Course Info for Ling773/CMSC828R, Spring 2008
Course Info for Ling773/CMSC828R, Spring 2008
Computational Linguistics II
Class mailing list
Students should be on the class
mailing list. Messages are archived on a weekly basis.
Also, some students in this class have used del.icio.us to tag Web pages that are related
to class -- see http://del.icio.us/tag/cmsc773.
Essentials
What's the course about?
This is the second semester in our graduate sequence in
computational linguistics. Students are assumed to have taken the
first semester (Ling645/CMSC723) or equivalent, and this class will
provide foundations for advanced seminars in computational
linguistics. Students are expected to be able to know how to program,
and will exercise this ability periodically in homework assignments
and/or projects.
The topics we'll cover are intended to get students up to speed on
necessary background in order to understand and perform cutting-edge
research in natural language processing, which requires a strong
grounding in statistical NLP models and methods. Some of the topics
are in the same areas as in Computational Linguistics I, but we will
go deeper. As always, the syllabus is subject to revision; however,
it will follow Manning and Schuetze's textbook relatively closely at
least in early parts of the course.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, and feel free to
suggest the course to anyone who might be interested.
See the schedule of topics for
class-by-class plans.
How will the course be graded?:
Students will be evaluated on their ability to master the
content of the material in the course and to think
critically about ideas presented to them.
- Exams (50%): There will be a midterm exam and a
final exam. CS MS comp grade (AI area) will be based entirely on
the average of the two exams.
- Class assignments/projects (45%): There will be
periodic homework assignments and/or projects that may involve
on-paper exercises (e.g. walking through algorithms or
calculations), hands-on programming, or analysis of data.
- Class participation (5%): Showing up for class,
demonstrating preparedness, and contributing to class discussions.
Of these, the last one matters most. I include it in the grade
because it's much better for everyone to have students engaged in
questioning and discussion during class. (Note: I am also
considering creating a class blog, and requiring all students to
post at least once or twice during the semester).
Policy for Incomplete Work
- Late assignments. If an assignment is late by
up to 24 hours, the grade will be reduced by 10%. By 48 hours, 20%.
And so forth. Exceptions can be discussed in cases of medical
excuses, family emergencies, equipment failure, etc., but being busy
is not a valid excuse, and the sooner you talk to me about a
problem the better.
There are several common problems I am
unlikely to consider as valid reasons for failing to get
work in on time. These include (a) failure to manage your time
properly, (b) discovering an assignment is harder than you expected
it to be (see item a), and (c) losing code or data that should have
been backed up, unless it's someone else's fault.
- Late assignment exception. Each student can ask
to extend an assignment due date by 48 hours once
during the semester, no questions asked.
- 'Incomplete' as a grade. I will not issue an
'incomplete' as a grade except for serious, valid reasons, generally
in the category of emergencies. See above for some reasons I am
unlikely to consider valid. If you are having problems of any kind,
please talk to me as soon as possible.
Please make sure to read the
official policy for excused absences
from exams.
Philip Resnik, Associate Professor
Department of Linguistics and Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
Department of Linguistics
1401 Marie Mount Hall UMIACS phone: (301) 405-6760
University of Maryland Linguistics phone: (301) 405-8903
College Park, MD 20742 USA Fax: (301) 314-2644 / (301) 405-7104
http://umiacs.umd.edu/~resnik E-mail: resnik AT umd _DOT.GOES.HERE_ edu