Human Language Technology Certificate

The Human Language Technology Graduate Certificate Program (HLT Certificate) offers a Master’s-level certificate, which accompanies a normal MA or MS degree in one of the three human language technology disciplines: Computer Science;ÌýLinguistics;ÌýSpeech, Language, and Hearing Sciences.

Overview

The explosive growth of the Web and the vast improvements in computing power in the last decade have led to a strong need for education and research in human language technology. Human language technology is an interdisciplinary field that includes the following key technological and scientific areas:

  • Computer Speech Recognition and Understanding
  • Natural Language Understanding and Generation
  • Text-based Information Retrieval
  • Web-based Dialog Agents

ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ interdisciplinary HLT Certificate, offered jointly by theÌýInstitute of Cognitive Science (ICS), the Center for Computational Language and EducAtion Research, the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Linguistics, and the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, provides a rich and broad background for students interested in computational tools for human language processing.

Applying for Admission

Students apply to the HLT Certificate program by being admitted to a graduate degree program in Computer Science, Linguistics, or Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences departments, then applying for admission through ICS.

ApplyÌýby completing the following six steps. Submit all items toÌýtoÌýICSPrograms@colorado.edu.

Step 1

First be admitted to a Master's, 5-year concurrent Master's or PhD program in one of
the below ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ programs:

Step 2

Contact the HLT Curriculum Committee member in the appropriate department.

Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýComputer ScienceÌý
Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýÌý Jim Martin,Ìýjames.martin@colorado.edu

Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýSpeech, Language, Hearing Sciences
Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýKathryn Arehart,Ìýkathryn.arehart@colorado.edu

Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýLinguistics
Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýMartha Palmer,Ìýmartha.palmer@colorado.edu

Step 3Your department's HLT Curriculum Committee member will forward your inquiry toÌýthe Institute of Cognitive Science office. Once you have been contacted by ICS, you will complete the remaining steps.
step 4Submit an ICS Graduate Program Application FormÌý
Step 5Submit an Unofficial Transcript from your department/unitÌýÌý
Step 6Submit an HLT Plan of Study/Progress Report Form

Curriculum

The curriculum for the certificate consists of five different courses:

  • One semester of programming (CSCI 1300) (waived for those with programming background).
  • Three courses from the core list; at least two of these three must be outside the student’s home department and college.
  • One course from the optional course list (or two from the optional list if programming was waived). Extra courses from the core list (beyond the required three) can also be counted as optional courses.

Three of these five required courses must be taken at the graduate level.

Recommendations

While the certificate only requires CSCI 1300 (Programming) we strongly recommend other programming courses, especially CSCI 2270 (Data Structures), but also LING 5200 (Computational Corpus Linguistics and Python Programming), or TLEN 5833. We also recommend any relevant statistics course, such as SLHS 2100, PSYC 3101, PSYC 5741/5751, or EDUC 5716.Ìý

Students must take three courses from this core list. At least two of the three must be outside the student's home departmentÌýandÌýcollege.

Required Course

CSCI/LING 5832Natural Language Processing

Courses in Designing and Using Interactive Language Systems

CSCI 4838/6838User Interface Design and Evaluation

Courses in Human Communication

For CSCI:

LING 5030Phonetics
LING 5420Morphology and Syntax

For LING:

CSCI/LING 7800Computational Lexical Semantics
CSCI/LING 7800Computational Morphology and Phonology

Students must take at least one other course from this optional list (or two if the programming requirement was waived)

CSCI 5582Artificial Intelligence
CSCI 6622Advanced Machine Learning
CSCI 3104/6454Algorithms
CSCI 3155Principles of Programming Languages
CSCI 3434/5444Theory of Computation
CSCI 4402/5402Human Language Technology Laboratory
CSCI 5535Fundamental Concepts of Programming Languages
CSCI 6302Speech Recognition and Synthesis
Ìý
ECEN 5622Information Theory and Coding
ECEN 4242Communication Theory
ECEN 5612Noise and Random Processes
ECEN 5652Detection and Extraction of Signals from Noise
Ìý
LING 5200Introduction to Computational Corpus Linguistics
LING 6450Syntactic Analysis
LING 7420 / 5420Syntactic Theory
LING 7430 / 5430Semantic Theory
Ìý
PHIL 2440Symbolic Logic
PHIL 4440/5440Mathematical Logic
Ìý
PSYC 5185Cognitive Processes in Reading
PSYC 4165Psychology of Perception
PSYC 7051Psychology Research Practicum
PSYC/LING 5300Psycholinguistics
PSYC/LING/SLHS 4560Language Development
Ìý
SLHS 2010The Science of Human Communication
SLHS 5272Augmentative Alternative Communication: Theory and Use
SLHS 7202Motor Control and Speech Production
SLHS 6006Advanced Hearing Science
SLHS 6106Experimental Phonetics 1

*Independent Study: if a student needs to replace one required course to satisfy program requirements due to unavoidable scheduling issues,complete and submit the Independent Study Approval Form to ICSPrograms@colorado.edu.

Four Steps to Complete the Program

Step 1Complete all required courses with a minimum grade of B.
Step 2Submit an Unofficial Transcript to the Academic Program Director at ICSPrograms@colorado.edu. The Director will confirm whether all required courses have been completed.
Step 3Complete theÌýHLT Plan of Study/Progress Report Form.ÌýSubmit the completed form electronically to ICSPrograms@colorado.edu.
Step 4The Academic Program Director will review the transcript, Progress Reports to confirm that requirements were met. Once approved, ICS will contact the Registrar's Office to include the Certificate on the student's official transcript. Certificates are awarded at the end of academic year ICS celebration.

For more information onÌýbecoming aÌýUniversity of Colorado graduate student prior toÌýapplying for the ICS Human Language Technology Certificate program, contact the following departments/units directly:
Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýComputer Science
Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýLinguistics
Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýSpeech, Language,ÌýHearing Sciences

For more information on the Cognitive Science Programs contact:
Institute of Cognitive Science
ICSPrograms@colorado.edu