Are you interested in learning foreign languages, puzzle-solving, breaking codes, combinatorics, and/or conjugations? Would you like to try your hand at deciphering an ancient script or deducing the logical patterns of Swahili, Hawaiian or Finite State Transducers? If so, the NACLO is the right challenge for you!
What is the NACLO?
The NACLO stands for the North American Computational Linguistics Open competition. The NACLO is a contest in which high-school students solve linguistic problems. In solving these problems, students learn about the diversity and consistency of language, while exercising logic skills. No prior knowledge of linguistics or second languages is necessary.
Each January, thousands of middle and high-school students across North America participate in the NACLO, with the top-performing participants moving forward to the invitational and then international competitions.
For more about the NACLO as well as past puzzles, learn more here.
For the student handbook, click here.
How do I register?
Participation in the NACLO is free. Students who are interested in taking part will need to register to participate in the competition at the NACLO registration site by Monday, January 22, 2025. Please select Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA) for the site. Walk-in registration on the test day is not guaranteed, as it depends on the available capacity at the test location.
Additionally, make sure to fill out this form to turn in the necessary forms:
Will there be training sessions?
The Georgia Tech School of Modern Languages will be hosting two online training sessions to teach you the ins and outs of the NACLO! We’ll go over tips and tricks, strategies to approaching problems, and helpful practice NACLO problems to put these strategies into practice. We STRONGLY recommend you attend a training session to be best prepared to do well in the NACLO!
Training sessions at Georgia Tech for the NACLO in 2024 will take place on Saturday, January 11, 2025 (2:30 PM – 5:30 PM EST) and Saturday, January 18, 2025 (10 AM – 1 PM EST). The sessions will be held online via Zoom. The link for the online meetings will be made available to everyone who registers for them. Participation in these training sessions is free. If you plan to attend a training session, please register by filling out GaTech Qualtrics Form.
When is the contest?
The first round of the contest, the Open Round, will take place on Thursday, January 23, 2025, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Students who perform well in the Open Round will be invited to take part in the second round, the Invitational Round, on Thursday, March 13, 2025, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
The top students in the Invitational Round from across North America will have a chance to participate in the International Linguistics Open competition in the summer. More information about the NACLO can be found at the NACLO site.
Both the Open Round and the Invitational Round will be hosted in the Pettit Microelectronics Building, Conference Room 102A & B (791 Atlantic Dr. NW, Atlanta, GA 30332) on Georgia Tech’s campus.
Acknowledgment
Thanks to the support from the School of Modern Languages in organizing the NACLO at Georgia Tech.
This event is sponsored by the Atlanta Global Studies Center (Awarded project: Introducing Linguistics to Atlanta High School Students, proposed by Prof. Hongchen Wu and Prof. Kyoko Masuda).
Contact Info
If you have any questions about the training sessions or the NACLO contest at Georgia Tech, send an email to Prof. Hongchen Wu at hwu480@gatech.edu.
For more information and linguistics resources, click here.