Coding Natural Language, Fall 2021

LCOD 2422, Section A (CRN: 12323)

Current instructor: Rory Solomon, solomonr@newschool.edu; formerly Ursula Wolz.

Wednesday, 4 - 6:40pm, 6 East 16th Street, Room 1001

Office hours

Friday 11am-2pm, 65 West 11th Street, room B061; and by appointment — you may click here to schedule.

Course Description

In this course we will ask the question: “How does SIRI work, and what is it actually doing?” Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence that uses linguistic theory to attempt to provide more human centered ways to interact with a computer. Students explore the relationships between data, information and knowledge while being introduced to programming in Javascript. Readings are drawn from fifty years of literature in philosophy, linguistics and computer science that addresses the nature of language and meaning. The question we will debate is “Do computers know what they are talking about?” Using an extensive set of coding resources, students experience the satisfaction of creating a computer program that focuses on issues they identify. A major project is self-designed and can range from a language (text-based) game, to a literary creation, to a formal experiment in computational linguistics. This course fulfills the Integrative Course requirement of the Culture and Media major.

Syllabus

You can find the course syllabus here.

Links & Resources

Weekly class notes

Code files from last 2 weeks (re: game tree, and game tree plus markovify)

Coding technique: how to clear the screen in the terminal

Final grade breakdown

Weekly homework assignments 60% 10%
Reading responses (2) 10%
Participation & attendance 10% 40%
Final project 20% 40%

Please note that I made adjustments to the grade breakdown since we last spoke about this in class. I realize that it is potentially unfair to change a grade breakdown after the course has ended, and if you would like, I would be happy to use the original grade breakdown that was posted, however the adjustments yielded a more favorable grade for everyone. If you have any questions please be in touch.

Explanation of gradable materials

Weekly homework assignments. For full credit on this, make sure that you have shared your Google Drive folder from the first part of the semetser with me. I will add a link from your name to your folder to the list above. Please verify that your name is linked in that list. all Please make sure you have clearly labeled folders for "Week 7" and "Week 8" work as outlined in the class notes above. I will try my best to evaluate your work from the first part of the semester in those Google Drive folders in accordance with the grading standards outline in the syllabus and the first part of the semester, emphasizing effort and making an attempt at the exercise. Please make sure that any hoemwork assignments for which you are expecting credit are clearly labeled in this folder.

Reading responses. For full credit on this piece, you should make sure that you have a reading response for both texts that we looked at during the recent weeks of the semester. If you have not completed this yet and still wish to, I am still willing to give partial credit for any late posts. Reminder that you can find the readings in the Week 7 and Week 8 class notes linked above.

Participation & attendance. This grade will be determined subjectively based on your active participation in the class over the last 7 weeks. Excessive absences will potentially lower this grade, but I am happy to take into account COVID- or binx-related absences. This has been a difficult semester for us all and faculty have agreed to offer leniency around attendance issues.

Final project. This will be evaluated based on whether you have completed all components of the assignment prompt on time and presented your work to the class on the last day.

Final project

"The Voder", debuting at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. (More info.)