New Computational Linguistics Major to Meet Rapidly Growing Demand for Jobs

Content

Computational Linguistics, a new major from the Department of Linguistics in the College of Humanities & Fine Arts (HFA), will launch as the only Bachelor of Arts of its type at a public institution in the Northeast. The degree will be one of only a few in the country. Current students will be able to transfer into the major in Fall of 2024, and it will be included in the common application in the Fall of 2025.

This new major will prepare students to meet the needs of the rapidly growing demand for computational linguistics jobs, which often play a central role in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) language models and programs such as ChatGPT.  

Through this program, Computational Linguistics students will acquire the knowledge and skills to effectively use computing to solve important problems about language. These students will develop technical knowledge of software and programming so they can work with language data. They will also learn sufficient mathematical sophistication to understand foundational computational algorithms used to model language.  

“We are excited about this new interdisciplinary collaboration with our colleagues in CICS that will provide an educational experience that is intellectually enriching and challenging, and that has excellent possibilities for job placements for its graduates," says Joe Pater, chair of the Department of Linguistics.

The new program draws on existing teaching and advising resources from the Linguistics Department and the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS). Students who enroll in the Computational Linguistics major will have access to courses in the Computer Science (CS) department, which tend to be highly enrolled and are often limited to CS majors.

Computational Linguistics students will graduate ready to begin employment in the language technology industry—called Natural Language Processing—or to pursue graduate studies for more advanced positions in the area.  

One goal of the program is to recruit new students into UMass and provide a well-grounded and timely educational path for students. It will also create new opportunities for graduates in the workplace, especially as AI continues to grow and evolve. In addition, the major aims to increase the diversity of this STEM area in the workplace, including recruiting and training women and members of other underrepresented groups in the field.

The Computational Linguistics major will build on the strong external reputations of both the Linguistics program in HFA and Artificial Intelligence program in CICS. Linguistics is the No. 3 department in the world according to the 2023 QS World University Rankings, and Artificial Intelligence is the No. 15 program in the country in the current U.S. News and World Report ranking. The interdisciplinary curriculum of this degree will further enhance not only each program’s external reputations, but that of the Amherst campus and the UMass system.  

To learn more, visit the Linguistics website.