Overview

This course is available with a year in industry, taken after your second year of study.

Our combined Computer Science and Philosophy course brings together two disciplines with close intellectual affinities. Understanding what to do with technology, and why, is as important as doing it. Studying both Computer Science and Philosophy will help you to link the fundamentals of computing and technology with concepts of thought and mind.

We offer this course as a four-year Masters degree course, leading to a combined MEng in Computer Science and Philosophy. It is jointly taught and administered by the two leading UK departments of Computer Science and Philosophy at York.

In the first two years, you will gain a good grounding in both Computer Science and Philosophy, with an equal number of credits in each department. In the third and fourth years, you can choose to specialise in both subjects in your areas of interest, and can choose to do a project in either or both subjects.

Course structure

First year

In the first year, you will study key Computer Science modules:

• Theory and Practice of Programming
• Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science
• Introduction to Computer Architecture

as well as core Philosophy modules:

• Reason and Argument
• Knowledge and Perception
• Metaphysics

You will also study for a cross-over module, Can machines think?, which explores the connections between Computer Science and Philosophy through the work of Alan Turing and John Searle's Chinese room argument.

Second year

Your second year carries through the fundamentals of both subjects. In Computer Science, you will study:

• Principles of Programming Languages
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computability and Complexity
• Vision and Graphics

In Philosophy, your core module is Language and Mind, whilst you can then choose to study one of the following:

• History of Philosophy
• Knowledge and Reality
• Practical Philosophy

Third year

In your third year, there is more flexibility, allowing you to choose the split between Computer Science and Philosophy. You can choose from a number of third year optional modules in Computer Science, as well as modules in Philosophy. You can also choose to undertake a Computer Science project, examples of which can be found in the Final year projects tab on this page.

Fourth year

Your fourth year contains no core modules. You will choose to take modules from both Computer Science and Philosophy, according to your interests, and can choose to undertake a research project in Philosophy. You will also have the option to take the Computer Science project, if you have not already done so in your third year. There are a number of fourth year Computer Science modules to choose from.

Final year projects

You may choose to take a project in Computer Science. Examples of recent projects include:

• Machine learning of spontaneous gestures
• Creating believable avatar animations in Second Life
• Using the web to solve crossword puzzles
• occam-pi for multiple robotic systems
• Fuzzy reasoning with a neural network
• Interrogating Brooks' robots with Turing tests