State of the Program Undergraduate Program in Cognitive Science Spring 2017

State of the Program Everything is Awesome!

Size and Make-up of Majors 59 active COGS majors (33 M, 26 F) By year (active only) 9 seniors 10 juniors 20 sophomores 14 freshmen By major: COGS: 26 COGS/CSCI: 28 COGS/GSAS: 1 Other COGS duals: 4 (PSYC, CSYS, DIS)

Curriculum

COGS Core Courses Intro to Cognitive Neuroscience (or Behavioral Neuroscience) Sensation and Perception Metaphysics & Consciousness (Knowledge and Rationality and Phil of AI no longer offered) Cognitive Modeling (or Programming for AI and Cog Sci or Intelligent Virtual Agents or Affective Computing) Intro to AI (or 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: Monday, 1/30)

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 8, Bolek Szymanski, Computer Science, RPI Social Cognitive Networks February 15, Selmer Bringsjord, Cognitive Science, RPI “Is Westworld Our (Near) Future?” April 12, Ashok Goel, Georgia Tech Computational Design and Creativity April 19, Gary Latham, School of Management, University of Toronto Goal Setting and Organizations March 11, Liane Gabora, Psychology, University of British Columbia Cognitive Models for Creativity All other talks this semester are by COGS graduate students For a complete schedule of speakers go to Speaker Series on the 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 = January 30) Also fill out an Independent Study/URP Registration form for $ (February 3) 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 17! SURP

Other Summer Programs Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program in Vision Science, University of Rochester June 5-August 5 Deadline: February 15

And Another One … Visiting Undergraduate Research Program, University of Indiana Highly selective year-long program for seniors Work directly with faculty member Deadline: April 3

And Another One … Summer Computing Research Experience in Data Science UMass Amherst $5,000 stipend for 10 weeks Deadline: January 27!

And Another One … Summer Workshop in Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware June 5-16 Travel, Stipend, Room and Board provided Deadline: March 1, 2017

Overview Research Groups and Labs PandA Lab (Dr. Brett Fajen … represented by Sean Barton, grad student) CogWorks Lab (Dr. Wayne Gray … represented by John Lindstedt and Catherine Sibert, grad students) RAIR Lab (Dr. Selmer Bringsjord … represented by Naveen Sundar … post-doc?) Sim Lab (Dr. Mei Si … represented by Zev Battad, grad student) 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: Monday, 1/30 For $ (URP matches up to $400): Find faculty member with $! Deadline: Friday, 2/3