[sci.psychology] programs in cognitive science

ghh@confidence.princeton.edu (Gilbert Harman) (07/16/88)

I am trying to get an up to date list of undergraduate
programs in cognitive science or cognitive studies.
--
		       Gilbert Harman
                       Princeton University Cognitive Science Laboratory
	               221 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08542
			      
		       ghh@princeton.edu
		       HARMAN@PUCC.BITNET

tjhorton@ai.toronto.edu ("Timothy J. Horton") (07/17/88)

ghh@confidence.princeton.edu (Gilbert Harman) writes:
>I am trying to get an up to date list of undergraduate
>programs in cognitive science or cognitive studies.


This is a summary of responses to a question posed in comp.ai a few months ago
about (university) programs in cognitive science.  The original question in-
cluded the following (slightly fixed) information (and some misinformation):

MIT: Department of Brain and Cognitive Science

Brown: Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, 12 Faculty
Fields of study: Linguistics, Vision, Reasoning, Neural Models, Animal Cognition

UCSD: interdisciplinary PhD in Cognitive Science exists
a Dept of Cognitive Science is in the works
undergraduate program in Cog Sci currently offered by psychology
emphases in Connectionism, Psychology, AI, Linguisitics, Neuroscience,
            Philosophy, Social Cognition

Stanford: Graduate Program in Cognitive Science
Psychology (organizing dept), Linguistics, Computer Science, Philosophy

Rochester: interdisciplinary PhD in Cognitive Science

UC Berkley: Cognitive Science Program, focus on linguistics

Princeton: interdisciplinary program in Cognitive Science

Toronto: Undergraduate Major in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence

Michigan: no current program in Cognitive Science, but some opportunities

University of Western Ontario: Center for Cognitive Science

Edinburgh: department of Cognitive Science (formerly School of Epistemics)
focus on linguistics

Sussex: School of Cognitive Science


--------------------- RESPONSES (partially EDITED) ---------------------------

From: "Donald A. Norman" <norman%ics@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu> at UCSD

>At UCSD, we are indeed in the process of establishing a Department of Cognitive
>Science.  We are now hiring, but formal classes will not start until the Fall
>of 1989.  We will have both an undergraduate and a PhD program.  We now have
>an Interdisciplinary PhD program:  students enter some department, X, and join
>the interdisciplinary program after completing the first year requirements of
>X.  They then receive a "PhD in X and Cognitive Science."  We have about 20
>students now and have given out about 3 PhDs.
>  The strengths are in the computational understanding of cognition, with
>strong emphasis in psychology, AI, linguisitics, neuroscience, philosophy, and
>social cognition.  PDP (connectionism) is one of the strengths at UCSD, and
>the approach permeates all of the different areas of Cognitive Science, even
>among those of us who do not directly do work on weights, algorithms, or
>connectionist architectures
>  Yes, there is a Cognitive Science Society.  It hosts an annual conference
>(the next one will be in Montreal).  It publishes the journal "Cognitive
>Science."  You can find out about it by writing the secretary treasurer:
>    Kurt Vanlehn			vanlehn@a.psy.cmu.edu
>    Department of Psychology
>    Carnegie-Mellon University
>    Pittsburgh, PA 15213

-----
From: Jeff Elman <elman@amos.ling.ucsd.edu> at UCSD (taken from comp.ai)

>The University of California, San Diego is considering the establishment of a
>Department of Cognitive Science ...  The Department will take a broadly-based
>approach to the study of cognition.  It will be concerned with the neurological
>basis of cognition, individual cognition, cognition in social groups, and
>machine intelligence.  It will incorporate methods and theories from a wide
>variety of disciplines including Anthropology, Computer Science, Linguistics,
>Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology.

-----
From: Tom Olson <olson@cs.rochester.edu> at Rochester

>The University of Rochester has an interdisciplinary Ph. D. in Cog Sci,
>basically a bridge between Comp. Sci., Psych and Philosophy.  I don't know
>much about how it is organized.  If you're interested, you might write to
>alice@cs.rochester.edu or lachter@cs.rochester.edu who are among the first
>students in the program.  Presumably we're strong in linguistics, vision,
>connectionism, and inexact ("probabilistic") reasoning.
>PS Connectionism is not fading at San Diego as far as I know.

