Undergraduate Programin Cognitive Science

Spring 2015

Size and Make-up of Majors

• 51 COGS majors• By year:

– 10 seniors– 14 juniors– 12 sophomores– 15 freshmen

• By major:– COGS: 19– COGS/CSCI: 23– COGS/GSAS: 3– Other COGS duals: 6 (MATH, PSYC, CSYS, DIS, STS)

Fall 2011 Spring 2012

Fall 2012 Spring 2013

Fall 2013 Spring 2014

Fall 2014 Spring 2015

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Curriculum

COGS Core Courses

• Behavioral Neuroscience or Intro to Cognitive Neuroscience

• Sensation and Perception (Structure of Language no longer offered)

• Knowledge and Rationality (Metaphysics & Csns and Phil of AI no longer offered)

• Cognitive Modeling (LISP for AI no longer offered) -> can use Intelligent Virtual Agents or Affective Computing as substitute)

• Intro to AI -> can use Game AI or Learning & Advanced Game AI as a substitute)

Senior Thesis

• Find a Faculty Member to do your Thesis with: Your Thesis Faculty Advisor

• Fill out thesis form with Thesis Faculty Advisor (bring to Registrar before add deadline)

• Thesis Faculty Advisor will lay out requirements of thesis– Meetings– Literature Research– Experimental Research– Write-Up

• You do not have to do thesis in last semester

Online Courses

• Udacity (~40 courses, mostly CSCI, self-paced, wide variety of course lengths)– Introduction to AI, Artificial Intelligence for Robotics,

The Design of Everyday Things

• Coursera (500+ courses; wide variety)– Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks, Computational

Neuroscience, Natural Language Processing, etc.

• EdX (100+ courses, various fields)• Possibility of getting 1-2 credits Independent

Study for successful completion of courses (Add Deadline: Friday, 2/6)

Wednesday Issues in Cognitive Science Seminar

• It is possible for undergraduates to receive 1 credit through the Issues in Cognitive Science Lecture Series:– Write 1 page response paper about talk for 6

talks of your choice– Register for COGS 2940/4940 “Issues in

Cognitive Science” – Restricted to COGS majors or minors or dual

majors with PHIL or PSYC

Speakers This Semester• February 4, Stanislas Dehaene, College of France

– “Reading the Brain”, Streaming Video

• February 11, Michael Ramscar, Cog. Sci. Researcher, Univ. of Tubingen– “The Myth of Cognitive Decline”: Cognitive Models of Lifelong Learning

• February 25, Ennio Mingolla, Northeastern University– “Lifting the Shroud of Visual Attention”: Neural Network Models of Visual Perception

• March 4, Shyam Kumar, Professor of Lally School, RPI• Corporate Strategies: A Cognitive Perspective

– March 11, Lael Schooler, Professor of Psychology, Syracuse University– Mathematical Models of Psychological Decision-Making

• April 8, Peter Fox, Tetherless World Constellation Chair, RPI• April 22, Jun Zhang, University of Michigan

– Meta-Game Theory: Thinking about thinking about thinking …

• All other talks this semester are by COGS graduate students• For a complete schedule of speakers go to Speaker Series off of Cognitive

Science department home page• If you think of a potential speaker, let me know!

Research

Undergraduate Research

• Cog Sci students are strongly encouraged to do hands-on research

• Undergraduate Research Program (URP)– http://www.rpi.edu/dept/urp– Fill out URP form:

• You have to write a 500 word proposal!• for course credit (deadline = course add deadline =

February 6)– Also fill out an Independent Study/URP Registration form

• for $ (February 13)

• Research can be used for Senior Thesis

Summer URP (SURP) at RPI

• Competitive program– Applications reviewed by multiple faculty

• $4000 stipend for 10-week summer research

• Need to find faculty member willing to support research efforts during 10-week period

• Deadline: February 20!• SURP

Other Summer Programs

• Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program in Vision Science, University of Rochester

• Probably others as well …• Usually applications are due sometime in

February, so this is a good time to look at summer programs!

Other Programs …

• Visiting Undergraduate Research Program, University of Indiana– Highly selective year-long program for seniors– Work directly with faculty member

Overview Research Groups and Labs

• Cognitive Factors in Human Performance – (Dr. David Mendonca)

• Linguistic Agents– (Dr. Marjorie McShane and Dr. Sergei Nirenburg)

• CogWorks Lab – (Dr. Wayne Gray)

• RAIR Lab – (Dr. Selmer Bringsjord)

• Sim Lab – (Dr. Mei Si)

• Visual Reasoning – (Dr. Bram van Heuveln)

Visual Reasoning

Research Page

Paperwork• Declare or add Cognitive Science Major

– Fill out Change of Major form– Curriculum Coordinator: Betty Osganian (Sage 4301)

• 1 credit for Issues in Cognitive Science lectures– Fill out Independent Study form

• COGS 2940/4940 “Issues in Cognitive Science”• Senior Thesis

– Find thesis advisor– Fill out Thesis Registration form

• URP– Fill out URP form– For credit:

• Fill out Independent Study form as well• Credits to be determined by project advisor• Deadline = Course Add Deadline: Friday, 2/6

– For $ (URP matches up to $400):• Find faculty member with $!• Deadline: Friday, 2/13