New University course in human language technology

The Institute of Linguistics at the University of Malta is offering a new course, BSc in Human Language Technology, starting in October 2011.

The terms Human Language Technology (HLT) and Natural language Processing (NLP) are essentially interchangeable, with the former emphasising more explicitly the technological aspect of language processing.

HLT is an area of research and study concerned with the relationship between natural language and machine. It studies human-machine interaction, the creation of machines that can use natural language, and, therefore, allow us to interact with them as if we were interacting with other humans. This includes robots that can speak your language.

Teaching machines how to communicate with us using ‘natural’ language will also help us understand better what goes on in our brains when we use language.

The use of machines to help us understand, analyse and manipulate language and language data are also included. Most of the information we make use of uses language; the internet is an extremely rich source of information, a large part of which is in the form of language (as well as, say, pictures). We need to be able to exploit this rich repository and to manipulate it to make communication more efficient.

According to the European Commission, human language technologies are one of the key research areas for the upcoming years. The area of Human Language Technology is an area of great importance in research and production both in academic and in commercial sectors. The new university course provides students with the basic skills required in the sector, including programming, problem solving, project management, as well as knowledge on IT, language and language applications, which should allow them to seek opportunities of employment both in the IT sector, the language sector and in academia.

The new course is aimed at those who have a background in arts subjects, as well as those with a science background (including IT and mathematics). The first year is a foundation year in which students are given the opportunity to explore the areas of linguistics and IT which they will need for the second and third years.

The course also offers placements, in which students will spend some hours in a real working environment as well as project work.

The entry requirements are general university entry requirements.

http://www.um.edu.mt/linguistics