-----
From: Michael McInerny <mcinerny@cs.rochester.edu> at Rochester

>Here at the UofRochester (Hi Neighbor!), we have an "interdisciplinary"
>Cog Sci dept. that includes fac. from Comp Sci, Psych, Philosophy, and
>Neuroscience.  I'm a grad student enrolled in the program, via the Comp
>Science dept., which means I have to get my own committee together,
>and build my own program, on top of passing regular CS stuff like Quals.
>I understand there is an undergraduate major in the dept too.

-----
From: William J. Rapaport <rapaport@cs.buffalo.edu> at SUNY

>State University of New York at Buffalo has several active cognitive science
>programs.  What follows is a slightly outdated on-line information sheet on
>two of them.  
   [contact the author (or myself) for the full text.  The description reads
   in part: "(the group's) activities have focused upon language-related
   issues and knowledge representation... "]
>The newest is the SUNY Buffalo Graduate Studies and Research Initiative in
>Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, whose Steering Committee is currently
>planning the establishment of a Cog and Ling Sci Center and running a
>colloquium series.  For more information, please contact me.  In addition,
>let me know if you wish to be on my on-line mailing list for colloquium
>announcements.

-----
From: Marie Bienkowski <bienk@spam.istc.sri.com>

>Princeton University has an excellent Cognitive Science program, although
>there is no department by that name.  They have active research programs
>on automated tutoring, vocabulary acquisition, reasoning, belief revision,
>connectionism (with Bellcore), computational linguistics, cognitive
>anthropology, and probably more that I've missed.  The main sponsoring
>departments are Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics.
>  A good person to contact is bjr@mind.princeton.edu, who is, in real life,
>a professor in the Psychology Dept.  His p-mail address is:
>	Brian Reiser
>	Cognitive Science Laboratory
>	21 Nassau St.
>	Princeton, NJ  08542

-----
From: Rodney Hoffman <Hoffman.es@xerox.com>

>There is an undergraduate program in Cognitive Science at Occidental College
>(Los Angeles).  The director is Saul Traiger <oxy!traiger@CSVAX.Caltech.edu>;
>write to him for more information.

-----
From: "Saul P. Traiger" <oxy!traiger@csvax.caltech.edu> at Occidental College

>The following appeared in Ailist Digest last summer. Let me know if you'd
>like more information.
>  Occidental College,  a liberal arts college which enrolls approximately
>1600 students, is pleased to announce a new Program in Cognitive
>Science. The Program offers an undergraduate major and minor in Cognitive
>Science. Faculty participating in this program include members of the
>departments of mathematics, linguistics, psychology, and philosophy.
>[...]  The undergraduate major in Cognitive Science at Occidental College
>includes courses in mathematics, philosophy, psychology and linguistics.
>Instruction in mathematics introduces students to computer languages,
>discrete mathematics,  logic, and the mathematics of computation.
>Philosophy offerings  cover the philosophy of mind, with emphasis on
>computational models of the mind, the theory of knowledge, the philosophy
>of science, and the philosophy of language. Psychology courses include
>basic psychology, learning, perception, and cognition. Courses in
>linguistics provide a theoretical foundation in natural languages, their
>acquisition, development, and structure.  For more information about
>Occidental College's Cognitive Science Program:
>  Professor Saul Traiger    ARPANET: oxy!traiger@CSVAX.Caltech.EDU
>  Cognitive Science Program BITNET:  oxy!traiger@hamlet
>  1600 Campus Road          CSNET:   oxy!traiger%csvax.caltech.edu@RELAY.CS.NET
>  Occidental College        UUCP:    {seismo,rutgers,ames}!cit-vax!oxy!traiger
>  Los Angeles, CA 90041

-----
From: Roy Eagleson <deepthot.UWO.CDN!elroy@julian.uucp> at Western Ontario

>"The Centre for Cognitive Science" at UWO is a community of professors,
>research assistants, and graduate students from: Psychology, Computer Science,
>Philosophy, Neurobiology, Engineering, and Library Science.  In addition to
>the related graduate and undergraduate courses offered by those faculties
>and departments, there is an undergraduate course in Cognitive Science
>offered through Psychology.  We can send you more info if you want it.
>
>As for the Cognitive Science Society, you can drop them a line at:
>	Cognitive Science Society,
>	Department of Psychology
>	Carnegie-Mellon University
>	Schenley Park
>	Pittsburgh, PA 15213
>Zenon Pylyshyn was their President for 1985-86.

