Master's Open Day

12 June 2009

What is Cognitive Science?

Cognitive Science is a unique combination and integration of various different disciplines focusing around the question of how humans perceive and think. With the aid of mathematical models we try to make results of neuroscienftific, psychological and linguistic research available to and usable by computers. Philosophy of mind complements this holistic approach towards exploring cognition.

The University of Osnabrück, Germany offers international undergraduate, graduate and PhD programmes in Cognitive Science and is taught predominantly in English. Studies in the Cognitive Science Master's programme cover multiple aspects of cognition, such as perception, attention, memory, learning, problem solving, reasoning, emotions, and language. We are concerned with questions related to how these cognitive abilities are realised in biological and artificial systems, and how such systems are organised (e.g. brain structure, neural architectures and connectionist networks, and autonomous agents). In addition, complex information processing systems like teaching systems and spoken language dialogue systems are treated from a design and implementation perspective, including human-computer interface aspects.

The Master's programme amounts to 120 credits according to ECTS, 30 of which refer to the Master thesis. In the second and third semester, students participate in a students' study project. The Master's programme is completed with a Master's thesis in the fourth semester and leads to a "Master of Science (M.Sc.)" degree in Cognitive Science.

Two focus areas have to be be chosen from

Cognitive Psychology
Artificial Intelligence
Linguistics and Computerlinguistics
Neuroinformatics and Robotics
Neuroscience
Philosophy of Mind and Cognition

Out of 90 ECTS credits necessary for your Master examination,

16 ECTS credits refer to each of your focus areas
12 ECTS credits refer to interdisciplinary courses within the Cognitive Science programme
24 ECTS credits from your study project
out of the remaining 22 ECTS credits at least 14 ECTS credits have to originate from Cognitive Science courses.

Sound interesting? Try it out!

To spread the word about this unique opportunity for the interdisciplinary study of cognition we invite you to Osnabrück for the Master's Open Day on Friday, June 12 2009 (the application deadline is as late as mid July 2009). If you're rather interested in the Bachelor programme, please have a look at the "Schnupperstudium" instead.

The Master's Open Day is organised by the student body and offers a relaxed and informal atmosphere for exploring the campus, meeting current students, researchers and professors, dig into our research topics and methods, and of course visit the city of peace, Osnabrück.

To minimise your expenses, current Cognitive Science students will provide lodging for you. Lunch will be provided by our award-winning "Mensa" (on-campus cafeteria), a full tablet costs around two to three euros.

Schedule

The following schedule is still provisional, however only marginal changes are likely to occur.

10.00 Opening address (Prof. Dr. Peter König, director of the Institute of Cognitive Science)
Structure and content of the master programme (Dr. Jacqueline Griego, programme coordinator)
12.00 Lunch
13.00 Overview on current research topics
14.00 Lab walkthrough and individual consulting
19.00 Socialising with fellow students

If you plan to stay on Saturday, we offer a collective breakfast at the Bagel's and a visit to the Felix Nussbaum Museum

If you're interested in attending lectures during the following
week, you're invited to join our Schnupperstudium programme as well.

More Information

Maybe you have already explored following sites:

The Institute of Cognitive Science
Information on the Master's programme
The available lectures and seminars (additional courses are provided by the departments for mathematics, psychology, biology, computer science and philosophy)
The core research areas

Spread the word!

Please help us in promoting the Master's Open Day by downloading our flyer and either putting it up in your institute or passing it on to interested individuals.

Registration

Please use the form below to register for the Master's Open Day. All data will be stored securely, not be passed on to a third party and deleted after the 12th of June. Deadline for registration is May 31, 2009. Late registrations may be accepted on individual basis. If you have any questions or need help with your travel itinerary, please feel free to contact us at schnupperstudium@cogsci.uos.de.