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3/23: Check the announcements on [Piazza](https://piazza.com/class/k51hzd1mesz5k3) for the latest information on how the course is proceeding virtually

Social media provides a massive amount of valuable information and shows us how language is actually used by lots of people. This course will give an overview of prominent research findings on language use in social media. The course will also cover several machine learning algorithms and the core natural language processing techniques for obtaining and processing Twitter data.

Instructor
Alan Ritter
Current new
     Autumn 2019, CSE 5539-0010 The Ohio State University
     dual-listed undergraduate and graduate course
     Time/Place: Fri 11:30am-1:35pm | Jennings Hall 140
     Office Hours:Fri 4:00pm-5:00pm | Dreese Lab 595
Prerequisites
In order to succeed in this course, you should know basic probability and statistics, such as the chain rule of probability and Bayes’ rule; some basic calculus and linear algebra will also help, such as knowing what is gradient. On the programming side, all projects will be in Python. You should understand basic computer science concepts (like recursion), basic data structures (trees, graphs), and basic algorithms (search, sorting, etc).

Course Readings
     Each lecture has an accompanying set of academic papers

Resources
     Piazza (discussion and announcements)
     Carmen (homework submission and grades)

Grading
This is a research-oriented project-based course (total 100 points). Instead of exams, each student will do two hands-on programming assignments and an optional research project. The class will assign one paper for reading each week. Each student should read the assigned paper and submit a short critique (between 100-200 words) online in Carmen before 10:00am on the day of class. These reviews should not be simple summaries, but discuss positive aspects of the paper and limitations (some examples), or suggestions for how the work could be improved or extended. Students are allowed to skip two reviews throughout the semester. Please email your reviews or homeworks to the instructor if there are any technical issues with online submission. 20% penalty per day for late submission.
  • programming homework #1 (20% individual)
  • programming homework #2 (25% individual)
  • paper summaries (20% individual, about 10 papers)
  • in-class presentation (20% group of two)
  • participation in class discussions - including Piazza (15% individual)
  • a research project or programming homework #3 (optional, 20% bonus, individual or group)

Regrade Policy: If you believe an error has been made in the grading of your exam, you may resubmit it for a regrade - submit a detailed explanation of which problems you think we marked incorrectly and why. Because we will examine your entire submission in detail, your grade can go up or down as a result of a regrade request.


Previous Offerings :

  • Fall 2019, The Ohio State University (Instructor: Wei Xu)
  • Spring 2018, The Ohio State University (Instructor: Alan Ritter)
  • Autumn 2017, The Ohio State University (Instructor: Wei Xu)
  • Autumn 2016, The Ohio State University (Instructor: Wei Xu)
  • Summer 2016, NASSLLI: The North American Summer School on Logic, Language, and Information (Instructor: Wei Xu)
         Teaching evaluation was 5.72 out of 6 at NASSLLI; average across all instructors was 5.23.
  • Summer 2015, University of Pennsylvania (Instructor: Wei Xu)