Logic, Language and Computation

3 EC

Semester 1, period 1, 2

5314LOLC3Y

Owner Master Logic
Coordinator dr. P.J.E. Dekker
Part of Master Logic,

Course manual 2023/2024

Course content

The Logic, Language and Computation course is the backbone course of the Master of Logic program. Through a series of lectures by active ILLC staff, the course provides an overview of the different research directions that are being pursued at the ILLC . It also provides a place to meet for all the new MoL students.

Guest Lectures
Each week a different member of staff of the ILLC will give a guest lecture. These lectures will provide the students with a good overview of the kind of research taking place at the institute and should be helpful in terms of deciding what courses and seminars to take later on, whom to approach for supervision of individual projects and eventually their thesis, and more generally what research area(s) to get involved in. The students can find the (preliminary) program at this page. The students are expected to hand in summaries of these sessions.

Research Meetings
Over the course of the semester the students have to arrange two research meetings: one with a member of the scientific staff of the ILLC to discuss one of their (recent) papers, and one with a PhD student at the institute to discuss their thesis research. This will give the students some insight into what it is like to do research and what it is like to be a PhD student. After each meeting the students have to hand in a research report of up to 300 words.

 

Objectives

  • The course provides an overview of different research lines within the area of Logic, Language and Information
  • After the course students can summarise and critically evaluate contributions in different fields including mathematics, linguistics, philosophy and computer science transcending the traditional boundaries between these disciplines

Teaching methods

  • Lecture

Lectures by invited guest speakers, and research meetings.

Learning activities

Activity

Number of hours

Hoorcollege

28

Zelfstudie

56

Attendance

This programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (TER-B).

Assessment

Item and weight Details

Final grade

Final grade

Lecture summaries and research reports will be graded as pass or fail, and in exceptional cases as good, taking into account both content and style. Notice that the posted grades (both pass as well as fail) may come with a comment that the students can be expected to take to heart in a subsequent submission. The overall grade for the course will be either pass or fail. To pass the course, a student must receive (at least) a pass grade for at least ten summaries and for both research reports.

Assignments

Lecture summaries
The students are required to write a summary of (at least 10) guest lectures, of 150-200 words each. They cover the most important points made by the speaker in one's own words, they are self-contained and have a clear structure. They explain what the broader research area is, how the specific work presented fits into the broader picture and what the main contribution is. A summary should be written in proper English.

ILLC Staff Member Meetings
Several members of the ILLC staff have volunteered to have such a meeting on a paper of their choice, and with a limited number of potential interviews. The meetings should be no longer than 1 hour, and the students should follow the following procedure:

    The students select and ask one of the staff if they are still available, and if so they arrange an appointment for an interview.
    The students read the paper before the meeting, and prepare (i) a five minute summary of the contents, and (ii) a series of questions, about the paper, and about doing research in general.
    After the meeting they write a report of up to 300 words (150 words on the paper and 150 words on the meeting itself)
    The students post the report in the usual way on Canvas.

ILLC PhD candidate meetings
Most of the ILLC PhD candidate are available for an interview about the subject of their thesis  and about doing PhD research in general. The procedure that the students should follow is the same as that for the ILLC staff meetings, except for the fact that they do not necessarily need to read a paper before the meeting. The student may, however, ask the students to prepare for the meeting by reading or studying a small amount of material.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Weeknummer Onderwerpen Studiestof
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Contact information

Coordinator

  • dr. P.J.E. Dekker