1. State of the Program Undergraduate Program in Cognitive Science
Spring 2018

2. State of the Program
Everything is Great! It’s unbelievable how Great it is, believe me!

3. Size and Make-up of Majors
61 active COGS majors (32 M, 29 F)
By year (active only)
9 seniors
18 juniors
17 sophomores
17 freshmen
By major:
COGS: 25
COGS/CSCI: 28
COGS/MATH: 3
COGS/ITWS: 2
Other COGS duals: 3 (GSAS, PSYC, CSYS)

4. Curriculum

5. COGS Core Courses … and Possible Substitutes
Intro to Cognitive Neuroscience
Behavioral Neuroscience, other Neuroscience course
Sensation and Perception
Metaphysics & Consciousness
Cognitive Modeling
Programming for AI and Cog Sci, Intelligent Virtual Agents, Affective Computing, Mathematical Methods for Psychological Science
Intro to AI
Game AI, Learning & Advanced Game AI
Introduction to Linguistics
(for Catalog 2016 and later)

6. 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

7. 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 Independent Study credits for successful completion of courses (Add Deadline: Monday, 1/29)

8. 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

9. Speakers This Semester
February 28, Yorick Wilks, Florida Institute of Human and Machine Cognition
“Will there be Superintelligence … and would it hate us?”
March 28, Teresa Amabile, Harvard Business School
Creativity?
April 11, Tomek Strzalkowski, Computer Science, SUNY Albany
Artificial Intelligence
May 2, John Bargh, Psychology, Yale University
Cognition and Motivation
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!

10. Research

11. Undergraduate Research
Cog Sci students are strongly encouraged to do hands-on research
Undergraduate Research Program (URP)
Fill out URP form:
You have to write a 500 word proposal!
for course credit (deadline = course add deadline = January 29)
Also fill out an Independent Study/URP Registration form
for $ (February 2)
Research can be used for Senior Thesis

12. Summer URP (SURP) at RPI
Competitive program
Applications reviewed by multiple faculty
Stipend for 10-week summer research
Need to find faculty member willing to support research efforts and contribute ¼ of $$
Deadline: February 16!
SURP

13. Arch: Fall-Away Semester RPI
Competitive program
Applications reviewed by multiple faculty
10-week fall away semester research
Need to find faculty member willing to support research efforts and contribute 1/2 of $$
Deadline: March 12!
SURP

14. Other Summer Programs
Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program in Vision Science, University of Rochester
May 31 – July 31
Deadline: February 1 (!)

15. Another One …
Undergraduate Summer Internship in Cognitive Development, University of Virginia
June 6 – July 31
Deadline: February 28

16. And Another One …
Summer Workshop in Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware
June 4-15
Travel, Stipend, Room and Board provided
Deadline: ?? (see website)

17. Research Labs / Groups Computational Cognition Lab (slides)
CogWorks Lab (slides)
Led by Dr. Wayne Gray
Language Endowed Intelligent Agents (LEIA) Lab (slides)
Led by Dr. Marjorie McShane and Dr. Sergei Nirenburg
Social Interaction (SI) Lab (slides)
Led by Dr. Mei Si
Perception And Action (PAndA) Lab (slides)
Led by Dr. Brett Fajen
Rensselaer Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning (RAIR) Lab (slides)
Led by Dr. Selmer Bringsjord
Cognitive Architecture (CogArch) Lab
Led by Dr. Ron Sun
Computational Cognition Lab (slides)
Led by Dr. Chris Sims
Department page to Cognitive Research Labs
Department page to Cognitive Science Research Areas

18. Visual Reasoning
Research Page

19. 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, 1/29
For $ (URP matches up to $400):
Find faculty member with $!
Deadline: Friday, 2/2