non-COGS students: By departmental decision, this course is open to COGS students only. Sorry.
Short description: Introduction to three foundational concepts in cognitive science: representation of structure, its computation and uncertainty.
Longer description The mind appears to be one lean mean putting things together machine. What are put together? At least: structure, content and uncertainty. This course is a somewhat gentle introduction to the mathematical aspects of these three topics. It is meant to bring incoming cogsci students up to speed to be able to do research in a year or so.
Lecturer Cem Bozsahin (spring 2023)
Teaching assistant: Ecenur Cagirici
Lectures Wednesdays 14.40-17.30, in Room S03 of the Informatics Institute
We will start online. Then we will see how it goes.
In any case, I will have an open hour on Thursday 12.00-14.00, for face to face discussion for those who want it. I will try to make it online as well, in case anybody wants to join online. In fairness to those who cannot make it face to face, I will try to record it to the best of my abilities.
News and discussion: in class and the Google group of the course.
Quizzes: Usually announced over email, to be done over the weekend, to be submitted in pdf/jpg. Solo and original work.
- Structure (3 weeks)
- Automata and formal languages (4 weeks)
- Lambda calculus (4 weeks)
- Probabilistic inference from structures (2 weeks)
- Mid-term exam (1 week, no class)
Lecture notes are here (with gratitude).
Course material is an odd mixture of:
Sudkamp, Thomas (1997). Formal Languages and Machines. Pearson. 2nd edition. (for automata and formal languages)
Michaelson, Greg (1989). An introduction to functional programming through lambda calculus (for lambda calculus)
de la Higuera, Colin (2010). Grammatical Inference. Cambridge University Press. (for probabilistic inference)
| Category | Date | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly quiz | Every week | 60% |
| Midterm exam | TBA | 20% |
| Final exam | TBA | 20% |
11 quizzes, take-home style.
10 out of 11 count toward overall grade.
- METU ethical rules apply (check the official syllabus [here] https://catalog.metu.edu.tr/course.php?prog=902&course_code=9020501.