Computational Linguistics
Computational Linguistics is the scientific study of language from a computational perspective. It is a lively and intellectually vital scientific discipline, generating advances that shed new insight on models of human linguistic abilities, as well as creating opportunities for practical tools that can be of tremendous benefit to society. Computational linguistics faculty and students participate in the interdisciplinary Georgetown University Computational Linguistics (GUCL) community on campus.
The Computational Linguistics program (CPLI) offers both PhD and Master of Science (MS) degrees in Computational Linguistics. These programs carry the STEM-designated 30.4801 CIP code, which means that our international graduates are eligible for 2 additional years of Optional Practical Training (OPT) for a total of 3 years of work authorization in the US.
The MS in Computational Linguistics is a small, selective 2-year program that affords extensive curricular, research, and career opportunities. At Georgetown, all of our CPLI graduate students benefit from:
- Cutting-edge courses: Core faculty are leaders in several areas of computational linguistics, with expertise including natural language processing (NLP), psycholinguistics, corpus development, low-resource languages, digital humanities, and the study of LLMs. The program also provides strong linguistic grounding in phonology, syntax, and semantics.
- Flexible course pathways suited to your linguistic and/or computational experience.
- A vibrant culture of research collaboration across the labs, with many MS students choosing to participate in research.
- High-performance computing infrastructure for deep learning and LLM experiments.
- Close interdisciplinary connections with the Computer Science department for an expansive set of courses and research options.
- Access to customized career advising from a faculty career advisor, as well as career opportunities in the Washington, DC region.
- A network of alumni who have built careers in industry, government, and academia.
- International students benefit from the STEM OPT extension to 3 years.
Doctoral program applicants: While all faculty in the department are available to serve on dissertation committees, only tenured and tenure-line faculty (Nathan Schneider, Ethan Wilcox and Amir Zeldes) can serve as doctoral advisors and dissertation chairs in the Computational Linguistics Program.
Courses: See this page for an overview of Georgetown’s computation and language courses.
Research labs: Computational research in the department is organized into faculty-led labs with different specializations. Current students who wish to participate in lab research are encouraged to inquire about opportunities.
| Corpling Lab (Zeldes) | NERT Lab (Schneider) | PICoL Lab (Wilcox) |
|---|---|---|
Multilingual, multilayer dataset construction Discourse structure above the sentence level Low resource and Digital Humanities applications of NLP | Corpus annotation (syntax and semantics Linguistic interpretability of LLMs Legal interpretation with linguistics and AI | Computational models of sentence processing and language acquisition Pretraining dynamics and interpretability of Large Language Models Experimental psycholinguistics, including syntactic processing and reading |
Computational Linguistics Faculty
- Nathan Schneider (Concentration Head)
- Ethan Wilcox
- Amir Zeldes