Natural Language Processing Course | NLP by IIT Kharagpur | AI & Text Mining
Course Details
| Exam Registration | 7846 |
|---|---|
| Course Status | Ongoing |
| Course Type | Elective |
| Language | English |
| Duration | 12 weeks |
| Categories | Computer Science and Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science |
| Credit Points | 3 |
| Level | Undergraduate/Postgraduate |
| Start Date | 19 Jan 2026 |
| End Date | 10 Apr 2026 |
| Enrollment Ends | 02 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Registration Ends | 20 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Date | 25 Apr 2026 IST |
| NCrF Level | 4.5 — 8.0 |
Unlocking the Power of Language: Your Guide to a Comprehensive NLP Course
In today's data-driven world, the ability for machines to understand, interpret, and generate human language is not just a technological marvel—it's a fundamental business necessity. From virtual assistants and chatbots to sentiment analysis and automated translation, Natural Language Processing (NLP) sits at the heart of modern Artificial Intelligence. If you're looking to build a solid foundation in this transformative field, a structured course led by an expert can be the perfect launchpad.
Course Overview: A Deep Dive into NLP Fundamentals and Applications
This intensive 12-week course is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as professionals looking to upskill. It offers a rigorous journey from the basic building blocks of text to cutting-edge applications that power today's intelligent systems.
The curriculum is meticulously crafted to balance theoretical understanding with practical know-how. It begins with core concepts like text pre-processing and language modeling, progressively advancing to complex topics such as syntactic parsing, semantic analysis, and real-world applications like information extraction and opinion mining.
Meet Your Instructor: Prof. Pawan Goyal
The course is led by Prof. Pawan Goyal, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur. With a strong academic pedigree including a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur and a Ph.D. from the University of Ulster, UK, Prof. Goyal brings both depth and expertise to the subject.
His research interests span Natural Language Processing, Text Mining, Information Retrieval, and Sanskrit Computational Linguistics. Having published around 75 research papers in top-tier venues like ACL, NAACL, SIGIR, and KDD, he is at the forefront of NLP research. His prior experience as a Post Doctoral Fellow at INRIA Paris Rocquencourt further enriches the course content with international research perspectives.
Who Should Enroll and Prerequisites
This course is ideal for:
- Computer Science and Engineering students.
- Professionals and enthusiasts in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.
- Developers aiming to integrate NLP capabilities into applications.
Prerequisites: A basic understanding of probability concepts is required for the lectures. For the programming assignments, fundamental knowledge of Python is essential to implement the algorithms and models discussed.
Detailed 12-Week Course Layout
| Week | Topics Covered |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Introduction and Basic Text Processing |
| Week 2 | Spelling Correction, Language Modeling |
| Week 3 | Advanced Smoothing for Language Modeling, POS Tagging |
| Week 4 | Models for Sequential Tagging – MaxEnt, CRF |
| Week 5 | Syntax – Constituency Parsing |
| Week 6 | Dependency Parsing |
| Week 7 | Distributional Semantics |
| Week 8 | Lexical Semantics |
| Week 9 | Topic Models |
| Week 10 | Entity Linking, Information Extraction |
| Week 11 | Text Summarization, Text Classification |
| Week 12 | Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining |
Essential Reading Materials
To supplement the lectures, the following authoritative textbooks are recommended:
- Speech and Language Processing by Dan Jurafsky and James H. Martin (Prentice Hall). The third edition drafts are available online, providing access to updated content.
- Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing by Christopher D. Manning and Hinrich Schütze (MIT Press). This remains a classic for understanding the statistical underpinnings of NLP.
Industry Relevance and Support
The skills acquired in this course are highly sought after across the tech industry. The curriculum is recognized and supported by leading global and Indian companies, including Microsoft Research, Google, Adobe, Xerox, Flipkart, and Amazon. This endorsement underscores the practical, industry-aligned nature of the training, preparing you for roles in search engineering, AI research, data science, and more.
Conclusion: Your Pathway to NLP Expertise
This Natural Language Processing course offers a unique opportunity to learn from a distinguished IIT professor and researcher. By covering the full spectrum from theory to application—including hands-on Python programming—it equips you with the tools to tackle real-world language challenges. Whether your goal is to advance academic research or build the next generation of AI-powered products, this 12-week journey provides the foundational knowledge and practical skills to excel in the exciting field of NLP.
Enroll Now →