Major: Bachelor of Science

The observation that both human beings and computers can manipulate symbols lies at the heart of Symbolic Systems, an interdisciplinary program focusing on the relationship between natural and artificial systems that represent, process, and act on information. Computer programs, natural languages, the human mind, and the internet embody concepts whose study forms the core of the Symbolic Systems curriculum, such as computation, representation, communication, and intelligence.

The undergraduate program in Symbolic Systems is an interdisciplinary program focusing on the relationships between natural and artificial systems that use symbols to communicate and represent information. The program’s mission is to prepare majors with the vocabulary, theoretical background, and technical skills necessary to research questions about language, information, and intelligence, both human and machine. The curriculum offers a combination of traditional humanistic approaches to these questions and a training and familiarity with contemporary developments in the science and technology of computation. Students in the major take courses in cognitive science, computer programming, logic and computational theory, probability, cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind, linguistics, and artificial intelligence. The program prepares students for careers in the private and public sectors, especially those involving the human-facing sides of information systems/technology, and for further study and research in the cognitive and/or information sciences. A major in Symbolic Systems qualifies as a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) major under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Designated Degree Programs opens in a new tab list of STEM programs. Depending on the study plan, Sym Sys students can be classified as studying Cognitive Science and/or Informatics.

Advising

Upon declaration approval, students are assigned to the Program Director and Associate Director as major advisors. The student must also select and confirm a concentration advisor.

• Declared majors must select a concentration advisor by autumn quarter of their junior year. A hold is placed on winter quarter registration for juniors who do not have a concentration advisor by autumn quarter of their junior year. Juniors declaring the major must have a concentration advisor confirmed at the time of declaration. 

• Any individual with an ongoing instructional appointment at Stanford may serve as the concentration advisor. To confirm a concentration advisor after an eligible faculty member has agreed to fill this role, the student must send an email message to symsys-sso@stanford.edu and the concentration advisor,  including a statement of how the student plans to fulfill the capstone requirement of the major. Changes to capstone plans require the approval of the concentration advisor.