Course Overview
This course provides an in-depth examination of the foundations and applications of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs). Students will explore text preprocessing, Named Entity Recognition (NER), and Part-of-Speech (PoS) Tagging, applying these techniques in tasks such as information extraction and sentiment analysis. The course then examines the evolution of language models, focusing on transformer architectures, BERT, GPT, and T5, with hands-on experience in fine-tuning pre-trained models. Students will also develop skills in prompt engineering and build Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems using the Hugging Face ecosystem. The course culminates in a team-based capstone project where learners design and implement a multi-agent financial analysis system, demonstrating practical mastery of LLM integration, workflow design, and real-world AI applications. The hands on approach of this course will provide students with both conceptual knowledge and applied skills in NLP, LLMs, RAG, and agentic AI, preparing them to innovate at the forefront of AI-driven language technologies.
Prerequisites: AAI 500 and AAI 501