AI and the Future of Translation and Interpretation Event

Natalia Bondonno is the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service at United Nations Headquarters. Natalia is the Project Manager for the Machine-readable Documents project and Chair of the IAMLADP Task Force on Machine Translation Management.

Wallace CHEN is Professor and Program Head of Chinese-English Translation and Interpretation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). He holds an MA in Chinese-English Translation and Interpretation (MIIS) and a Ph.D. in Corpus-Based Translation Studies (University of Manchester, UK). Professor Chen has been teaching Chinese-English translation and interpretation (T&I) since 1997. He has over 30 years of experience in practicing T&I, providing services to major corporations, government agencies, and international organizations spanning across Asia and North America. Professor Chen lectures in a wide variety of T&I areas, including professional skill development, pedagogy, T&I technology, professional assessment, T&I practice, and corpus-based T&I studies.

Chiaming (Damien) FAN is currently Associate Professor at the Graduate Program in Translation and Interpretation at National Taiwan University. He is also one of the five vice presidents of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC).

Winnie HEH has worn many different hats – language instructor, translator, interpreter, professor of interpretation, senior executive and consultant. In her business career, she has run businesses in the U.S., Latin America, Canada, U.K. and China. As an educator, she connects language students with the abundance of career opportunities in the language industry and advocates for curriculum innovation in line with future talent needs. She earned her MA degree in Translation and Interpretation from MIIS. She is a Board Member and Board Secretary of CHIA and Women in Localization. She is a Founding Member of Interpreter SAFE-AI Task Force.

Weiwei WANG is a professor in the School of Interpreting and Translation Studies at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, WeiWei’s work focuses on interpreting quality assessment. Her keen interest lies in deciphering the intricate patterns of interpreting competence development, along with investigating the potential causal factors contributing to the evolution of this competence. She has been published in such journals as Chinese Translators Journal, Foreign Language World, Foreign Language Teaching and Research and Frontiers in Psychology. She has led several research projects funded by the Ministry of Education, China National Social Science Foundation, and the British Council. She is serving as the Deputy Secretary-General of the National Interpreting Committee of the Translation Association of China and the external examiner at Leeds University.

Ping YANG holds a doctorate in Translation Studies. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Translators Journal published by Translators Association of China and  Distinguished Professor of Xiaoxiang Scholars at Hunan Normal University. She is also the Vice President of China Academy of Translation and a member on China’s National Committee for Graduate Education of Translation and Interpreting. As a leading scholar in translation studies, she has published numerous research papers in both Chinese and English, and is the principal investigator of a major research project sponsored by China’s National Social Science Fund. Her work also includes mentoring postdoctoral fellows for China International Communications Group and doctoral research students at Remin University of China and Tianjin Foreign Studies University. As a senior publisher, she has designed and led numerous major projects at the national level, including translation standardization and translation standardization of official terminology for international communication, as well as editing and publishing more than 200 books including collections of research papers on the discourse of international communication and the multilingual edition of Key Words to Understand China.

Yang YU is the general manager of China Translation Co., Ltd., the chairman of GTCOM Technology Co., Ltd., and concurrently serves as the executive director of the Translators Association of China and the deputy director of the Conference Interpretation Committee.

Laura Burian is a Professor of Chinese/English translation and interpretation, and the Dean of Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development at the Middlebury Institute. Since joining the faculty in 2000, she has served in many roles, including as Faculty Senate President, Program Chair of Translation and Interpretation, and the Dean of the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education (GSTILE). Before joining MIIS, she was an in-house Chinese/English translator/interpreter/legal assistant in the Beijing office of Skadden Arps, and a freelance translator and interpreter. She maintains a dynamic portfolio of high-profile translation and interpretation clients in both the public and private sector, and is a frequent guest speaker at conferences, workshops, and seminars worldwide. Her TEDx talk (co-presented with former MIIS Professor Barry Olsen) is often used as a primer for students, teacher, and end-users of translation and interpretation. Dean Burian has received several prestigious teaching awards. Her pedagogy aims to inspire her students to quickly become full partners in shaping the trajectory of their own professional and personal development.