Natural Language Processing has witnessed a clear paradigm shift: the transition from rule-based approaches to data-driven language models. While rule-based approaches dominated NLP for many years, during the 1990s and early 2000s they gradually gave way to statistical and machine-learning methods.
It would be fair to say that data-driven models, and most prominently Deep Learning including Large Language Models, have taken the field by storm. However, the outputs of those models are not always ideal, and some studies report cases in which machine-learning approaches do not necessarily outperform classical rule-based ones.
The programme combines lectures on theoretical foundations with hands-on practical sessions and is intended for both newcomers and experienced professionals in NLP, computer science, data science, cybersecurity, corpus linguistics, language technologies, and related disciplines.
Specific topics include:
- Introduction to Large Language Models
- Explainable AI in LLMs
- Datasets and bias in LLMs
- Building foundational LLMs for low-resource languages
- Machine Translation for low-resource languages
- LLMs and sentiment analysis
- Model and hyperparameter optimisation
- Eye-tracking and gaze data for NLP and language models
Panel discussion: A panel discussion on the future of NLP methods and LLMs is scheduled as part of the summer school. The panel composition is available on the Panel page.
Venue and dates: The summer school will take place at the Research Institute of Informatics of the University of Alicante on 15, 16 and 17 June 2026.
Keynote speaker: Roberto Navigli (Sapienza University of Rome).
Lecturers: Tharindu Ranasinghe, Salima Lamsiyah, Cengiz Acarturk, Hansi Hettiarachchi, Juan Pablo Consuegra Ayala, Robiert Sepulveda Torres, Alicia Picazo Izquierdo, Isuri Anuradha, Damith Premasiri, Ernesto Luis Estevanell, and Maram Alharbi.
Directors, chair, and committees: Full membership is available on the People page.
Registration: Registration information is available on the Registration page.
Related events: The summer school follows NLPAICS 2026, which takes place in Alicante on 11 and 12 June 2026. Participants attending both events benefit from discounted registration.
Further information: Additional updates will appear in future calls. You can also write to summer-school@dlsi.ua.es.