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The Natural Language Processing (NLP) Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is inviting applications for Ph.D. positions starting in Fall 2026. We are seeking motivated and creative students to join our team and contribute to cutting-edge research in Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Multimodal Learning, and Intelligent Agents.

UC Santa Barbara campus at sunset

Faculty Advisors

Our advising faculty include: Prof. Xin (Eric) Wang, Prof. William (Yang) Wang, Prof. Xifeng Yan, Prof. Shiyu Chang, Prof. Wenbo Guo, Prof. Simon Todd (Linguistics)

Together, our group conducts interdisciplinary research bridging language, vision, and reasoning, with strong collaborations across the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Linguistics.

Research and Achievements

The UCSB NLP Group has received over $20 million in research funding in recent years. Our graduates have pursued careers in both academia and industry, joining institutions such as Northeastern University, UC Santa Cruz, University of Waterloo, UT Dallas, Rutgers University, Ohio State University, and Peking University, as well as leading companies including Google, Meta, Apple, xAI, OpenAI, Amazon, Microsoft, DeepMind, and Salesforce Research.

Applicant Qualifications

We welcome applicants who:

• Are passionate about research and self-motivated in pursuing new ideas;
• Have strong interests in AI, NLP, and related fields;
• Possess solid programming and mathematical skills.

About UCSB

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a top-ranked public research university and home to multiple Nobel laureates. Our NLP Group was ranked 4th nationally (2018–2021) according to CSRankings.

Located on a scenic oceanfront campus, UCSB offers:

• A world-class research environment with a collaborative culture;
• A small and highly productive Computer Science department with leading per-capita research output;
• Full financial support for Ph.D. students, including tuition, stipend, health insurance, and travel funding;
• Comprehensive visa and international student services.

Application Information

Prospective students should apply through the official UCSB Computer Science Ph.D. program and indicate their preferred faculty advisors in the Statement of Purpose. The GRE is not required for admission.

Applicants are welcome to contact prospective advisors after submitting their applications, attaching a CV and transcript. Due to the volume of inquiries, individual replies may not always be possible. Interviews will be arranged after the application deadline.

Our faculty will also be attending major conferences such as EMNLP and NeurIPS in Fall 2025 — interested applicants are encouraged to connect in person during poster sessions.

Join Us

We look forward to welcoming talented and passionate researchers to UCSB NLP, and to advancing the future of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Understanding together.