Human Language Technology Certificate
The Human Language Technology Graduate Certificate Program (HLT Certificate) offers a Master’s-level certificate, which accompanies a normal MA or MS degree in one of the three human language technology disciplines: Computer Science; Linguistics; Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences.
Overview
The explosive growth of the Web and the vast improvements in computing power in the last decade have led to a strong need for education and research in human language technology. Human language technology is an interdisciplinary field that includes the following key technological and scientific areas:
- Computer Speech Recognition and Understanding
- Natural Language Understanding and Generation
- Text-based Information Retrieval
- Web-based Dialog Agents
CU Boulder’s interdisciplinary HLT Certificate, offered jointly by the Institute of Cognitive Science (ICS), the Center for Computational Language and EducAtion Research, the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Linguistics, and the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, provides a rich and broad background for students interested in computational tools for human language processing.
Applying for Admission
Students apply to the HLT Certificate program by being admitted to a graduate degree program in Computer Science, Linguistics, or Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences departments, then applying for admission through ICS.
Apply by completing the following six steps. Submit all items to to ICSPrograms@colorado.edu.
| Step 1 | First be admitted to a Master's, 5-year concurrent Master's or PhD program in one of |
| Step 2 | Contact the HLT Curriculum Committee member in the appropriate department. Computer Science Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences Linguistics |
| Step 3 | Your department's HLT Curriculum Committee member will forward your inquiry to the Institute of Cognitive Science office. Once you have been contacted by ICS, you will complete the remaining steps. |
| step 4 | Submit an ICS Graduate Program Application Form |
| Step 5 | Submit an Unofficial Transcript from your department/unit |
| Step 6 | Submit an HLT Plan of Study/Progress Report Form |
Curriculum
The curriculum for the certificate consists of five different courses:
- One semester of programming (CSCI 1300) (waived for those with programming background).
- Three courses from the core list; at least two of these three must be outside the student’s home department and college.
- One course from the optional course list (or two from the optional list if programming was waived). Extra courses from the core list (beyond the required three) can also be counted as optional courses.
Three of these five required courses must be taken at the graduate level.
Recommendations
While the certificate only requires CSCI 1300 (Programming) we strongly recommend other programming courses, especially CSCI 2270 (Data Structures), but also LING 5200 (Computational Corpus Linguistics and Python Programming), or TLEN 5833. We also recommend any relevant statistics course, such as SLHS 2100, PSYC 3101, PSYC 5741/5751, or EDUC 5716.
Students must take three courses from this core list. At least two of the three must be outside the student's home department and college.
Required Course
| CSCI/LING 5832 | Natural Language Processing |
Courses in Designing and Using Interactive Language Systems
| CSCI 4838/6838 | User Interface Design and Evaluation |
Courses in Human Communication
For CSCI:
| LING 5030 | Phonetics |
| LING 5420 | Morphology and Syntax |
For LING:
| CSCI/LING 7800 | Computational Lexical Semantics |
| CSCI/LING 7800 | Computational Morphology and Phonology |
Students must take at least one other course from this optional list (or two if the programming requirement was waived)
| CSCI 5582 | Artificial Intelligence |
| CSCI 6622 | Advanced Machine Learning |
| CSCI 3104/6454 | Algorithms |
| CSCI 3155 | Principles of Programming Languages |
| CSCI 3434/5444 | Theory of Computation |
| CSCI 4402/5402 | Human Language Technology Laboratory |
| CSCI 5535 | Fundamental Concepts of Programming Languages |
| CSCI 6302 | Speech Recognition and Synthesis |
| ECEN 5622 | Information Theory and Coding |
| ECEN 4242 | Communication Theory |
| ECEN 5612 | Noise and Random Processes |
| ECEN 5652 | Detection and Extraction of Signals from Noise |
| LING 5200 | Introduction to Computational Corpus Linguistics |
| LING 6450 | Syntactic Analysis |
| LING 7420 / 5420 | Syntactic Theory |
| LING 7430 / 5430 | Semantic Theory |
| PHIL 2440 | Symbolic Logic |
| PHIL 4440/5440 | Mathematical Logic |
| PSYC 5185 | Cognitive Processes in Reading |
| PSYC 4165 | Psychology of Perception |
| PSYC 7051 | Psychology Research Practicum |
| PSYC/LING 5300 | Psycholinguistics |
| PSYC/LING/SLHS 4560 | Language Development |
| SLHS 2010 | The Science of Human Communication |
| SLHS 5272 | Augmentative Alternative Communication: Theory and Use |
| SLHS 7202 | Motor Control and Speech Production |
| SLHS 6006 | Advanced Hearing Science |
| SLHS 6106 | Experimental Phonetics 1 |
*Independent Study: if a student needs to replace one required course to satisfy program requirements due to unavoidable scheduling issues,complete and submit the Independent Study Approval Form to ICSPrograms@colorado.edu.
Four Steps to Complete the Program
| Step 1 | Complete all required courses with a minimum grade of B. |
| Step 2 | Submit an Unofficial Transcript to the Academic Program Director at ICSPrograms@colorado.edu. The Director will confirm whether all required courses have been completed. |
| Step 3 | Complete the HLT Plan of Study/Progress Report Form. Submit the completed form electronically to ICSPrograms@colorado.edu. |
| Step 4 | The Academic Program Director will review the transcript, Progress Reports to confirm that requirements were met. Once approved, ICS will contact the Registrar's Office to include the Certificate on the student's official transcript. Certificates are awarded at the end of academic year ICS celebration. |
For more information on becoming a University of Colorado graduate student prior to applying for the ICS Human Language Technology Certificate program, contact the following departments/units directly:
Computer Science
Linguistics
Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences
For more information on the Cognitive Science Programs contact:
Institute of Cognitive Science
ICSPrograms@colorado.edu