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Unit Outline: COMP248

Semester 2, 2008

Convenor: D. Molla-Aliod

Prerequisites: (COMP125(P) or COMP165(P)) and (SLP148(P) or GPA of 2.00)

Students should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.

About This Unit

This unit provides a broad introduction to the kinds of applications that are developed within the field of Natural Language Processing, and the techniques and algorithms required to build these applications. Students acquire both theoretical background and practical experience in processing the syntax and semantics of natural language. The practical skills gained are put to use in the development of a chatterbot, a Prolog-based natural language system, and a speech application; generic skills utilised include the ability to communicate the results of these practical applications, and the ability to work in an interdisciplinary area.

This unit is part of the group of Language Technology units offered by the Centre for Language Technology. Other units are: SLP148, COMP249, COMP348, and COMP349.

Teaching Staff

Role	Name	Email	Room	Office hours
Convenor, Lecturer	D. Molla-Aliod	diego@ics.mq.edu.au	E6A331	TBA
Lecturer, Tutor	R. Schwitter	rolfs@ics.mq.edu.au	E6A333	TBA
Practical Demonstrator	A. Chilvers	achilver@ics.mq.edu.au	TBA	TBA

All emails related to COMP248 should be sent to comp248-admin@ics.mq.edu.au and must include your full name and your student id number.

Classes

Each week you should attend 3 hours of lectures, a one hour tutorial and a one hour practical. For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage.

Note that Tutorials and Practicals commence in week 2 .

You should have selected a tutorial and a practical at enrolment. You should attend the tutorial and practical you are enrolled in. If you do not have a class, or if you wish to change one, you should see the enrolment operators in the E7B courtyard during the first two weeks of the semester. Thereafter you should go to the Student Centre.

Please note that you will be required to submit prepared work each week. Failure to do so may result in you failing the unit or being excluded from the exam.

Textbooks and Online Resources

We've decided this year, to cut down on costs, not to have a textbook. There's sufficient material on the Web that you don't need to buy a textbook.

Recommended books and additional resources are listed in the Resources page.

Each week there will be some assigned readings for the unit. These readings are obligatory: you will not understand the lectures if you do not keep up with the reading, and you will not be able to do the practicals if you do not do the reading.

Unit Web Page

The web page for this unit can be found at http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/units/comp248/. Note that the majority of the unit materials are publicly available while some material requires you to log in to Moodle to access it.

The unit will make use of discussion boards hosted within Moodle. Please post questions there, they will be monitored by the staff on the unit.

Learning Outcomes

A student completing the unit should have:

1. an awareness of the range of applications that constitute natural language processing and language technology;
2. an awareness of the issues that arise in constructing natural language processing applications;
3. an understanding of the basic concepts in linguistics that are relevant to NLP;
4. an understanding of the key issues in dialogue systems;
5. a demonstrated ability to program in Prolog; and
6. practical experience in implementing a simple natural language processing system.

In addition to the discipline-based learning objectives, all academic programs at Macquarie seek to develop students' generic skills in a range of areas. One of the aims of this unit is that students develop their skills in the following:

• Foundation skills of literacy, numeracy and information technology;
• Self-awareness and interpersonal skills;
• Communication skills;
• Critical analysis skills;
• Problem-solving skills;
• Creative thinking skills.

Teaching and Learning Strategy

COMP248 is taught via lectures, tutorials and practical sessions in the laboratory. Lectures are used to introduce new material, give examples of the use of programing methods and techniques and put them in a wider context. While lectures are largely one to many presentations, you are encouraged to ask questions of the lecturer to clarify anything you might not be sure of. Tutorials are small group classes which give you the opportunity to interact with your peers and with a tutor who has a sound knowledge of the subject. You will be given problems to solve each week prior to the tutorial; preparing solutions is important because it will allow you to discuss the problems effectively with your tutor and maximise the feedback you get on your work. Practical classes give you an opportunity to practice your programming skills under the supervision of a practical demonstrator. Each week you will be given a number of problems to work on; it is important that you keep up with these problems as doing so will help you understand the material in the unit and prepare you for the work in assignments.

Each week you should:

• Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions.
• Attend your tutorial, seek feedback from your tutor on your work.
• Attend the practical session, do as many of the practical problems as you can and seek feedback from the practical demonstrator on your work.
• Read appropriate sections of the text, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer or tutor.
• Do the week's assessed tasks.
• Work on any assignments that have been released.

