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Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics, any good?

Hey guys,

I'm just about to finish my undergraduate degree in psychology. I'm quite interested in getting into tech, be it working with programming, artificial intelligence, or robotics. I have received an offer for a computational neuroscience and cognitive robotics master's at Birmingham. The degree does look interesting and includes a course on programming. However, I don't know a whole lot about it, and haven't seen any posts about it here on TSR.

Does anyone know anything of this degree? Would I be better off trying to go for a computer science conversion? I know university of Edinburgh offers programs like Informatics and artificial intelligence to psychology students, might I be better off pursuing something like that?

My primary concern is just getting a degree that might actually make me employable in the IT sector. Of course I know a one year master's won't magically give me an amazing job in tech, but perhaps if I work on my programming skills it will at least give me something.

Any information or advice would be appreciated :smile:
Reply 1
Hey

Probably not much help but I also have an offer from this course and am aiming to pursue it for the same reasons! I veered off Edinburgh because of the distance but looks like an amazing course! The Birmingham course looks very interesting and broad in what it teaches, and it's actually open to psychology students specifically which is what attracted me to it as an option to move into the technology sector, working in artificial intelligence or robotics. So at least you know you're not the only one!
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by BlackSails
Hey guys,

I'm just about to finish my undergraduate degree in psychology. I'm quite interested in getting into tech, be it working with programming, artificial intelligence, or robotics. I have received an offer for a computational neuroscience and cognitive robotics master's at Birmingham. The degree does look interesting and includes a course on programming. However, I don't know a whole lot about it, and haven't seen any posts about it here on TSR.

Does anyone know anything of this degree? Would I be better off trying to go for a computer science conversion? I know university of Edinburgh offers programs like Informatics and artificial intelligence to psychology students, might I be better off pursuing something like that?

My primary concern is just getting a degree that might actually make me employable in the IT sector. Of course I know a one year master's won't magically give me an amazing job in tech, but perhaps if I work on my programming skills it will at least give me something.

Any information or advice would be appreciated :smile:



How's your maths? Edinburgh CS courses (undergrad and postgrad) are very math heavy, especially around AI. If you're maths is solid (by solid I would say A-level math grade B or above) Edinburgh is worth considering.

Is it AI specific you want to work on or just getting a degree in tech?
Reply 3
Original post by jestersnow
How's your maths? Edinburgh CS courses (undergrad and postgrad) are very math heavy, especially around AI. If you're maths is solid (by solid I would say A-level math grade B or above) Edinburgh is worth considering.

Is it AI specific you want to work on or just getting a degree in tech?


I actually made this thread last year, but in a way it's still somewhat relevant. I got into Cognitive Science at Edinburgh, but due to silly technicalities--basically me getting my undergraduate certificate quite late in the summer--the offer was revoked. I'm applying to courses again this year, but I'm actually thinking it might be better to just do a computer science conversion course, if tech is what one wants to get into. Frankly, my math is crap. I'm not saying I'm mathematically challenged, I think I could learn it, but I didn't do it for A-levels, so my knowledge is very limited.

Basically what I'm hoping for is a degree that could potentially lead to a career in tech on its own, but could also be useful as preparation for an actual PhD, potentially in the field of something like AI. I'm thinking about applying to the Cognitive Science degree again, and I have applied to a Intelligent and Adaptive Systems course in Sussex too, but I suspect that in the end the straight CS might be the most useful.
Original post by BlackSails
I actually made this thread last year, but in a way it's still somewhat relevant. I got into Cognitive Science at Edinburgh, but due to silly technicalities--basically me getting my undergraduate certificate quite late in the summer--the offer was revoked. I'm applying to courses again this year, but I'm actually thinking it might be better to just do a computer science conversion course, if tech is what one wants to get into. Frankly, my math is crap. I'm not saying I'm mathematically challenged, I think I could learn it, but I didn't do it for A-levels, so my knowledge is very limited.

Basically what I'm hoping for is a degree that could potentially lead to a career in tech on its own, but could also be useful as preparation for an actual PhD, potentially in the field of something like AI. I'm thinking about applying to the Cognitive Science degree again, and I have applied to a Intelligent and Adaptive Systems course in Sussex too, but I suspect that in the end the straight CS might be the most useful.


Hey sorry I should've checked the date.

There are some good "conversion" courses in the likes of UCL, Birmingham, Newcastle, QUB, Glasgow and Kent in CS. I'd say that's a good call if you're math is not something you would regard as you're main strength. It's also possible to do a PhD in CS if you get good marks in a CS "conversion" course (this is how a buddy of mine got his PhD place).

I will say that there are good amount of CS professionals who aren't maths geniuses, and outside of academia and a subset of CS related careers, you don't need that much math to be a tech professional. Unfortunately, AI/Machine Learning are very very math heavy areas. So you can work on this a little bit if you want to get in to that area. It's mainly statistics you need to focus on for ML.
Reply 5
Original post by BlackSails
Hey guys,

I'm just about to finish my undergraduate degree in psychology. I'm quite interested in getting into tech, be it working with programming, artificial intelligence, or robotics. I have received an offer for a computational neuroscience and cognitive robotics master's at Birmingham. The degree does look interesting and includes a course on programming. However, I don't know a whole lot about it, and haven't seen any posts about it here on TSR.

Does anyone know anything of this degree? Would I be better off trying to go for a computer science conversion? I know university of Edinburgh offers programs like Informatics and artificial intelligence to psychology students, might I be better off pursuing something like that?

My primary concern is just getting a degree that might actually make me employable in the IT sector. Of course I know a one year master's won't magically give me an amazing job in tech, but perhaps if I work on my programming skills it will at least give me something.

Any information or advice would be appreciated :smile:

Hi!

Just came across this thread and I'm looking to apply for the Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics course at Birmingham but just had a few questions about it. Like yourself I have an undergraduate degree in Psychology but I'm wondering how the application process was like for you. Did they ask a lot questions regarding previous experience in fields like research, computing, robotics or programming? Those are the areas where I have a huge lack of experience in unfortunately :/. Also how did the interview for it go?

Thanks in advance!

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