Foundation Models

Course manual 2025/2026

Objectives

• The student can explain the theoretical foundations and design principles of foundation models, including their capabilities, limitations, and societal implications
• The student can apply core machine learning techniques to train, adapt, and deploy foundation models at scale
• The student can evaluate foundation models to understand their abilities and limitations for a variety of downstream tasks, also beyond vision and language
• The student can read and review state-of-the-art scientific papers on foundation models
• The student can identify gaps in current knowledge of foundation models and define a research project to study the gap
• The student can write a scientific paper about a research project and present it as a poster in a conference setting

Teaching methods

Learning activities

Attendance

This programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER part B).

Assessment

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

Contact information

Coordinator

• C. Snoek