Creating a Computational Linguistics College Degree?

$random_var asks: "I am an undergraduate student currently studying Bioengineering. However, I am growing more and more interested in programming and linguistics, which leads me to think that I should define my own major, Computational Linguistics [mit.edu], which google defines as 'a field concerned with the processing of natural language by computers.' When I present my proposal for this degree to the school's advising staff, I would like to have a complete list of all of the topics this major should cover. Having only little experience with computer science and engineering, I'm not sure what parts of that field I should include. Beyond the basic lower-division courses, what specific fields of computer science do you think should be emphasized in a practical undergraduate study of Computational Linguistics?"

Comments

As someone who has done some work in the field...

[Faizdog]

Computational Linguistics, or Natural Language Processing (NLP) as it was called for me, is one of the many areas that traditional Computer Science is exploring, in addition to things like biology (bioinformatics), etc.

I'd say the first two years in the major need to be very similar to the first two years in the Computer Science curriculum and last two in the humanities/linguistic area. The reason I say this is because a lot of the math, basic computer science, etc that is needed in the field will be the same as the core Comp Sci/engineering classes. However, the first two years in the humanities are very generic, and you specialize a lot later. So build up the core of Comp Sci and linguistical study early.

Then, get deeper. A lot of the NLP work is being done in Maching Learning/Data Mining classes. Make sure you take those, we had a whole class called Textual Data Mining at my university. Take algorithm design and some of the common advanced Comp Sci classes too, since a lot of the techniques are very advanced, being developed, cutting edge and will require research. Take advanced statistics classes too, much of the field is built on statistics.

NLP is a very interesting area, but I don't know if it deserves its own major yet. I would advise majoring in comp sci, with a concentration in Machine Learning/Data Mining through your technical electives. And a minor, or perhaps second major in Linguistics. I'd say minor because then you could take only the classes relevant to the field, instead of all the other stuff related to a humanities major that you may not want.

Anyway, that's my take. I did a bunch of NLP research, even getting work published as an undergrad, and I was a Computer Engineering major. The field is as such that it's so new and emerging that not much formal linguistics study is required right now, if you are a native english speaker you are probably good. But, it doesn't hurt to get a more formal background in it, that's why I suggested the minor.

Don't do it

[AuMatar]

Not as an undergrad. You're still learning, still ought to be figurin g out what you want to do. Get a good, well rounded CS education. Maybe take a few courses in linguistics if the subject interests you. Then specialize in computational linguistics in grad school if you decide its really what you want to do.

Basicly, undergrad is to learn the field. A masters is to specialize in one domain. A doctorate is to research a single problem in as much depth as possible. They're in that order for good reason- it leaves you plenty of room to change your mind and interest as you grow older, while keeping you marketable in both industry and academia. Don't specialize too early, or you may regret it later.