About this master

The mission of the Master in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media (CSIM) is to train the researchers and professionals who will investigate, develop and design the interactive cognitive systems and media of tomorrow. The results may be physical devices, such as robots, or logical ones, such as sophisticated software that provides new experiences and/or virtual environments.

The CSIM programme draws on three main fields of knowledge: interactive technology, cognitive sciences and interactive media. To achieve its objective, the programme takes an interdisciplinary approach that is critical to providing students with an in-depth knowledge of the design, construction, development, deployment and analysis of interactive cognitive systems and media, along with the necessary skills to successfully carry out all of these stages. The CSIM programme's goal is to produce integrators of such interactive cognitive devices and programmes.

Students on this master's programme should have a background in technology engineering (computing or telecommunications), psychology, biology, audiovisual communication or another area related to the programme's interdisciplinary approach. Candidates must be highly motivated and hard-working and have both a strong interest in technology and cognitive sciences and a creative spirit. They must moreover have prior knowledge of programming and be willing to immerse themselves in technological topics.

MANDATORY DOCUMENTS

  • Official university bachelor's or master's degree from the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) or equivalent foreign degree allowing access to a postgraduate degree in the country that issued the degree. Should the applicant have not finished yet their studies at the time of application, they will be asked to sign a statement certifying that they will have completed them before the start of the master degree program.
  • Academic transcript of the accredited official training with the average grade at the university of origin. Degrees in any academic field of study will be accepted.
  • Curriculum Vitae in English.
  • A letter of motivation in English, stating the candidate's interest in following the master's programme (600 to 800 words).
  • At least one letter of recommendation in English (academic). 
In order to optimise the treatment and security of the recommendation letters, the candidate will have to request those via the online application system, where he/she will need to indicate the e-mail adress of the person/the persons he/she wishes to be recommended by. That person will receive an e-mail indicating that the candidate wishes a recommenation letter from him/her. The letter will be uploaded by the referee in the online application system. Non-institutional addresses such as *yahoo, *gmail, *hotmail, etc... will not be accepted.
  • Proof of English language (level B2.1) 

In case you would like to be exempted from accrediting any language because you are a native speaker or you have studied in that language, it is necessary for you to upload a brief letter justifying the reasons why you request to be exempted from this requirement.

  • Identity Card or Passport.

OPTIONAL DOCUMENTS

The following items will be highly evaluated:

  • A B2 English level or higher   
  • Additional academic training in areas related to the master's programme.
  • Additional professional experience.
  • Professional experience in any of the fields related to the master's programme.
  • Research experience.

In addition, the Departments' selection committee may decide to interview the candidate.

The undergraduate degree/diploma and the academic transcript 

If you have finished your Bachelor degree when you formalise your application, you will need to send us the following documents:

  • A photocopy of your undergraduate degree/diploma or certification/proof of degree completion.
  • A photocopy of your official final undergraduate transcript.

However, if you have not yet completed your undergraduate studies when formalising application, you will need to provide us with the following documents:

  • A signed declaration of obtaining your degree before the commencement of the master's programme.
  • A photocopy of the provisional undergraduate transcript. 
If the diploma or the academic transcript are not written in Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Portuguese or Italian, you will also have to include the respective sworn translations into Catalan or Spanish.

This master's programme offers a wide range of career opportunities. Students seeking a career in research will be able to pursue doctoral studies in any of the areas included in the programme's interdisciplinary focus. Students seeking careers outside of academia will be able to draw on their experience with the analysis, design, implementation, experimentation, testing and assessment of interactive devices via cognitive systems to enter a wide range of fields, from industrial and home robotics to outdoor interactive advertising, the smart technology used by the automobile industry, the development of systems to help rehabilitate people with physical or cognitive disorders, large-format interactive entertainment, or smart museum technology.

Fee

  • Students UE: 1,800 €
  • Non EU Students: 5.749,8 €

Calendar

From September to June, Timetable Afternoons schedule (full time)

Duration

1 academic year full time, 2 academic years part time (60 ECTS credits)

Language

English

Places

30

Course type

Research

PhD to which it grants access

Phd in Information and Communication Technologies  

More information

The mission of CSIM is to train the future generation of researchers and professionals that will investigate, develop and engineer the CSIM artifacts that will populate our current and future societies. The CSIM program is based on the convergence of three fields of knowledge: cognitive science, interactive technology and interactive media. The program will achieve its goal through a fundamental interdisciplinary approach to instill a deep understanding of the design, construction, development, deployment and analysis of CSIM artifacts combined with the practical skills to realize them. The CSIM program aims at training integrators of such CSIM artifacts.
CSIM is a research oriented program that pays constant attention to the priorities set by the main research institutions, such as the European Commission with its 2020 Horizon program. However, CSIM is interested in real-life problems and needs of our society and therefore always focusses on real-world and down-to-earth contexts for CSIM artifacts. These artifacts can be physical devices, such as robots, or logical ones, such as sophisticated software providing new experiences and virtual environments.
Since 2006, the CSIM program offers a very attractive set of lectures and tutorials by well established scientists. The research projects that our students undertake are based on top research of our research groups. The students are embedded in research teams that have a high impact in their research fields at international level, producing high quality publications and content.
CSIM provides just the right balance between theoretical fundaments and hands-on practical work. From a theoretical point of view, students will acquire basic knowledge on the brain cognitive functions and their computational models as they will become central to the development of such CSIMs. From a practical point of view, students will learn to envision and develop creative and scientific solutions to incorporate the CSIMs in current and future needs of our society in an efficient, coherent and justified manner. The CSIM program offers students scientific and practical tools to learn how to carry out their studies autonomously and how to develop and integrate CSIMs into useful systems for real world applications.
CSIM students can have a background in technological engineering (computing, telecommunications), psychology or biology, audiovisual communication, or any other degrees that may link to the interdisciplinary nature of the program.
Candidates must be highly motivated, hard-working and have a clear interest in technology and cognitive sciences, combined with a creative spirit.
They must have solid fundaments on programming and be willing to dive into technological subjects.

CSIM is a melting pot of geographical origins, cultures and social backgrounds. Although initially CSIM was born with a clear European focus, we have seen that its interdisciplinary nature is quite unique and draws the attention of people from around the world. Hence, we are proud to say that we host around 15 different nationalities per year!!!

Here is a list of the different nationalities of students that have passed through CSIM since 2007 (in alphabetical order): Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Serbia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Vietnam.

CSIM map of geographical origins of our students.

Internal Quality System