Data Science of Human Multimodal Communication: European and International Joint Masters Degree

ongoing

MULTICOM is the first master’s degree in the data science of human multimodal communication, that is, the study of how the different modalities of communication (speech articulation, gesture, gaze, facial expression, prosody, and more) combine to make meaningful interaction possible. MULTICOM is a joint degree (2 years, 120 ECTS), co-awarded by three universities with top-level teams in the field: Murcia, Lund, and Erlangen-Nürnberg. Associated partners are the academic world-leaders in multimodality. Numerous non-academic organizations in industry and other sectors are expected to join, providing the opportunity to develop problem-oriented theses and professional projects at companies of practically any suitable size and profile. This emerging field is key to the next advances in the understanding of language and mind, the design of interactive technologies across multiple industries, including generative AI and human-computer interaction, or the development of digital learning resources, among many other areas. To train the first generation of professionals who will model, explain, test, and replicate multimodal patterns in human communication, we propose an unprecedented combination of state-of-the-art methods. Alongside lab techniques, such as psycholinguistic responses, eye-tracking, or motion capture, students will be trained to build and research large-scale audio-visual collections, as well as to analyze them with established statistical techniques and cutting-edge computational tools from the realm of machine learning. MULTICOM graduates will also receive a comprehensive background in recent theories of communication, language, and cognition, developing the capacity to submit those paradigms to scrutiny, thanks to their unique skills for multi-source multimodal data analysis. A wide range of professional skills and foreign languages will provide added value to the first generation of experts in this emerging field.