Integrating MiLCA in European Computational Linguistics

Education – Needs and Prospects

Petra WagnerIKP, Universität Bonn

Blaubeuren, 2004 2

The Question and the Answer of this Talk

• Does the MiLCA approach provide a valuable addition for teaching of computational linguistics within Europe?

• Of course, the answer is "yes" but I intend to show it more convincingly

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General line of thought...

• only those projects are provided funding or help if their objectives fulfill obvious needs

• whose needs do WBT courses in computational linguistics fulfill from a European perspective?

• which resources are available in addition to funding?

Blaubeuren, 2004 4

Different NeedsOrganisation/Party

Kind of Need or Demand

Brussels • European Higher Education Area (Bologna Declaration)• flexibility but no uniformism• attracting students from abroad

Industry/Universities

• reliability of education (standards)• practical experience• highly specialized researchers

Students • study (internationally) w/ time loss

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Idea....• we want

– reliable standards– more international experience– practical expertise– nevertheless specialisation in different

areas (no minimal solution)

• possible approach– a EU wide standardised basic curriculum

not preventing local specialisation

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The European Masters in Language and Speech (EMiLS)

• modular structure• standardized

curriculum• equivalency checklist• 15 participating

universities• 9 countries (Belgium,

Denmark, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, United Kingdom)

• certificate, not an independent diploma

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Modules• Theoretical Linguistics• Natural Language Processing• Phonetics and Phonology• Cognitive Models• Speech Signal Processing• Pattern Recognition• Applications• Programming Languages

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Overview of ContentsLinguistics

Pattern Recognition Speech Signal Processing

Phonetics

Applications

Programming

Cognitive Science

Filters, DFT, FFT, STFT, Cepstrum, Short Term Analysis, Time/Frequency Domain, Pitch/Formant Estimation,...

at least one declarative (e.g. Prolog)) and one imperative language

Recognition, TTS, Speaker Recognition, Text Processing, Text Analysis/Generation, Spoken Dialogue Systems, Dication, Machine Translation, Information Retrieval, CALL,...

Psychology, interface to linguistics/AI/neuroscience, learning, memory, categorical perception, production/perception theories, cohort model, TRACE, language acquisition, ...

Sound Source, Articulation, Coarticulation, Source-Filter, Experimental Methods/Tools, Acoustics, Psychoacoustics, Perception, Phonology

Bayes' Rule, maximum likelyhood, Neural Networks, Decision Trees, Regression Trees, Feature Extraction, stochastic FSAs, HMMs,...

NLPFSAs, RTN, ATNs, FSTs for morphology, POS-Tagging, Grammars, Parsing, Semantics, Pragmatics, Generation, corpus based NLP, Connectionist NLP,...

Saussure, Universals, Language Structure, Philosophy of Language, Semiotics, Morphology, Lexicon, Syntax, Semantics, Discourse,...

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Precise Module Contents: NLP

• Finite Automata and their applications (morphology,...)• Part-of-Speech Tagging• Levels of Representation• Syntax, Grammars• Parsing (rule based, probabilistic)• Logical Forms• Ambiguitiy Resolution• Semantic Networks• Montague Semantics• Vector Space Semantics• Knowledge Representation• ...

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additional recommendations...

• internship (3 months)• foreign exchange (6 months)• participation in international summer

school

• not mandatory at all universities, e.g. due to tight schedule of one year M.A. courses!

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Problems of the EMiLSFacts Problems

different structures problems with student exchange; adaptation of curriculum

small specialized institutes

unability to cover all contents

MiLCA approach as a solution?

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What kind of material useful?

• language: English? • contents compatible with EUMiLS• open source• prerequisites stated explicitly• closed content, glossary• exercises• teacher student interaction?• transferability?• self pace learning possible

issues discussed in MiLCA as well

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What kind of material is available?

• mostly slide shows, few of them containing animations

• few complete courses• no complete information platform• few exercises• few self control or feedback

mechanisms• some few very good tools• no evaluation

obvious need!

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Why is there not more?

• time constraints• money constraints• language constraints• exchangability constraints• schedule/module constraints• supervisional constraints, material

needs to be spread

looks like a project to me...

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Who is behind EMiLS?Who? How? Outcome?International Organisations (ISCA, EACL)

• workshops for development of teaching material

• exchange of teaching materials

Universities (ERASMUS)

•ERASMUS scholarships • student exchange

ELSNET, EU Masters Consortium

• summerschool organisation/funding• EU Masters funding (infrastructure; curriculum develoment)

• standards• management•infra-structure

Industrial Partners • internships •job experience

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no funds available for

• development of internet resources

• development of more standardized course materials

• development of better exchange of course materials due to different structures (1 year studies vs. 4 year studies)

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Where do we go now?• needs and solutions are obvious• resources are scarce• new project would be necessary• integration of MiLCA tools certainly

desirable• proposition: test of MiLCA tools at

upcoming EMiLS summerschool in Bonn• looking out for European funding• much to be expected from BA/MA

introduction in Germany