Computatinal Linguistics
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Computational Linguistics

CMPSCI 591N — Spring 2006
Spring 2006

Instructor: Andrew McCallum <mccallum@cs.umass.edu> CS Rm 244, Office hours: Tue 4pm.
TAs: Greg Druck<gdruck@cs.umass.edu> CS Rm 264, Office hours: Tue 10:30-1pm, Wed 4-6pm,
and Pallika Kanani <pallika@cs.umass.edu> CS Rm 264, Office hours: Wed 10:30am-1pm, Fri 1-3pm.
Assistant: Gideon Mann <gmann@cs.umass.edu> CS Rm 264, Office hours, Thu 10:30am-12:30pm.

Welcome! This course is designed to introduce both linguistics and computer science students to the exciting and intertwined topics of (1) using computational and statistical methods to give insight into observed human language phenomena, and (2) making computers perform various useful tasks with human languages. See the full course description and syllabus.

This elective is aimed at Linguistics graduate and undergraduate students, and CS undergraduates. Some limited programming will be involved, but no prior programming experience is required, and there will be extensive TA and collaborative support for those new to programming, so that you can focus on the course content.

The first half of the course will teach the basic concepts of computational linguistics, with hands-on exercises to reinforce the lessons (short homework assignments). Students will also be able to use these exercise to explore their own interests on different data. The second half of the course will be structured more like a "topics seminar," including some high-level views of advanced methods. Meanwhile, the hands-on homework assignments will cease in the second half, and be replaced by work on a project, performed in small teams, on a topic selected by the team members.

Prerequisites: CMPSCI 287, or LINGUIST 401, or graduate student standing in Linguistics, or permission of the instructor.
Credits: 3 units.

News

The first class will be Tuesday, January 31, 2:30pm - 3:45pm in CS Rm 140. All interested students are welcome to attend! (How to get to CS Rm 140.)