Computational Linguistics (CLASIC) MS

The Departments of Linguistics and Computer Science have teamed up to jointly offer an interdisciplinary degree, the Computational Linguistics, Analytics, Search and Informatics Professional Master’s Degree (CLASIC), approved by the University of Colorado Board of Regents in April 2016. The program was developed by Martha Palmer, Research Professor of Linguistics and Computer Science and an Institute of Cognitive Science Faculty Fellow, who is now Emeritis Director of CLASIC. Professor Susan Brown is the acting Director and Academic Advisor of CLASIC, working together with Professor Jim Martin from Computer Science .

CLASIC, a stand-alone Professional Master of Science degree, provides students with a solid foundation in both linguistics and computer science graduate course work as well as several courses focused on data-driven linguistics, computational linguistics, and information processing. Graduates of the program will be specialists in the application of computers to the processing of natural languages, such as English, Chinese, Arabic, and Urdu.

The field of computational linguistics, also known as text analytics, natural language processing, and informatics, is burgeoning and has become critical to the success of mainstream global businesses who compete for employees qualified to address these needs as discussed in these articles; click here and here. The interdisciplinary nature of CLASIC is a significant market strength because success in this developing field of natural language processing requires a strong background in both Linguistics and Computer Science. The training will prepare students for careers in predictive text messaging, search engines, question-answering, interactive virtual agents and machine translation.

CLASIC Admissions CLASIC Curriculum CLASIC FAQs Resources for CLASIC students

CLASIC students complete a two-year degree including a 2-hour capstone project that runs in conjunction with an internship or CU based research project. As part of the capstone, students are evaluated by their employer or industry project manager. Students prepare a technical report on the completed project that the program directors and project leader will jointly evaluate.

CLASIC Students participate fully in CLEAR lab activities and in the broader CU NLP program.