The explosive growth of the web and the tremendous increase in computing power over the past decade has created a strong need for teaching and research in human language technology. Human language technology is a multidisciplinary field that includes the following major technical and scientific fields:
computer speech recognition and understanding
Natural language understanding and generation
Text-based information retrieval
web-based dialog agent
What are HLTs?
Human Language Technology is an interdisciplinary development that includes most subfields of linguistics, as well as computational linguistics, natural language processing, computer science, artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy, mathematics, and statistics.
Where language meets information technology, or where humans are required to interact with computers, language must be organized so that it can be processed and processed by computational means.
This often requires extensive knowledge of computer science and related fields, as well as linguistics and how languages work.
Popular topics in human language technology include web search engine technology (an example of information retrieval), speech recognition (computer dictation), text-to-speech (computer-generated speech), optical character recognition (OCR), machine translation , electronic dictionaries, spell-checking, grammar-checking, word processing, computer typesetting, computer-assisted language teaching, automatic captioning on television – all kinds of tasks where human language meets information technology.
What does research include?
The University of Arizona aims to provide a balanced curriculum of practical skills such as linguistics, computational linguistics, and business training.
Upon completion of the program, students will have the skills needed to enter a competitive labor market. We also work closely with providers of placements in the industry to ensure our students gain a wealth of practical experience in the form of a final project. The minimum credits required for completion is 36, and students also write a master’s thesis documenting the implementation they have actually completed. Possible local industry placements include Lockheed Martin (Phoenix), Intel (Chandler), Raytheon (Tucson), and Motorola (Phoenix).
What background should I have as an applicant?
We are looking for students who are familiar with both the linguistics or language-related liberal arts fields, as well as the more scientific fields included in the HLT (computer science, mathematics, or engineering). Programming skills are a prerequisite, but you can begin your studies the summer before you enroll in the HLT program if you are accepted.
What kind of jobs require knowledge of HLT?
Much of the work is focused on the IT industry where various companies are in need of trained HLT professionals. However, the broad coverage of the field guarantees a wide range of career options, some closer to language-related jobs, others closer to computer science.
Human language technology is the fastest growing area of language research. Its industrial uses offer far more employment opportunities than are available in traditional academic research. HLT’s Master of Science degree is designed for students interested in going directly into industry rather than pursuing a PhD in academia.
What kind of jobs require knowledge of HLT?
Much of the work is focused on the IT industry where various companies are in need of trained HLT professionals. However, the broad coverage of the field guarantees a wide range of career options, some closer to language-related jobs, others closer to computer science.The program is available to CU Boulder master’s or doctoral students currently enrolled in any of the three areas above, including students enrolled in a 5-year concurrent MA/BA program.
