European Masters Program in Language and Communication Technologies
Study Program
The Master in Language and Communication Technologies is designed to meet the demands of industry and research in a rapidly growing area. It offers education and training opportunities for the next generations of leaders in research and innovation. It provides students with profound knowledge and insight into the various disciplines that contribute to the methods of language and communication technologies and it strengthens their ability to work according to scientific methods. Moreover, the students also acquire practice-oriented knowledge by choosing appropriate combinations of modules in language technology, computational and theoretical linguistics, and computer science.
Studying in multi-national groups at two universities in Europe, with English as instruction language, accompanied by language classes in another European language, contributes to the students' preparation for the increasing globalization of science, commerce and industry. The course also prepares students for follow-up Ph.D. studies provided by the participating partners and others.
The course consists of Compulsory Modules and Advanced Modules in Language Technologies and Computer Science, complemented by a Project, and a Master thesis, for a total of 120 ECTS credits.
The Compulsory Modules and their range of possible syllabi are as specified below.
| Module | Topics | Credits | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language Technologies (24 ECTS) |
LT-M1: Foundational | Statistical methods, symbolic methods, cognition, corpus, text and speech, foundations of Linguistics | at least 6 |
| LT-M2: Computational Syntax and Morphology | Finite state techniques, probabilistic approaches, formal grammars, tagging, chunking, parsing | at least 9 | |
| LT-M3:Computational Semantics, Pragmatics and Discourse | Syntax-semantics interface, semantic construction, dialogue, ontologies, formal semantics | at least 9 | |
| Computer Science (24 ECTS) |
CS-M1: Data Structures, Data Organization and Processing | Algebraic data-types, relational databases, semi-structured data and XML, information retrieval, digital libraries | at least 6 |
| CS-M2: Logic, Computability and Complexity | Logic and inference, automata theory, computability theory, complexity theory, discrete mathematics | at least 9 | |
| CS-M3: Formal Languages and Algorithms | Formal grammars and languages hierarchy, parsing and compiler design, search techniques and constraint resolution, automated learning | at least 9 |
At most 42 specialised ECTS credit points in Language Technology and Computer Science. These credit points can be allocated in topics which might differ from partner to partner, but at least 4 ECTS credit points should be allocated in specialised topics in LT and at least 4 ECTS credit points should be allocated in specialised topics in CS. Out of these 42 ECTS, at most 15 may be allocated in the form of a project. Moreover, whenever the background of the student requires so, 4 ECTS credit points can be allocated from special ``general skills'' covering topics like scientific and technical report writing skills, presentational skills, etc. The research masters thesis consists of 30 ECTS credit points.
| Module | Topics | Credits | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language Technologies |
LT-M4: Specialized | Machine translation, information and knowledge representation, information retrieval, question answering, speech recognition and generation, models of human language processing and understanding, psycholinguistics | at least 4 |
| Computer Science |
CS-M4: Specialized | Artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, automated reasoning, semantic web, intelligent and multi-modal interfaces, cognitive modelling, computational psychology, neural networks, machine learning | at least 4 |
Students within the double degree program have to study at two institutions of the consortium. As such, they are jointly monitored by two lecturers (tutors), one from each institution. Each student has to develop a study plan with her/his tutors. This plan must be submitted for approval to the Joint Committee of the Consortium. The students have to sit and complete successfully all the written and/or oral exams of the modules selected in the aforementioned study plan. The students have to submit and defend their masters thesis at either or both of their selected institutions. The masters thesis can be jointly supervised and defended in front of a jury with members from the two selected universities.
A detailed description of the study organisation, the modules, and the courses offered by the participating universities is available from the local sites of the partner universities listed in the table below.
For any further information about the other partners, please refer to the central web site of the European Master in Language and Communication Technologies.
FUB Courses
The correspondence of the FUB courses in the table above and the modules of the EM LCT can be found in this file to be used by students enrolled at FUB to define their study plan.
The students who come studying at FUB in their second year will have to select the courses to attend together with the local coordinator of the EM in LCT on the base of the parter university where they have spent their first year.
Students can take up till 15 credits for a project in LCT. The project can be considered as the preliminary work to be carried out for the MSc thesis which consists of 30 credits. Both the project and the thesis can be accomplished under the supervision of staff at either FUB, EURAC or FBK-irst, or in co-supervision with staff from the partner university choosen as second university.
Based on the student CV, the coordinator of the European Master in LCT at FUB might require the student to take a course on General Skills.
If students have already taken any of the courses listed above, they can choose among the courses offered in other Programs at the Free University of Bozen Bolzano.