Education

The Computational Linguistics program bridges the education in humanities and natural science and offers introduction to both of these worlds. The aim is to train linguists with knowledge of general and development patterns of the language (reflected primarily on the Czech language), with a focus in computational linguistics, qualified in relation to the field of information technologies and capable of algorithmic
thinking.

This is the only study program in the Czech Republic, in which you can study computational linguistics in humanities-oriented undergraduate degree program.

The follow-up master program in computational linguistics is designed especially for graduates of bachelor program, however the graduates of related programs (mostly philological, or computer science) are also welcomed. The aim of the study is to deepen the knowledge of the computational and corpus linguistics, to extend the skills in algorithmic description of different language levels, a wider view on the traditional and computational linguistics and its development and context. Focus is on strengthening the programming skills, especially in the area of advanced natural language processing techniques. Courses are realized with the cooperation of the

Institute of the Czech language of the Faculty of Arts, (the guarantor of the program), and the departments of the Faculty of Informatics MU.

Artificial intelligence and data processing are dynamic areas of computer science that are becoming increasingly important. The program is built on a thorough understanding of the basic theoretical concepts and methods, giving students the opportunity to become true experts in the field. The core of the field includes instruction in artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks, statistics, data visualization, and big data processing technologies.

However, theory is not divorced from practice - already during the course of their studies, students solve concrete case studies in which they learn about the tools and technologies currently in use. Students have the opportunity to work on real industrial or scientific projects during their studies. Students in the programme gain experience that enables them to put the current state of knowledge to immediate use in practice, as well as a solid foundation that enables them to continue to independently pursue further developments in this dynamic field.

Candidates choose one of the specializations Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Processing and Analysis, or Natural Language Processing.

The Digital Linguistics program will train you to design and develop conversational and language-based artificial intelligence systems. You can also become specialists in the creation of chatbots, innovative virtual assistants, in the creation and use of complex tools for analysing large texts in different languages, and more generally in the application of IT to language processing. As a digital linguist, you will be in demand in companies and organisations across all fields of activity. This Czech Joint Master Degree programme includes a compulsory 3rd semester of study at a partner university in Ljubljana or Zagreb. The programme will develop your skills in a wide range of applied information technologies. You will be able to use and build linguistic resources using software tools and improve existing language technologies. You will acquire specialist terminology in at least two languages and the skills you acquire will enable you to work with all types of linguistic data.

Course objectives:

• Introduce basic principles and concepts of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning;
• demonstrate applications of Machine Learning to tackle modern problems in biology, chemistry, and bioengineering;
• discuss data interpretation, major limitations, and ethical aspects of the methods.

The main objective of this course is to provide students with hands-on experience in programming simple examples of machine-learning-based predictors in Python. The practicals will follow the theory presented during the lectures of Bi9680en. We will cover the basics of programming, some useful libraries for data analysis and machine learning, and create simple predictors for biologically-relevant data.