The university has discontinued the interdisciplinary cognitive science major program consisting of the computer science, philosophy and psychology departments.

“The program started in the early ’90s, but lack of interest led it to only graduate very few people every few years,” said computer science associate professor Thomas Ahlswede.

All three departments collectively decided to disband the program, said psychology chairman Hajime Otani.

“We all agreed it would be difficult to continue the program, due to lack of student interest,” Otani said.

Ending the program has been discussed for the past few years because of a decrease in enrollment.

Students currently in the program will still be able to graduate with a major in cognitive science. The program, however, will not be taking any more students.

Cognitive science is a complex field and was a demanding major, requiring more than 60 credit hours of work, said philosophy and religion associate professor Gary Fuller.

“The cognitive science program was such an intense major because it required a lot of time and the required classes were very difficult; almost 20 credit hours of prerequisites were required before even entering the required computer science courses,” Fuller said.

The cognitive science program brought philosophy of mind, computer science and linguistics together. The program involved the modeling of artificial intelligence and trying to understand development of the brain.

There just was not a strong enough interest in cognitive science, said philosophy and religion chairman Guy Newland.

“Cognitive science is better suited at the graduate level,” Otani said. “Students need to know a lot about psychology, computer science, math and philosophy even before learning about cognitive science.”

This program had an overall lack of support, Ahlswede said.

The cognitive science program required the efforts of all three departments, and its strongest supporters have left the university, Fuller said.

“A number of years ago, Fred Adams and Ken Aizawa were the driving forces behind the program, and once they left, there was no strong director behind it,” Fuller said. “Cognitive science may have proved successful if the original driving minds of the program have stayed.”

Otani said the program could be reexamined for use, but as a graduate program.

“So if we were to try again, we would need to do it at the graduate level, like many other universities,” Otani said.

news@cm-life.com

E-mail the author: defaultuser