Hybrid intelligence: where AI systems and humans meet

Artificial Intelligence

Specialisation phase

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Understand the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and human behaviour

AI’s applications are highly diverse, ranging from optimising internet searches to supporting elderly people with dementia. The VU’s Artificial Intelligence programme allows you to analyse, develop and apply new AI techniques to come up with solutions that make sense within their social context.

In your first year, you’ll take a number of compulsory courses that cover the key concepts of AI. You’ll learn how human behaviour can be interpreted based on sensor data and computational models of physiological and cognitive processes. You’ll gain experience in integrating such models in dedicated, intelligent applications that support humans in their daily lives. And you’ll work with these systems to make sure they’re truly aware of the way humans operate.

In your second year, you’ll specialise. And there are lots of possibilities and opportunities to do so. You can continue to study AI techniques in more depth, building on the core topics. And you can choose advanced elective courses in these or more specific AI topics like Deep Learning.

In the specialisation phase, you can also study a particular area of application – such as supporting people in following a healthy lifestyle or caring for the elderly. Or you can focus on a relevant scientific discipline: psychology, sociology, movement sciences, or biomedical sciences, for example.

Another option is to continue in the specialised Cognitive Science track, during which you’ll gain an in-depth understanding of the cognitive aspects of AI.

AI for Health is a new track in collaboration with Medical Informatics (Amsterdam UMC, UvA) that will start in the academic year 2021-2022. In this track you'll learn about Medical Informatics basics, Medical AI (with a focus on imaging techniques in medicine and natural language processing techniques in medicine), and how to combine machine learning and reasoning for health applications. Two courses will take place at Amsterdam UMC, location AMC.

The VU’s AI programme is a pioneer in the development of intelligent systems. As a Master's student, you’ll get the opportunity to work on advanced information systems at a wide range of companies and institutions. Some recent examples include:

Semantic navigation on overheid.nl (the Dutch government website)
A personal “quit assistant” to help people give up smoking
Adaptive personal music choices during sports training, in collaboration with Philips
New forms of online publication for Elsevier
A knowledge system to predict problems with Amsterdam's trams and other public transport
An intelligent opponent that’s able to anticipate a player's actions in a real-time action game

The start date of this programme is September 1^st.

The content and exit qualifications of the programme are reviewed every year by our Professional Advisory Board.

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1st year
2nd year

First year

One of AI’s goals is to develop agent systems that can make decisions and complete tasks without human supervision. In the Multi-agent Systems course, you’ll examine how agents can collaborate and communicate with each other to behave intelligently.
During the Socially Intelligent Robotics course, you’ll get the chance to create interaction designs for a robot in a real-world context with genuine potential users.

In the Knowledge Representation course, you’ll use logic as a mathematical tool to answer questions like: Which logics are suited for reasoning about space and time? How can we deal with uncertainty and vagueness? And how to cope with changes in the world around us?

During the Natural Language Processing Technology course, you’ll study state-of-the-art statistical models for complex language processing tasks such as parsing, language modelling and machine translation.

Plus, we’ll put AI into the social context. In the AI and Society course, you’ll discuss the consequences of AI for the labour market and inequality, ethical considerations, risks of bias and misuse of algorithms, legal issues and questions about control over AI systems.
In addition, you’ll have the chance to take a few electives during your first year. For example, the Data Mining course will give you an overview of basic data mining techniques and how to use them to solve real-life problems.

If you elect to take the course on Cognitive Psychology and Its Application, you’ll learn how to apply the central principles of cognitive psychology to the design of modern man-machine systems. Mental workload, driving behaviour, route finding, medical decision-making, display design – these are all examples you’ll cover.

Compulsory courses

Evolutionary Computing
Knowledge Representation
Multi-Agent Systems
Socially Intelligent Robotics
AI and Society
Experimental Design and Data Analysis
Natural Language Processing

You can find the complete course overview for this year in the Study guide

Second year

Specialisation phase
Cognitive Science Track
AI for Health

Summary

In your second year, you can expect one or two compulsory courses plus far more specialisation in your own area of interest. In addition, you’ll start to specialise during year two of your Master’s. You’ll dive deeper into either a specific area of application or a relevant scientific discipline that particularly piques your interest.

Elective course topics could include:

Social Robotics
Health Sciences
Bioinformatics
Cognitive Science
Language Technology
Deepening AI

Alternatively, you may wish to take the specialised Cognitive Science track, which will give you an in-depth understanding of the cognitive aspects of AI, or the AI for Health track in collaboration with Medical Informatics (Amsterdam UMC, UvA).

See also the study guide for a complete overview of the study programme. Or download the year schedule directly.

Summary

Cognitive Science: immerse yourself in the multidisciplinary world of the cognitive mind

Deepen your research in the multidisciplinary study of mind and cognition. Researchers in cognitive science come from a wide range of backgrounds, including psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, mathematics and neuroscience. But they all share a common goal: to gain a deeper understanding of the human mind, not just from an academic perspective but also from a practical one.

