CS159 - Administrivia

Course description

An introduction to fundamental concepts in natural language processing and computational linguistics. The course will explore these ideas through a range of applications including language modeling, parsing, text similarity, translation and machine learning and will examine text and language at the word, sentence and semantic level. The assignments are programming-oriented and will use existing corpora and real-world data.

Handouts, announcements, etc.

All handouts will be distributed on the course web page. This will include lecture notes/slides, assignments and other handouts. You are responsible for all material and announcements posted on the class web page, so please check it regularly. If this is a problem for anyone, feel free to come talk to me. For time critical announcements, I will use e-mail.

Coursework

Grade calculation
- 45% Assignments
- 40% Quizzes (4 total)
- 15% Final project
- Participation
Assignments - There will be 7-8 assignments, approximately every 1.5-2 weeks. Assignments will mostly focus around coding up material we've discussed in class, however, some will also include short written questions and possibly a short write-up. Early on assignments will be in Java, though later in the semester you will be allowed to choose the language (as long as it is installed on the lab machines).
Quizzes - There will be four quizzes throughout the semester. The first three will not be comprehensive, though some of the material in the course inherently builds on previous concepts. The fourth will be comprehensive. Quizzes will generally take around 30 minutes and will mostly be taken in-class, though one might be take-home depending on timing. See the class schedule for exact dates and times.
Final project - During the last few weeks of the semester, you will complete a final project in pairs or triplets. You will propose a project related to something covered in the course. The project will require implementation, experimentation, a final paper discussing your solution and related literature in the area and a final presentation at the end of the semester.
Participation - It is important that you participate in the class. Participation consists of attending class regularly and actively engaging the material (asking/answering questions in lecture, participating in in-class discussions, coming to office hours, etc).

Late policy

I understand that sometimes things get busy, things come up, you get sick, etc. To help in these situations, you may submit two assignments late by up 24 hours. If you're going to turn an assignment in late, please e-mail me to let me know. Beyond this, except under very extenuating circumstantces, I will not accept late assignments.

Academic honesty and collaboration

I take academic honesty very seriously.

You are encouraged to get together in small groups to discuss material from the lectures and text. However, the work that you turn in must be done independently, unless an assignment is explicitly designated as one in which collaboration is allowed.

In particular, your work must not be based on information obtained from sources other than those approved for the course (i.e., the text, web pages linked from the course web page, and materials provided in lecture). You should never copy another students code or solutions, exchange computer files, or share your code or solutions with anyone else in the class until after an assignment is due. You may, however, use any code that we provide to you or that comes from the textbook, as long as you acknowledge the source. Additionally, the tutors are allowed to help you with your code.

If you are ever unsure about what constitutes acceptable collaboration, please ask!

For more information see the Computer Science Department's Academic Honesty Policy and the college's policy.

Computer and cell phone use during class

You may use your laptops/devices during lecture to take notes. Please resist the temptation to use your laptop/devices for other purposes (e-mail, IM, web browsing, games, texting, etc.).

Computer lab use

You may use your own laptop or the Computer Science department computers for this course. If you use the CS computer labs (which I encourage you to do), please read about the Computer Systems Policies.

Disability accomodations

Pomona College is committed to providing equal opportunity for participation in all programs, services and activities. Requests for accommodations may be made by contacting the Disability Coordinator on your home campus. At Pomona College, that person is Associate Dean of Students Jan Collins-Eaglin. Pomona College's policy on disability accommodations can be found at the Dean of Student's website.

Due to the nature of this course, extensions on assignments will not be allowed.

If you have any accomodations, please come talk to me in the first two weeks of class.