Data and Information: Computational Linguistics was offered Fall 2008, and brought together faculty in Linguistics (Rachel Hastings), computer science (Judy Cushing), and mathematics (Brian Walter) with students interested in how we (or Google’s computers) read a text, how we (or they) understand what the text means?

The program explored connections between human writing or speech and the power of computing. Understanding the abstract structure, logic, and organization of human language provides guidance to the person who trains a computer to search texts or data for structure and meaning.

Students at all levels could take the program, but it was primarily aimed at freshmen and sophomores, and as an introduction to computer science.

Credit Equivalencies:

  • Seminar and Lecture Series (4 units)
  • Introduction to Programming in Python (4 units)
  • Introduction to Linguistics and/or Logic (4 units)
  • Case Studies and Project in web-like text and data analysis (4 units)