Kara Leier
MDS Computational Linguistics, Class of 2026
Kara Leier has her aunt to thank for her career path into data science and computational linguistics.
“Many, many years ago she told me that her partner was a data scientist and that it was such a good field to go into. She saw me doing it. At the time, I remember thinking to myself, ‘that sounds like nothing I would want to do’,” she said.
At the start of her university career, Leier struggled to find what she really loved doing until she found linguistics. “It was like a flip switched and I started loving everything I was doing. I didn’t find interest in doing Speech Pathology like a lot of my friends did, so I kept on going with my first choice in major, Computer Science, and did both CS and Linguistics.”
Leier eventually ended up getting her Bachelor of Arts Honours in Linguistics and a Bachelor of Science 3-year in Computer Science from the University of Saskatchewan.
While at the University of Saskatchewan, she took the sole course the university offered on computational linguistics and it only whetted her appetite to further pursue her education in the field.
This led Leier to the UBC Master of Data Science (MDS) in Computational Linguistics program. What interested Leier in the MDS Computational Linguistics program was that it checked all the boxes she was looking for: It wasn’t too far from her home in Saskatoon, it was accelerated, it was course-based, and it combined all the areas that she already loved.
“When I saw that the [computational linguistics] field can be in data science too, I finally saw what my aunt saw so many years ago,” she noted.
During the program, Leier found that her favourite course was COLX 565 (Sentiment Analysis) taught by Isabel Papadimitriou. “We got to read so many interesting papers on sentiment in AI …. We talked a lot about sycophancy and how we look at generative AI.”
In fact, Leier appreciated how the MDS Computational Linguistics program addressed the emergence of LLMs and AI in the curriculum. She added that the many of the classes were adapted to the current AI environment and discourse.
Also, Leier felt fortunate to learn from so many perspectives coming together into one cohort.
“I learnt a lot about different mindsets and how they approach problems or tasks. It helped me refine the way I think about what I do, being able to grab the pieces of other perspectives that resonated with me,” she explained.
But if there was one thing that Leier found the most invaluable aspect of the MDS Computational Linguistics program was the capstone project.
“Classes alone don’t prepare someone for the industry; it’s the real-world experience that does that. When I saw that the capstone projects were real projects that the industry partners will actually use in their companies, I was sold,” Leier added.
Leier’s capstone project was with the Canadian Sexual Understanding & Education for Digital Equity (SUEDE) Society and she felt like the project was really making a difference by creating sexual health tools for educators.
Post program, Leier is fortunate to be starting a Research Analyst position with VIDO (Vaccine and Infections Disease Organization) back in her hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
“I’m very excited for this role as it ties in the right amount of Linguistics and academia that I wished for.”
Kara’s Top 3 Tips on Succeeding in the MDS Computational Linguistics Program:
- Front load your work.
- Worry less about cheat-sheets and more about solidifying the knowledge.
- Make friends and study with them.