-----
From: John Laird <laird@caen.engin.umich.edu> at Michigan

>There is no formal undergraduate or graduate program in Cognitive Science
>at this time.  We will be offering an undergraduate course in Cognitive Science
>next term, co-taught by AI, Psych., Ling., and Philosophy.  We also have the
>Cognitive Science and Machine Intelligence Lab.   It is supported by three
>colleges: Engineering; Business; and Literature, Sciences and the Arts.
>The Lab sponsers a variety of Cognitive Science activities: talks, workshops,
>research groups, etc.  I expect that in a few years we will have undergraduate
>and graduate programs in Cognitive Science, but for now, students must be in
>a specific department and take cross-listed courses.
-----

>From Professor Tom Perry, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

>The Cognitive Science Program does not yet have a graduate program, but one is
>planned for the near future.  At present, qualified students can do advanced
>degrees under Special Arrangements.
[...]
>   Cognitive Science Program
>   Department of Philosophy
>   Simon Fraser University
>   Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6

[Special arrangements means: "Exceptionally able applications, who wish to work
for a Master's or Doctoral degree outside or between existing programs at Simon
Fraser University, may apply to work under Special Arrangements.  (the student)
must have a well-developed plan of studies in an area which can be shown to
have internal coherence and academic merit, and which the University has appro-
priate expertise and interests among its faculty members ..."]

-----
>From Donald H. Mitchell of Bendix Aero. Tech. Ctr <DON@atc.bendix.com>

>In 1985, the president of Northwestern University set aside a decent pot of
>money and charged the Cognitive Psychology program to find a chairman for an
>interdisciplinary Cognitive Science program.  They aggressively set out and
>brought dozens of big names in for show-and-tell.  They made offers to
>several; however, as far as I know, they never caught one.  Maybe they have
>one now?  I do not know.
>Northwestern has a small but high-quality group of Cognitive Psychologists
>[...] The work is primarily on human cognition: verbal information processing
>... human decision making... human expertise in game-playing, ... heuristic
>search, and machine learning (genetic algorithms).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

ghh@thought.princeton.edu (Gilbert Harman) (07/19/88)

I have been preparing an up to date list of undergraduate
programs in cognitive science or cognitive studies.  So far,
I have the following list.  I would appreciate hearing of
any additions or corrections to this information.

Campuses with undergraduate degree programs:

Brown University (Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences)
Carnegie Mellon University (Cognitive Science Program)
Hampshire College (Cognitive Science Program)
MIT (Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences)
Occidental College (Cognitive Science Program)
Simon Fraser University (Cognitive Science Program)
UCLA (Psychology and Cognitive Science)
University of Edinburgh (Department of Cognitive Science)
University of Pennsylvania (Computer Science and Cognitive Science)
University of Rochester (Cognitive Science Program)
University of Sussex (School of Cognitive Science)
University of Toronto (Major in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence)
Uiversity of Western Ontario (Center for Cognitive Science)
Vassar College (Cognitive Science Program)
Wesleyan University (Cognitive Science Program)

Campuses with undergraduate minor tracks and independent majors:

Brandeis University
Columbia University
Dartmouth College
Gustavus Adolphus College
Harvard University
Northeastern University
Occidental College
Smith College
Stanford University
SUNY Binghamton
Tufts University
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
University of Florida
University of Maryland
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
University of Oregon
Wellesley College

Almost all courses in these programs are not specifically
courses in "Cognitive Studies" or Cognitive Science" but are
instead courses in a particular department such as
Psychology or Computer Science.  Almost always there is a
one semester (or occasionally a full year) introductory course
in Cognitive Studies.  Often there are one or two advanced
seminars on "Topics in Cognitive Studies" where the content
of the seminar is expected to vary from year to year
depending on the interests of the instructor.  Almost all
the courses in any of these programs are courses in
particular established departments.  Occasionally, some of
these courses in other departments are also given a
Cognitive Studies designation in the school catalog.

