| Time and location | Monday 4:00pm–8:00pm, THH 201 |
| Instructor | Ron Artstein |
| Office hours: Monday 2:00pm–3:30pm, PHE 516, or by appointment | |
| Teaching Assistants | Ramesh Manuvinakurike, Siddharth Jain |
| Office hours: Monday 9:30am–11:30am (Ramesh), 10:30am–12:30pm (Siddharth), SAL computer lab. |
There will be no office hours on January 18 (Martin Luther King’s Birthday), February 15 (Presidents’ Day), or March 14 (Spring Recess).
This course covers both fundamental and cutting-edge topics in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and provides students with hands-on experience in NLP applications.
This graduate course is intended for:
Recommended preparation: Proficiency in programming, algorithms and data structures, basic knowledge of linear algebra and machine learning.
This course is part of USC’s curriculum in natural language processing. There is a sister course, CSCI 662 Advanced Natural Language Processing, offered in the Fall semester, which covers complementary (and advanced) material and is intended for PhD students (or students who want to continue to a PhD program).
Please use the class discussion boards on Blackboard for questions and issues regarding homework assignments and the course in general. This way, the entire class can participate and see the questions and answers. Email should be reserved for communication of a personal nature. If we receive questions by email where the response could be helpful for the class, we may ask you to repost the question on the discussion boards.
Note: The weeks of January 18 and February 15 are instructional weeks. Class will not be held on these days because they are university holidays, but work will be assigned for the week and is due at the appropriate time.
Topics listed in the schedule are tentative and subject to change.
Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, either verbatim or recast in your own words – is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism in SCampus in Part B, Section 11, Behavior Violating University Standards and Appropriate Sanctions, accessible here: http://studentaffairs.usc.edu/scampus/. Other forms of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable. See the university policies on scientific misconduct: http://policy.usc.edu/scientific-misconduct.
Discrimination, sexual assault, and harassment are not tolerated by the university. You are encouraged to report any incidents to the Office of Equity and Diversity http://equity.usc.edu/ or to the Department of Public Safety via either of these forms: http://dps.usc.edu/contact/report/ or "http://web-app.usc.edu/web/dps/silentWitness/". The Center for Women and Men http://engemannshc.usc.edu/cwm/ provides 24/7 confidential support, and the sexual assault resource center webpage http://sarc.usc.edu/ describes reporting options and other resources.
Help with scholarly writing is provided by a number of USC’s schools. Check with your advisor or program staff to find out more. Students whose primary language is not English should check with the American Language Institute http://ali.usc.edu, which sponsors courses and workshops specifically for international graduate students.
Help arranging accommodation for students with disabilities is provided by the Office of Disability Services and Programs http://dsp.usc.edu
Emergency information will be posted at http://emergency.usc.edu. If an officially declared emergency makes travel to campus infeasible, this website will provide safety and other updates, including ways in which instruction will be continued by means of Blackboard, teleconferencing, and other technology.
The Code was developed by Viterbi students, and its text is as follows:
Engineering enables and empowers our ambitions and is integral to our identities. In the Viterbi community, accountability is reflected in all our endeavors.
These are the pillars we stand upon as we address the challenges of society and enrich lives.
All coding and writing must be done individually (unless instructed otherwise), and not copied from other students. Copying or plagiarism is grounds for failure of an assignment, or in serious cases failure of the course.
Use of the internet or other outside resources to find solutions to homework problems is considered cheating.