Found Your Own NLP (or ML or AI) Startup!

Summer Semester 2022
Prof. Dr. Alexander Koller
Software Project (12 CP, free credit points), BSc/MSc Computer Science and related programs (DSAI etc.)
Tue 10-12, location TBA

Start date: TBA (first week of semester)

Seite für Studierende im BSc Computerlinguistik (auf Deutsch)
Page for MSc LST/LCT students (in English)

Have you ever dreamed of founding your own language technology (or machine learning or AI) startup? Would you like to realize your own ideas, become financially independent, and change the world?

Then you should participate in this software project.

Information about COVID-19: I have planned this software project under the assumption that we can teach in person in the summer semester 2022. If we can’t, we will have to cancel the course.

For computer science students: You are cordially invited to participate in this class. Priority will be given to students who have an idea for a language technology startup; however, if you would like to work out your startup idea in machine learning or artificial intelligence, you are welcome as well.

Size limitation: Please note that this is a supervision-intensive course, so attendance is limited to ~15 students.

Structure of the course

Everything starts with your idea for a real product that your startup will develop, or your willingness to contribute to someone else’s idea. You should already come to the first meeting with your product idea, at least in a basic form. Over the course of the semester, you will then team up with others and build a prototype of your product.

At the same time, you will develop your business idea together with the experts of the university’s startup center and learn how to found a business. The startup center usually charges fees for such courses; you will learn these things for free. This part of the course will consist of 5-6 meetings of four hours each.

Furthermore, you will meet alumni of our department who have founded startups in the Saarland themselves, and will learn from their practical experience.

The outcome of the course will be that each team has developed a prototype and written a business plan. You will have worked out a pitch for your product and tested it on our expert jury. Thus, you will be fully equipped to raise capital, found your company, and participate in startup competitions and accelerators.

Prerequisites

You will develop a functioning prototype of your product in this class. Thus you should bring solid programming skills.

I urge you to familiarize yourself with Github before the semester starts. Using Github or a similar tool will be essential for collaborating in your team, and we won’t have time to learn how to use it after the semester starts.

Role in your CS degree program

This course was originally designed as a class for students in the LST department, where we can give 8 CP for a software project (for MSc students). Because the workload of this course will go beyond that of most software projects, the companion seminar counts as a 4 LP seminar for LST students.

We have discussed in detail how to best incorporate this course into the CS degree programs. It seems that the best way is to give you 12 CP of free credit points. This allows me to give you a number of credit points that reflects your actual workload. Note that you are allowed to take free credit points in excess of what your study regulations permit, and the course will show up on your degree certificate.

Organizational details

Pre-registration: Please pre-register for this course by February 23 so I can get a sense of the number of participants.

Organizational meeting: We will meet on Friday, March 4 over Zoom for some initial discussions about the software project. I will send you the access details before the meeting. If you can’t make it to the meeting on that date, please let me know in the pre-registration form.

Examination: Software project: present your project idea (talk), present your prototype (talk), and write technical documentation for your prototype. Companion seminar: write your business plan and present it (talk).

Photo by Brit Worgan on Scopio