 1985 BS in Russian Technical Translation
  Pennsylvania State University
- 1983 BA in General Arts and Sciences
  Pennsylvania State University

Appointments

- 2018 to Present Professor
  Modern Languages, University of Texas at Arlington
- 2016 to Present Chief Analytics Officer
  University of Texas at Arlington
- 2015 to Present Professor
  University Studies, University of Texas at Arlington
- 2012 to 2015 Vice Provost
  University Studies, University of Texas at Arlington
- 1997 to 2015 Specialist (Russian, German, Technology in Teaching, Localization, Translation
  Department of Modern Lanugages, University of Texas at Arlington
- 2004 to 2012 Curriculum Designer/Examiner, Director (Russian)
  Virtual Language Studies, Drake University
- 2000 to 2012 Assistant/Associate Vice President
  Academic Affairs, University of Texas at Arlington
- 1992 to 1997 Director
  Language Acquisition Center, University of Texas at Arlington

Memberships

- Jan 2017 to Present International Institute of Analytics
  
  Leading professional organization for chief analytics officers and analytics leaders.
- Jan 2013 to Present Translation Automation User Society
  
  International professional organization for translation automation and machine translation.

Awards and Honors

- Sep 2018 CoLA Outstanding Teaching Award sponsored by College of Liberal Arts, UTA

Support & Funding

This data is entered manually by the author of the profile and may duplicate data in the Sponsored Projects section.

- Past to Present Introduction to Engineering and Engineering Mathematics sponsored by edX - $0
  (Funded)
- Aug 2015 to Dec 2015 Teacher Quality Grant Program Evaluation and Research sponsored by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) - $50000
  (Funded)
- Sept 2013 to Dec 2013 Conference Support: MOOCS and Emerging Educational Models: Policy, Practice and Learning (30) sponsored by Gates Foundation - $97200
  (Funded)

Publications

2018

Book
The community of inquiry framework in contemporary education: emerging research and opportunities
[Semingson, Smith, SamuelH, Anderson]. Hershey, PA: "IGI Global, Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global)".

2016

Book Chapter
"I'm Not Simply Dealing with Some Heartless Computer": Videoconferencing as Personalized Online Learning in a Graduate Literacy Course
Handbook of research on strategic management of interaction, presence, and participation in online courses
[Smith, SamuelH, Semingson, P.L.]. 160-184. "IGI Global". DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-9582-5.ch007

2013

Book Chapter
Integrative Language and Culture Learning: Connecting Formal and Non-Formal Learning in Virtual Language Studies
Cases on Formal and Informal E-Learning Environments: Opportunities and Practices
[Smith, SamuelH, Marston, J., Yang, H., Wang, S.]. 185-199. Hershey, PA: "Information Science Reference". DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1930-2.ch010

Book Chapter
Structuring One-on-One Videoconferencing to Engage and Deepen Digital Mentoring and Reflection
Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2013
[Smith, SamuelH, Semingson, P.]. 1022-1027. Chesapeake, VA: "AACE".

2010

Book Chapter
When Virtual Communities Click: Transforming Teacher Practice, Transforming Teachers
Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in E-Learning: Issues and Trends
[Smith, SamuelH, Hirtle, J., Yang, H.H., Yuen, S.C.]. 182-196. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-788-1.ch011

2008

Journal Article
"Positioning Online Learning as a Strategic Asset in the Thinking of University Presidents and Chancellors"
[Smith, SamuelH, Smith, S.H.]. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 12(2), 91-100. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24059/olj.v12i2.45

Journal Article
Creating Virtual Communities of Professional Practice
Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2008
[Smith, SamuelH, Hirtle, J., Quintans-Bence, J., McFerrin, K.]. 3164-3169. Chesapeake, VA: "AACE".

2019

Research Report
In a Funk about BLEU
Corporate Research Report, Webinar, Published in Internationally-Leading Blog on MT
[Smith, Pete, Anderson, Henry]. Arlington.
https://kv-emptypages.blogspot.com/2019/09/in-funk-about-bleu.html

Presentations

- May 2021
  Smith, SamuelH, ""Insight, Insight Burning Bright: Describing Analytics Impact"", SAS Enterprise Analytics Company, Online. (May 18, 2021).
- April 2021
  Smith, SamuelH, "Introduction to the Learning Analytics Learning Network (LALN) ", Society of Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR), Online/Univ. of California Irvine. (April 13, 2021).
- December 2020
  Smith, SamuelH, "AI Case Studies—What Can You Learn from your Weathercaster?", MIT/Sloan, Online. (December 10, 2020).
- September 2020
  Smith, SamuelH (Author & Presenter), "Train an AI Model with BERT; or, Everything I Know about NLU I Learned from Pop Culture", Online. (September 18, 2020).
- March 2020
  Smith, Pete, "Clicks, Context, and Koicha—Why Higher Education Needs Thick Data", University of Central Florida, Tampa, Florida. (March 2, 2020).
- February 2020
  Smith, SamuelH, "NLU = NLP + AI? Imagining the Future of Language and Culture Computing for Education", Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR), Webinar. (February 28, 2020).
- February 2020
  Smith, SamuelH, "Civitas Leadership and Outcomes", Civitas Learning, Austin, Texas. (February 10, 2020).
- September 2019
  Smith, SamuelH, "Academia-Industry Relations", Translation Automation User Society (TAUS), Salt Lake City, UT. (September 1, 2019).
- April 2019
  Vashee, Kirti, Smith, Pete (Author & Presenter), "Understanding MT Quality: Beyond BLEU", SDL USA (Language Services Company), Webinar. (April 30, 2019).
- March 2019
  Smith, SamuelH, "Developing an Analytics Culture", University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA. (March 1, 2019).
- March 2015
  Smith, SamuelH, Semingson, P., Shestakov, K., Liro, J., Marston, J., "Global Connections: Designing English-Language Lessons via Synchronous Sessions and Blogging", Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). (March , 2015).
- 2013
  Smith, SamuelH, Semingson, P., "Structuring One-on-One Videoconferencing to Engage and Deepen Digital Mentoring and Reflection", AACE, Chesapeake, VA. ( , 2013).
- March 2013
  Smith, SamuelH, ""Tuesdays with Omsk: Telementoring and Telecollaboration in Culture Learning"", Dallas, TX. (March , 2013).
- April 2011
  Smith, SamuelH, Shestakov, Konstantin, ""Fences and Fatalism: Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence in a Digital Age", University of Hawaii (Virtual Conference). (April , 2011).
- 2008
  Smith, SamuelH, Hirtle, J., Quintans-Bence, J., "Creating Virtual Communities of Professional Practice", AACE, Chesapeake, VA. ( , 2008).
- February 2007
  Smith, SamuelH, ""The New Face of Literacy in the 21st Century"", Bluebonnet Writing Project, UTA, Arlington, TX. (February , 2007).
- June 2005
  Smith, SamuelH, ""Got Global? Teaching Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, and Translation at UTA"", University of Texas System, Austin, TX. (June , 2005).

