Cognitive Science

The graduate of the program will be acquainted with the latest knowledge about human thinking, acting and sociability, will be able to combine formal computer science techniques with experimental methods of psychology and neuroscience and in this context use and enrich knowledge of other scientific, social and humanity disciplines. His/her profile will focus on the complementarity and integration of these approaches. The great advantage of this international program is that the graduate will gain knowledge and experience during their studies at one of the universities of the Middle European consortium (3rd semester) and will benefit from other rich mutual contacts (annual international conference MEi:CogSci, regular meetings of students and teachers of the consortium at FMFI UK in Bratislava, etc.). The strength of the Cognitive science program is interdisciplinarity, i.e. the study of a selected phenomenon from the perspective of more than one discipline, and the search for associations and connections between them.

Graduates of the KV program will gain the ability to:

• specify, design, implement and maintain integrated intelligent systems and large-scale modern applications with a high degree of use of cognitive science and artificial intelligence methods,
• to design, implement, analyse, evaluate and interpret computational simulations related to applications of cognitive science, 
• design, test and evaluate behavioural and neuroscience experiments (using statistical analysis and data interpretation),
• demonstrate a thorough understanding of the key areas of knowledge of cognitive science, together with the ability to make critical judgement in the full range of information technology issues,
• apply computer methods, concepts, but also programming skills in empirical areas of research such as psychology, neuroscience and linguistics,
• work independently with literature, including English (with an ability to obtain and select relevant sources) and present the results in writing in this language,
• in case of interest to continue doctoral studies in cognitive science (or in one of the related disciplines, e.g. in informatics at FMFI),
• work as a researcher in cognitive science or a creative worker in applications of one of the sciences related to cognitive science.

The study programme (SP) takes into account the mission but also the goals set by FMFI UK in the field of science and research and especially in the field of education (in the Long-term plan of FMFI UK). The SP in cognitive science was designed and innovated in the intentions of the development trends of such focused programs in Europe and in the world, specifically within the consortium of Middle-European universities MEi:CogSci (University of Vienna, University of Ljubljana, ELTE in Budapest, UK in Bratislava).

A special element of the SP is the mandatory mobility at the selected university of the consortium, during which the student will gain foreign experience. At the same time, in accordance with the goals (in the Long-term plan of FMFI UK), the SP and its study plan provide the opportunity to complete internships abroad at other universities during their studies, in which the faculty has extensive experience and a wide network of partner universities with related study programs.

With the diploma thesis, the student has to demonstrate the ability to independently acquire theoretical and practical knowledge based on the current state of science and creatively apply, use and develop them. The final thesis will be prepared by the student under the guidance of the thesis supervisor. The supervisor of the final thesis will prepare a written report on the final thesis and propose its evaluation. The final work is assessed by the opponent. The opponent will prepare a written report on the final thesis and propose its evaluation.

Examples of successful final theses of our students: 

• A quantitative analysis and characterization of mouse CA1 neuron classes: A knowledge base for computational models (Nicole Vella, 2020) - theoretical work 
• Computational model of memory consolidation (Lukáš Rückschloss, 2017) - computational model
• The role of the left inferior frontal cortex in semantic retrieval: a tDCS study (Ondrej Hadidom, 2019) - empirical research
• The role of mirror neurons in cognition (Samuel Sitáš, 2015) - compilation work

A graduate of cognitive science can work in various professions, depending on his/her overall education (i.e. including previous studies). Here it should be noted that due to its high interdisciplinarity, the program is completed by students with a very diverse mosaic of previous study experience. The program is very suitable for students with a bachelor's degree in a related field (so-called mother disciplines KV), such as psychology, computer science, neuroscience, biology, linguistics or philosophy. However, more than a decade of experience has shown that applicants with other bachelor's degrees have also been able to successfully integrate into the program (also thanks to the completion of all compensatory courses), successfully complete it and enter the labour market. Despite the diversity of professions of KV graduates in general, it can be said that they most often apply in professions that are related to working with people or relate to the design or use of intelligent (usually software) systems that are used by humans. They also have good preconditions for scientific orientation in professional life. We present examples of occupations: IT programmer, analyst, human resources coordinator, job consultant, marketing worker, clinical trials coordinator, occupational therapist, UX & web designer, university teacher, researcher and more. Graduates of the cognitive science program will therefore be employed in the academic sphere, the private sphere as well as the public sphere of society.