Summer Youth Camp for Computational Linguistics (SYCCL) 

The Institute for Advanced Computational Science and Department of Linguistics at Stony Brook University are offering a 10-day camp introducing middle and high school students to computational linguistics and language technology. This camp will be held in a hyrbrid format.  Students must be 15 years old or older by the time of the camp to attend in person. No prior knowledge of programming or formal linguistics is assumed. This hands-on camp introduces students to both the wonder of natural languages and the analytical methods that underlay the natural language technology people use every day in all parts of the world.

The camp concurrently (1) teaches students about the ways in which human languages are both the same and different, (2) introduces them to software and technology for processing language and human speech, and (3) gets them to apply these tools and knowledge to directly investigate many languages in the world, including ones that are neither well-documented nor well-studied.

With faculty and graduate students, participants will learn analytical, computational, and creative thinking about human language as well as the research challenges facing the science and engineering which underlie natural language technologies. They will participate in team projects motivated by these same research challenges. 

By the end of the camp, students will have sufficient linguistic knowledge, analytical skills, software expertise, and awareness of the field to pursue further independent study and to inform future choices for education and careers. Ideally students will use their own laptops (Macs, PCs or Linux are acceptable; a few are available for loan) so they can continue to use the camp's open-source software and tools

For 2024 registration info, please click here!