Introduction to automatic text processing

Teacher(s)

Fairon Cédrick;

Language

French

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites, but this course requires at least an interest in computer science and a familiarity with computers.

Main themes

Human science specialists are more and more often faced with situations where they have to work with large amounts of textual data (literary, historical or political texts, linguistic research data, etc.). Computer tools offer undeniable advantages for the analysis, organisation, sorting or formatting of this information. However, it is necessary to be able to master these tools and select an appropriate method.
The aim of this course is to initiate students into programming and algorithmics through a programming language that is particularly suitable for text processing: Perl. Students will learn to solve increasingly complex problems and build computer programs that can analyse textual data.
Students with experience in programming (NLP, computer data science, etc.) are not exempt from the course, but will receive more advanced exercises and specific support.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	By the end of the course, students will be able to analyse a problem related to textual data processing and to design and build a computer program to address this problem. To do this, they will have gained a basic knowledge of algorithmics and programming and will be able to apply it on their own. Students will also acquire more informed and more critical insight into how human science software works.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

Classes are divided between lectures presenting the tools and methods, and tutorials aiming to allow students to experiment with methods and software.

Teaching methods

Lectures; exercises completed during the course and in the form of home assignments.

Evaluation methods

• Continuous assessment during term-time, based on participation in exercises (30% of the final grade);
  
• Final programming project documented in a report and presented during an oral exam, plus completion of one or more programming exercises during this oral exam (70% of the final grade).
  

Online resources

Course slides and supplementary, marked exercises are available on the Moodle platform.

Faculty or entity

FIAL