Lecture notes will be made available each week but these notes are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or the textbook.

Topic List

Relationship Between Assessment and Learning Outcomes

1. An awareness of the range of applications that constitute natural language processing and language technology: Weekly exercises, exam.
2. An awareness of the issues that arise in constructing natural language processing applications: Weekly exercises, assignments, exam.
3. An understanding of the basic concepts in linguistics that are relevant to NLP: Weekly exercises, exam.
4. An understanding of the key issues in dialogue systems: Weekly exercises, assignment 3.
5. A demonstrated ability to program in Prolog: Assignment 2, exam.
6. Practical experience in implementing a simple natural language processing system: Assignments.

Task	Planned Date	Total Marks
Weekly Assessed Tasks	Weekly	10%
Assignment 1: A Chatterbot	Due Week 5	10%
Assignment 2: A Syntax-enabled Chatterbot	Due Week 8	10%
Assignment 3: A Speech-based Tutoring System	Due Week 12	20%
Final Examination	TBA	50%

Your final grade will depend on your performance in each part separately. In particular:

• You must perform satisfactorily in the examination in order to pass this unit.
• Particularly, you must obtain at least 80% of the total marks in the core questions.
• You must submit a reasonable attempt to all three assignments to pass this unit.
• You must submit a reasonable attempt to at least 6 weekly assessed tasks to pass this unit.

All assignments should be handed in via the online Moodle system at http://moodle.ics.mq.edu.au/ by the time specified in the assignment description. The weekly assessed tasks should be done via Moodle before noon on the Monday of each week.

All work submitted should be readable and well presented.

Late work will be accepted with a penalty of 20% of the maximum marks for the assignment per day submitted late. Hence, an assignment submitted five days late will get no marks. If you cannot submit on time because of illness or other circumstances, please contact the lecturer before the due date. Note that you must submit satisfactory answers to all the assignments, even if late, in order to pass the unit.

Please read also these additional notes about program documentation.

Examinations

The university examination period in Second Half year 2008 is from 19 November to 5 December.

You are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated in the University Examination Timetable. The timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in Final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of examinations.

You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, that is the final day of the official examination period.

Special Consideration

The only exception to not sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption. In these circumstances you may wish to consider applying for Special Consideration. Information about unavoidable disruption and the special consideration process is available on the web (PDF).

If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Special Consideration process the examination will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period. For details of the Special Consideration policy specific to the Department of Computing, see the Department's policy page.

To be eligible for special consideration you must show a genuine interest in the unit by participating in its activities. In particular:

• You must satisfactorily submit all assignments; and
• You must obtain at least 6 marks in the tutorial questions.

Plagiarism

Please refer to the Department of Computing Plagiarism Policy for the definition of plagiarism, advice on avoiding it and the penalties in place if you are found to have submitted plagiarised work.

University Policy on Grading

Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. Your final result will include one of these grades plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG).

On occasion your raw mark for a unit (i.e., the total of your marks for each assessment item) may not be the same as the SNG which you receive. Under the Senate guidelines, results may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.

It is important that you realise that the policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed in any unit. In fact it does something like the opposite, in requiring examiners to explain their actions if more than 20% of students fail in a unit.

Student Support Services

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.

Staff-Student Liaison Committee

The Department has established a Staff-Student Liaison Committee at each level (100, 200, 300) to provide all students studying a Computing unit the opportunity to discuss related issues or problems with both students and staff.

For each meeting, an agenda is issued and minutes are taken. These are posted on the web at:

• http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/units/200-liaison

Details of the regular meeting dates will be posted on the unit home page. Anyone with an interest in Computing units may attend. This includes staff involved in the teaching and administration of the units, and all students currently taking a Computing unit at that level. There are formal Liaison Committee representatives for each unit who attend to present the views of the student body; all students are welcome and are encouraged to attend.

The meetings are usually held in the Department of Computing Meeting Room, E6A357.

To forward agenda items or get in touch with your representative, send an email to comp248liaison@ics.mq.edu.au.

If you have exhausted all other avenues, then you should consult the Director of Teaching (Dr Steve Cassidy) or the Head of Department (Assoc. Prof. Bernard Mans). You are entitled to have your concerns raised, discussed and resolved.