The main exceptions seem to be MIT, where there is no
Department of Psychology but instead a Department of Brain
and Cognitive Science, and the UC, San Diego, where an
ambitious array of courses in Cognitive Science has been
proposed for their new Department of Cognitive Science.
--
		       Gilbert Harman
                       Princeton University Cognitive Science Laboratory
	               221 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08542
			      
		       ghh@princeton.edu
		       HARMAN@PUCC.BITNET

jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) (07/19/88)

      One wonders what all these cognitive science graduates are going to
do after graduation.

					John Nagle

hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) (07/21/88)

In article <17570@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle) writes:
}      One wonders what all these cognitive science graduates are going to
}do after graduation.

Earn six figure salaries in the expert systems and AI fields.

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@ttidca.tti.com)  Illegitimati Nil
Citicorp(+)TTI                                                 Carborundum
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (213) 452-9191, x2483
Santa Monica, CA  90405 {csun|philabs|psivax}!ttidca!hollombe

tom@csustan.UUCP (Tom Carter) (07/22/88)

In article <17570@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle)
writes:
>
>      One wonders what all these cognitive science graduates are going to
>do after graduation.
>
>					John Nagle

Hmmm --  Maybe more or less the same things that all those History and
English and Sociology and Physics and Anthropology and . . .

Let's see.  After I graduated with my BA in Philosophy, I got a job
as an 'administrative assistant (accounting)' in a bank, and was
told within a year that I was "the most effective and productive
person in the division."  They seemed to like my problem solving
skills, my ability to deal well with people, my ability to
communicate . . .  (Of course, now that I think about it, my
boss at the job I left to go to the bank told me I was "the
best damn dish-washer" he'd ever had, so maybe it was just me,
and had nothing to do with the BA in Philosophy. :-)

In the same serious vein, though, I've always suffered under the
delusion that a good "liberal education" helped one get on with
life, rather than just serving as a ticket into an entry level position
in some 'career path' . . .

Tom Carter          csustan!tom@lll-crg.llnl.gov

aarons@cvaxa.sussex.ac.uk (Aaron Sloman) (07/25/88)

From Aaron Sloman Sun Jul 24 21:41:56 BST 1988
To: ghh@princeton.edu
Subject: Cognitive Sciences Programmes

Just saw your message
>Subject: programs in cognitive science
>Message-ID: <GHH.88Jul16135559@confidence.princeton.edu>
>Date: 16 Jul 88 04:55:59 GMT
>I am trying to get an up to date list of undergraduate
>programs in cognitive science or cognitive studies.

At Sussex University we started, in 1973, a Programme that included both
undergraduate and graduate studies in Cognitive Studies, including
Psychology, Linguistics, Philosophy, Social Anthropology and AI.

Originally this was based as a sub-school in the School of Social
Sciences, but in 1987 it was deemed big enough to be a separate school,
and from August 1988 will be joined by Computer Science, leading to a
new name:
    School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences

Undergraduate majors now include
    Psychology (various versions)
    Linguistics
    Computational Linguistics
    Philosophy
    Computing and AI
        (includes some of all the other disciplines)
    Computer Science
    Economics and Computing

There are also the following graduate courses:
    MA
    MSc conversion course in Knowledge Based Systems
    MPhil
    DPhil

The school is one of the few things still growing in UK Universities.

I hope this information is of some use.

Aaron Sloman,
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences,
Univ of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QN, England
    ARPANET : aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cvaxa@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk
    JANET     aarons@cvaxa.sussex.ac.uk
    BITNET:   aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cvaxa@uk.ac

As a last resort (it costs us more...)
    UUCP:     ...mcvax!ukc!cvaxa!aarons
            or aarons@cvaxa.uucp

Phone:  University +(44)-(0)273-678294

mmh@ivax.doc.ic.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) (07/26/88)

>In article <17570@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle) writes:
>}      One wonders what all these cognitive science graduates are going to
>}do after graduation.

Isn't it a way of doing computing without everyone thinking you must
be a nerd?