Unit Outline: COMP448
Advanced Topics in Natural Language Processing
Semester 2, 2010
Convenor: Diego Molla-Aliod
Prerequisites:
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
COMP448 is the core Language Technology unit at Honours level. Each year, we focus on one or two specific problems in language technology, and together we learn about possible solutions to these problems, and develop applications that help solve the problems.
Teaching Staff
| Role | Name | Room | Office hours | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convenor, Lecturer | Diego Molla | diego.molla-aliod@mq.edu.au | E6A331 | By appointment |
| Lecturer | Rolf Schwitter | rolf.schwitter@mq.edu.au | E6A333 | By appointment |
All emails related to COMP448 should be sent to comp448-admin@ics.mq.edu.au and must include your full name and your student id number.
Classes
Each week you should attend the assigned lecture sessions. There are no tutorials or practical sessions.
Required and Recommended Texts
There is no set textbook for the unit; readings will be assigned throughout the semester, in conjunction with lecture notes.
Unit Web Page
The web page for this unit can be found at http://online.mq.edu.au/pub/COMP448. Note that the unit materials are available via Moodle.
Topic List
The unit sessions will take place on Wednesday 2-4pm at room E6A357. Here is a tentative list of topics. The details may change as the unit progresses and depending on the background of the students.
|
Week |
Topic |
Reading |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Controlled Natural Languages |
|
|
2 |
Logic Programming |
|
|
3 |
Knowledge Representation |
|
|
4 |
Model Building |
|
|
5 |
Event Calculus |
|
|
6 |
Abductive Reasoning | |
|
7 |
NLP for Biomedicine |
|
| RECESS | ||
|
8 |
Retrieval |
|
|
9 |
Summarisation |
|
|
10 |
Question Answering |
|
|
11 |
Information Presentation |
|
|
12 |
Evaluation | |
|
13 |
Final Student Presentations |
|
Assessment
There will be 10 tasks during the semester, each one worth 10% of the total assessment. The tasks will include a literature review, a project plan, project presentation, and project report.
Examinations
There are no examinations in this unit. All the assessment is done through the assigned work and student presentations.
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.