Computational Linguistics Track Requirements (Revised November 2003) I. Core Courses (quarter in which a course is usually offered is mentioned in parenthesis): Phonetics 1 (600.01, Autumn) or Psycholinguistics (615, Autumn) Historical (611, Winter) or Sociolinguistics (661.01, Spring) Syntax 1 (602.01, Autumn) Phonology 1 (603.01, Autumn) II. Track Admission: Formal Foundations of Linguistics 1 (680, Autumn) Computational Linguistics 1 (684.01, Winter) Computational Linguistics 2 (684.02, Spring) Semantics 1 (683.01, Winter) In the second PhD milestone, the student requests admission to a track. Admission to the Computational Linguistics Track takes place in a meeting with the CL trackmeisters (and the student's advisor in case the student's advisor is not a CL trackmeister). The purpose of the track admission meeting is to review what the student has done (courses taken, work done in and outside of classes, colloquium presentation) and to listen to the student's plans and ideas for the three years to completion of the PhD program (generally, most of the meeting is spent on the plans and ideas part). The so-called portfolio that is mentioned in the milestones is intended to make this meeting more concrete; the student should prepare a portfolio consisting of - copies of the papers etc. written for courses/seminars so far (and potentially material documenting her/his CL related work) - a list of how the student satisfies or intends to satisfy the core, track admission, and track completion requirements - a 1 page sketch of what the student plans to do in the next years, incl. some ideas of what could consitute possible thesis topics (obviously, withouth being be bound to those ideas). and send it to the trackmeisters at least one week before the track admission meeting. The trackmeisters decide whether to admit the student to the computational linguistics track based on the portfolio and the meeting. III. Track Completion The courses for track completion are chosen in consultation with the advisor and will normally include: 2 additional advanced courses in computational linguistics (advanced = above the 600 level) 1 additional advanced courses in linguistics (advanced = above the 600 level) 3 additional advanced courses without restriction of field (advanced = approval by CL trackmeisters) Total courses: 14 Additional courses in computational linguistics and related fields are encouraged, if the student's time permits. We expect that every student will pursue a coherent secondary specialization within linguistics. This requirement will typically be discharged by taking courses from another track permitted by the department (i.e. syntax, semantics, phonology, psycholinguistics, phonetics, sociolinguistics, or historical linguistics), but this can be varied, subject to the approval of the CL trackmeisters, if this normal pattern is clearly unsuitable. NOTE 1: Computational Linguistics at Ohio State includes a practical component. In order to meet the track requirements you must demonstrate that you have designed, created and documented some software artefact of linguistic importance. This could be a program, a computational grammar, an implemented scheme for corpus annotation or any other artefact acceptable to the CL trackmeisters. Opportunities to discharge this requirement will arise naturally in the course. This could be through course work, through a research assitantship, through an external internship or through choice of a suitable topic for a generals paper. The practical requirement is in addition to (not instead of) the standard departmental requirements. Work which has practical component is not exempt from the obligation to be of theoretical importance and presented to a high academic standard. NOTE 2: Students with appropriate backgrounds may choose to fulfil part of the advanced course requirement by taking courses in other allied departments, such as Speech and Hearing, Engineering or Computer Science. This is acceptable if approved by the CL trackmeisters. The primary criterion will be that the combination of courses taken are coherent and form a good basis for independent research. NOTE 3: The secondary specialization will be studied to a depth (but not necessarily breadth) comparable to that of specialists. This document would become unwieldy if it spelt out all the scheduling constraints which might arise from this. Additionally, some of the advanced courses in computational linguistics will rely on knowledge obtained in other tracks. Students and their advisors should bear this in mind when planning their program of courses. NOTE on CANDIDACY EXAMINATION and DISSERTATION PROPOSAL The candidacy examination and dissertation proposal are defined in the graduate school and the department handbooks. In the Comp Ling track, these rules are intended to be realized as follows: - In the quarter preceding the candidacy exam, the student asks four faculty members to form his/her Candidacy Examination Committee. - At least two weeks before the candidacy examination, the student submits a 5-10 page dissertation proposal, which must describe the idea of the thesis and in what sense it makes a novel contribution to the field, as well as include an overview of the chapters the thesis is intended to have. In addition, the student submits a one page abstract of the dissertation proposal in plain text. - The advisor circulates the dissertation proposal abstract and the dissertation proposal for approval by the faculty. - The student submits three questions to the candidacy examination committee, addressing issues related to the dissertation proposal. - The Candidacy Examination Committee meets to decide on the three questions for the written examination. The questions often integrate those submitted by the student, but do not have to. - The student obtains the Doctoral Notification of Candidacy Examination form from the linguistics office, fills out his/her part, has the adviser sign it, and submits the "golden-rod" copy of the form to the graduate school. - The student then has two weeks to write the candidacy exam, at the end of which she/he sends copies of the result to all committee members, both electronically and in hardcopy. - The graduate school is informed by the advisor of the upcoming oral examination at least two weeks before the date, which must be at least one week after the end of the written examination. - Once the graduate school has determined the graduate school representative, they send an email to the student and all committee members. - The student must send a copy of the written examination to the graduate school representative at least a week before the oral examination (or as soon as the graduate school has determined who will serve as representative). ----------------------- History of changes to this document: Oct 2000, first version May 2002: 1) "Semantics 1" (683.01) is now explicitly mentioned as track admission requirement, in place of one of the two advanced linguistics courses from track completion. 2) Under track completion, "Mathematical Foundations of Linguistics 2", which was intended to be Mike Broe's information theory and probability course, is replaced by an additional advanced course without restriction of field. January 2003: 1) Explicated meaning of "advanced" in track completion. 2) Changed reference to "student's committee" by "CL trackmeisters" to allow students to reliably plan the fulfillment of course requirements at a time when the candidacy committee is not yet formed. May 2003: 1) Explicated how track admission takes place, contents of portfolio, and that it should be submitted a week before meeting. June 2003: 1) Added note on candidacy examination and dissertation proposal to clarify the procedure. November 2003: 1) Simplified description of Track Completion. 2) Now mentions quarters in which courses are usually taught.