The track focuses on the processes that underlie human functioning from two different research perspectives: empirical work and computational modelling. For example, empirical work may suggest a functional layout for computational models. But the reverse is also true: results of simulations with computational models can provide suggestions for setting up empirical experiments. The underlying philosophy of this track at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is to challenge students to build their knowledge in a wide variety of fields and techniques, all of which are related to cognitive psychology.

The Cognitive Science track is jointly organised by the Department of Cognitive Psychology of the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, and the Department of Artificial Intelligence of the Faculty of Sciences.

Compulsory courses

Seminar Cognitive Neurosciences
Neural Models of Cognitive Processes for AI
Brain Imaging

You can find the complete course overview for this year in the study guide.

Summary

Compulsory courses

Evolutionary Computing
Knowledge Representation
Multi-Agent Systems
Socially Intelligent Robotics
AI and Society
Experimental Design and Data Analysis
Natural Language Processing

You can find the complete course overview for this year in the study guide.

Specialisation phase
Summary
In your second year, you can expect one or two compulsory courses plus far more specialisation in your own area of interest. In addition, you’ll start to specialise during year two of your Master’s. You’ll dive deeper into either a specific area of application or a relevant scientific discipline that particularly piques your interest.
Elective course topics could include:
- Social Robotics
- Health Sciences
- Bioinformatics
- Cognitive Science
- Language Technology
- Deepening AI
Alternatively, you may wish to take the specialised Cognitive Science track, which will give you an in-depth understanding of the cognitive aspects of AI, or the AI for Health track in collaboration with Medical Informatics (Amsterdam UMC, UvA).
See also the study guide for a complete overview of the study programme. Or download the year schedule directly.
Cognitive Science Track
Summary

Cognitive Science: immerse yourself in the multidisciplinary world of the cognitive mind
Deepen your research in the multidisciplinary study of mind and cognition. Researchers in cognitive science come from a wide range of backgrounds, including psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, mathematics and neuroscience. But they all share a common goal: to gain a deeper understanding of the human mind, not just from an academic perspective but also from a practical one.
The track focuses on the processes that underlie human functioning from two different research perspectives: empirical work and computational modelling. For example, empirical work may suggest a functional layout for computational models. But the reverse is also true: results of simulations with computational models can provide suggestions for setting up empirical experiments. The underlying philosophy of this track at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is to challenge students to build their knowledge in a wide variety of fields and techniques, all of which are related to cognitive psychology.
The Cognitive Science track is jointly organised by the Department of Cognitive Psychology of the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, and the Department of Artificial Intelligence of the Faculty of Sciences.
Compulsory courses
- Seminar Cognitive Neurosciences
- Neural Models of Cognitive Processes for AI
- Brain Imaging
You can find the complete course overview for this year in the study guide.
AI for Health
Summary

AI for Health is a new track in collaboration with Medical Informatics (Amsterdam UMC, UvA) that will start in the academic year 2021-2022. In this track you'll learn about Medical Informatics basics, Medical AI (with a focus on imaging techniques in medicine and natural language processing techniques in medicine), and how to combine machine learning and reasoning for health applications. Two courses will take place at Amsterdam UMC, location AMC.
Compulsory courses
- Evolutionary Computing
- Knowledge Representation
- Multi-Agent Systems
- Socially Intelligent Robotics
- AI and Society
- Experimental Design and Data Analysis
- Natural Language Processing
You can find the complete course overview for this year in the study guide.

The AI Master’s programme culminates in an individual graduation project. An internship is a great potential alternative, so long as it’s approved in advance by a member of staff who is also involved in supervising the project.

Scholarships
There are several ways to obtain funding to study for your Master’s. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Dutch government and other organisations all offer scholarships, fellowships and grants.

As a Master's student, you’ll get the opportunity to work on advanced information systems at a wide range of companies and institutions. Some recent examples include:

Semantic navigation on overheid.nl (the Dutch government website)
A personal “quit assistant” to help people give up smoking
Adaptive personal music choices during sports training, in collaboration with Philips
New forms of online publication for Elsevier
A knowledge system to predict problems with Amsterdam's trams and other public transport
An intelligent opponent that’s able to anticipate a player's actions in a real-time action game

VU staff in the AI department are currently researching a number of pioneering topics:

Structuring information
How can you bring structure to the information on the internet? Is it possible to make the internet smarter and more personal?
Turning information into knowledge
What turns information into knowledge? How do you generate the right knowledge? And how do you make sure the computer knows what to do with the information presented?
Learning from data
There are millions of hard disks full of information reflecting our world. What can you learn about the real world from that mass of digital information?
Supporting humans in an intelligent way with awareness of the human’s state
How can you make intelligent support systems (or agents) that are aware of the current functioning of the human state? How can you provide dedicated support based on this state?

In a nutshell: career prospects are good – with the majority of AI alumni finding a job within three months of completing their Master’s.

Your skills are in high demand: all organisations benefit from intelligent use of technology, as well as an understanding of the human and social context in which that technology functions. These organisations include everything from large corporations and consultancies to small start-ups.

Explore your future prospects