Compulsory courses
Artificial Intelligence is immersive and has a huge impact on society. All students in Artificial Intelligence must be aware of the societal, ethical and legal impact of AI. Machine Learning is one of the most prominent techniques by which intelligent systems are developed. Finally, all AI students are trained to be academic professionals and need the academic and professional skills and mind-set that come with such positions. Three compulsory courses, Advanced Academic & Professional Skills, Ethics for AI, and AI in the Professional Workfield, provide you with this background. Furthermore, a choice of one Machine Learning course must be made from a list of four.
Track specific courses
A total of 18EC must be chosen out of a restricted number of track specific courses. These courses will differ per track, and convey core content.
Specialisation electives
Within the 18EC of the specialisation electives, you can choose any remaining course within your specialisation to further deepen your knowledge or any of the specialisation electives as published in the Course guide.
Free electives
Finally, you have a total of 18 EC of free electives that can be used to take any Master's course taught at Radboud University, or abroad.
Research Project and Internship
To finalise your AI master's programme, you have the choice of either an Internship (15 EC) in combination with a Research Project (30 EC) or a single, larger Extended Research Project (45 EC). During the internship you have the chance to acquire additional AI relevant skills either at a research lab or at a company. During the Research Projects you get to put what you have learned during your master's programme into practice. You can perform your research work in the AI department, at other research departments at the University (e.g. the Behaviour Science Institute or Donders Institute) or at any external private or public actor involved in investigating, developing or regulating AI. You are also encouraged to go abroad for your internship and/or research project (previously students have gone to Stanford University in California and Aldebaran Robotics in Paris).
The four tracks of Intelligent Technology
Within the Master's programme in Intelligent Technology, we offer four tracks.
Neurotechnology and Healthcare
This track focuses on the application of AI techniques to monitor and improve healthcare and quality of life. We use state-of-the-art AI techniques to improve people's lives, working closely with specialists from the clinical practice in interdisciplinary teams.
You will learn how to build clinical decision support systems and classification tools to better recognize cancer tissue and monitor patients. You will study brain-computer interaction to allow patients with ALS syndrome to communicate via their brain signals, and develop auditory and visual neuro-prosthetics to allow the deaf and the blind to regain rudimentary auditory and visual perception. Most students work on applied AI projects in close collaboration with the medical hospital, patients organisations, and/or neuroscientists.
Interactive Agents
This track focuses on artificial agents and devices that can understand the world, communicate or display, and interact from a human-centric point of view. This includes human-robot and human-machine interaction, computer vision, multimedia installations, natural language, interfaces, and sensorimotor technology.
You will study advanced computer vision algorithms (e.g., VAEs, GANs) and create virtual worlds, study advanced AI methods for robots that interact with humans, as well as design methods and experiments for evaluating their impact. You will work in interdisciplinary teams for experimentation using media technologies such as mobile apps, virtual reality or interactive installations. You will work with devices (e.g., tactile) that connect humans to machines. You will be introduced into state-of-the-art NLP, text and multimedia mining.
Societal Impact of AI
This track focuses on the development and practical application of AI that promotes human values. The highly interdisciplinary approach provides a technical knowledge of AI as well as a deeper understanding of the many ways it interacts with society and societal values.
You will learn about the societal expectations, hypes, concerns and debates surrounding recent or near future AI, and will be taught how to contribute to the calibration of expectations about AI. You will study the main aspects and phases of policy making and/or company management, as well as the general theories and approaches in applied ethics. You will learn how to communicate professionally with stakeholders regarding the research, design, development or application of AI. You will study how to translate complex practical requirements into a work plan for developing, improving or extending a computer program, design or artifact, with a focus on the expectations and concerns of societal stakeholders and their values.
Dual degree: AI & Digital Society
The AI & Digital Society track is a dual degree. It can be understood as an international variant of the Intelligent Technology track “Societal Impact of AI”. It effectively combines the content and learning goals of our that track and that of the Master’s programme in Digital Society at the University of Glasgow. If you take part in this experience you will spend the first year in Nijmegen and the second year in Glasgow. This programme grants you two degrees in two years. If you are interested and want more information, feel free to contact the Master’s coordinator kiki.vanderheijden [at] donders.ru.nl (kiki[dot]vanderheijden[at]donders[dot]ru[dot]nl).
Combining Master's programmes
At Radboud University there is the unique opportunity to combine Artificial Intelligence with either Cognitive Neuroscience or with the Data Science specialisation of Computer Science. You can obtain both Master’s programme degrees (AI and CNS or AI and CS) using nominally 180 EC (three years) of study. You will be able to apply for an exemption a maximum of 60 EC of overlapping courses that count for both programmes. With this opportunity, you will save up to one year’s time to achieve two degrees. More knowledge is just great in itself, but it additionally means more flexibility and ultimately more opportunities for your next career steps.