Students Supervised

- Present
  Undergraduate Honors Thesis
  Sophie Soueid, (Modern Languages)
- May 2018
  Undergraduate Honors Thesis
  Kalen Goss, (Linguistics and Tesol)
  Improving Automatic Text Summarization for Low- and Moderate-Resource, Morphologically Complex Languages
- May 2015
  Undergraduate Honors Thesis
  Shane Sloan, (Linguistics and Tesol)
  A PFENNIG SAVED: THE COMPLEXITY BEHIND THE ABOVE AVERAGE SELF-PERCIEVED SAVING BEHAVIOR OF GERMANS

Courses

Service to the University

- Dec 2020 to Present Committee Chair
  
  Search Committee--Endowed Chair, Online Innovation
- Sept 2019 to Present Committee Member
  
  Search Committee, Asst. Professor, Spanish, Department of Modern Languages
- Oct 2018 to Present Committee Member
  
  Scholarship Committee
  Dept. Scholarship Committee, reading and ranking candidate dossiers.
- Jan 2018 to Present Committee Member
  
  Chair's Advisory Committee
  Advise and support department chair on issues related to departmental operations.
- 2006 to Present Founded and lead certificate and later academic minor
  
  "Localization and Translation," University of Texas at Arlington
  (18 credit, enrolling majors/minors in seven languages)
- 2004 to Present Committee Member
  
  Fulbright Campus Selection Committee
- Jan 2021 to Feb 2021 Committee Member
  
  Search Committee--AVP for Faculty Systems
- Sept 2019 to Aug 2020 Committee Member
  
  Tenure and Promotion Committee
- Jan 2020 to May 2020 Committee Chair
  
  Endowed Chair Search, Online Innovation
- Sept 2019 to May 2020 Chairperson
  
  Search Committee--Endowed Chair, College of Business Administration
- Mar 2019 to July 2019 Committee Member
  
  Search Committee--AVP for Faculty Personnel
- Jan 2019 to June 2019 Committee Member
  
  AVP Search Committee, Academic Affairs
  Selection and hiring of a new AVP for Academic Affairs.
- Oct 2016 to Aug 2018 Committee Member
  
  Campus Task Force on Diversity
- Past to Dec 2016 Committee Member
  
  Search Committee, Vice President for Enrollment Management
- Feb 2016 to May 2016 Committee Chair
  
  Search Committee, Dean, College of Education
- Past to May 2016 Committee Member
  
  Search Committee, Asst. Professor, French, Department of Modern Languages
- Past to Jan 2016 Committee Member
  
  Search Committee, Vice President for Communications
- Past to May 2015 Committee Member
  
  Search Committee, Dean, College of Liberal Arts
- Past to May 2015 Committee Member
  
  Search Committee, Asst. Professor, Spanish, Department of Modern Languages
- Past to May 2013 Committee Member
  
  Search Committee, Asst. Professor, Spanish, Department of Modern Languages

Service to the Profession

- Jan 2020 to Present
  Editorial Review Board Member (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
  Computer-Based Learning in Context (Journal)
  Scholarly journal dedicated to inter-cultural research on learning analytics.
- Sept 2018 to Present
  Committee Member (Seattle, Washington, United States)
  Student Scholarship Committee, GALA (International Localization Association)
  Review portfolios from outstanding GALA student members to award financial support for participation in the annual international conference.
- Jan 2021 to Dec 2021
  Track Organizer (Arlington, TX, United States)
  GALA (Globalization and Localization International Professional Society)
- 2006 to 2018
  Technical/Evaluation Advisor
  Teacher Quality Grants Program (Title IIA), Science and Math Education via Advanced Technonlogy
- 2007 to 2010
  Committee Member
  NASULGC-Sloan National Commission on Online Learning
- 2007 to 2010
  Program Officer
  Network for Effective Language Learning, Keck Foundation and Council of Independent Colleges, in cooperation with Drake University
- 1996 to 1999
  Editor-in-Chief
  IALL Journal, scholarly journal of the International Association of Learning Laboratories

Faculty & Staff Resources

Pete Smith Jr

[Samuel H Smith Jr]

Research Interests

Research Interests

Teaching Interests

Teaching Interests

Biography

Biography

Education

Education

Appointments

Appointments

Memberships

Awards and Honors

Support & Funding

Support & Funding

Publications

Presentations

Students Supervised

Courses

Service to the University

Service to the Profession