IIT Kanpur to Launch New Cognitive Science Department, Read Details Here


The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, has declared to launch a new department of Cognitive Science, which will aim at combining the knowledge of the human mind with the latest new-age technology.

Bishakh Bhattacharya, Professor of Department of Mechanical Engineering, Head of the interdisciplinary programme (IDP) in Cognitive Science, IIT Kanpur, states to media, “As we are becoming more dependent on machines, it is crucial to gather a better understanding of the human mind as none of the human-centric innovations is possible through hardcore technical subjects.” 

The department of IIT Kanpur ensures that students prepare for future careers by combining together the knowledge repositories in different domains, including artificial intelligence (AI), business, data analysis, government intelligence, marketing, product design, healthcare, human performance, information processing, law, and software design.

Read: IIT Kanpur Admission 2021

Nowadays understanding the human psyche is becoming essential for almost every domain, for example, business, media, engineering or social sciences. It is necessary to develop such methods for effective learning, remediation for mental-disorders, and development of better user interfaces to be used by software companies.

Bhattacharya further stated, “Since understanding the human mind will help us know more about cognitive deficits and mental health issues, we will focus on developing tools and products to help those who suffer from such problems. The department’s work will benefit the domains of medical technology and teaching-learning systems the most.” 

Also Read: IIT Kanpur to Organise Two Day Virtual '2nd IEEE Winter School 2020 On Fog/ Edge Computing' from Dec 29

IIT Kanpur: Cognitive Science Course Specific Areas

The course will focus primarily on seven specific areas given below;

  • Consciousness Studies
  • Perception and Action
  • Decision Making
  • Reasoning
  • Language Processing
  • Social Cognition
  • Applied Cognitive Sciences
  • Robotics

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The institute will further provide MS and PhD programmes in Cognitive Science and work together with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering to create new artificially intelligent and machine-learning interfaces. 

If the programmes receive ample interest at the undergraduate level, then we may also launch an integrated BTech-MTech programme, which will allow early entry students into interdisciplinary studies and research,” he added.

Read: IIT Kanpur to Begin BT-MT Dual Degree in Cyber Security, MTech, MS by Research from August 2021

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