B.Tech in Computer Science and Master of Science in Computational Linguistics by Research (5 year Dual Degree)

About the Program With the advancement of technologies today, Computational Linguistics (CL) is turning out to be a major field of study, research and developing technologies for future.  Computational linguistics stands at the intersection of Computer Science and Linguistics. The field deals with understanding and developing computational theories of human language. Such theories allow us to understand the structure of language and build computer software that can process human language. For example, if a query in English, Hindi or Telugu can be processed (that is, analyzed and understood) by the machine, then it can try to find an answer from a given database or from a set of documents. The applications of this would be in the area of machine translation, dialogue managers and more intelligent search engines. The transdisciplinary 5 year Dual Degree Program in Computational Linguistics at IIIT, Hyderabad is designed such that the synthesis of  knowledge from the two disciplines – Computer Science and Linguistics – happens earlier and thus in a better way. The Program aims to ready people who would develop computational models for machines to process human languages. Brief Objectives of the Program The Dual Degree Program in Computational Linguistics aims to prepare

• Experts who will lead research in the area of computational linguistics.
• Professionals who will work towards developing man – man and man-machine communication systems which includes natural language processing and natural language understanding.
• Scholars who would probe theretical questions in linguistics from a totally new perspective, thus, contributing to the field in newer ways

Special Eligibility Criteria

• Students who have cleared the Round 1 of Paninian Linguistic Olympiad (PLO) are eligible to directly appear for the interview round of UGEE, IIIT-H.
• Those coming through UGEE are expected to have an aptitude for and interest in linguistic inquiry.

Details of the Program Given the transdisciplinary nature of the program, it is designed to have a balanced mixture of courses from different fields such as Computer Science, Maths, Linguistics, Humanties, Science etc.  A student has to complete a total of 201 credits distributed as 177 for course work and 24 for thesis. The students, from year one, are trained towards critical thinking and research. Early on in the program, they are encouraged to work closely with some research team in LTRC thus forming a strong working relationship with faculty and fellow students in the program. First two years of the program allow students to build a strong foundation, both in Computer Science and in Linguistics. Once the foundation is built via core courses in the first four semesters, CLD curriculum allows a student the flexibility to pursue, choose her/his stream of research and do courses to build the depth in the stream in the last two years. The electives in different streams provide that opportunity.  Of the 48 credits in electives, a minimum of 14 credits has to be earned in the domain area, 16 in Computer Science and the rest (18 credits) can be earned via courses from across disciplines. CLD electives are organized into 4 streams, each stream consisting of introductory, as well as, advanced level courses. The offerings at the advanced level can change from time to time. Every student is expected to do 3 electives in the chosen stream and the fourth in any area of her/his interest outside the stream. A rough distribution of the courses across fields is given below.

Future Prospects The students graduating from this program can follow a career in research in Academia and top technology companies.