Symbolic Systems Program

What is Symbolic Systems?

What's New in Symbolic Systems?

The Symbolic Systems Program (SSP) focuses on computers and minds: artificial and natural systems that use symbols to represent information. SSP brings together students and faculty interested in different aspects of the human-computer relationship, including...

cognitive science: studying human intelligence, natural languages, and the brain as computational processes;
artificial intelligence: endowing computers with human-like behavior and understanding; and
human-computer interaction: designing computer software and interfaces that work well with human users.

Symbolic Systems' affiliated faculty come from several departments at Stanford University, including Computer Science, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology, Communication, and Education. Our students are exposed to the tools of these disciplines -- formal methods, philosophical analysis, computer programming, and empirical research -- with the aim of being able to apply the appropriate tool(s) to a chosen area of specialization. SSP alumni are found in various occupations, including software design and applications, teaching and research, law, medicine, and public service.

Welcome alums! If you are an SSP alum and you do not know how to access your account, contact us at the email address "ssp-af at csli dot stanford dot edu". If you know how to log into your account, you can edit your profile by signing in and clicking on "Update profile" under "Your account" on the left sidebar. Also, please contact us if you have address information for alumni whose email addresses do not appear in our database after you sign in.

Graduating senior Anna Schapiro received a Firestone Medal for her Symbolic Systems Senior Honors Thesis on June 13, 2009. Congratulations to Anna and her honors supervisors, Jay McClelland and Anthony Wagner. For more information, click here.

The K. Jon Barwise Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Symbolic Systems Program will be given at this year's Symbolic Systems commencement ceremony (June 14) to graduating seniors Anna Schapiro and Mike Mintz. For more information, click here.

The next Symbolic Systems Forum will be on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009 (4:15-5:30 pm in 380-380C), featuring Symbolic Systems Summer Interns. Check the SSP calendar page for details and abstracts for Forum talks as they are scheduled.

Office hours for the Symbolic Systems Advising Fellows and Program Administrators are given below. Watch here for updates:

Todd Davies, Associate Director, no more office hours this quarter
Jimmy Chen, AF, no more office hours this quarter
Jane Huang, AF. no more office hours this quarter
Brenden Lake, AF, no more office hours this quarter
Jason Robinson, AF, no more office hours this quarter
Ivan Sag, Director, no more office hours this quarter
Anna Schapiro, AF, no more office hours this quarter

The undergraduate core requirements for Symbolic Systems majors changed in January 2009 in the areas of logic and computational theory. Read more here.