The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) is a

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

of the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

, in which researchers from the Faculty of

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

and the Faculty of

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at t ...

collaborate. The ILLC's central research area is the study of fundamental principles of encoding,

transmission Transmission may refer to: Medicine, science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual transmission ** ...

and comprehension of

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random, ...

. Emphasis is on

natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

and formal languages, but other information carriers, such as images and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

, are studied as well. Research at the ILLC is interdisciplinary, and aims at bringing together insights from various disciplines concerned with information and information processing, such as

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from prem ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

computational linguistics Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, computational linguistics ...

, cognitive science,

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

, and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

. It is organized in the three groups ''Logic & Computation'' (project leader: Yde Venema), ''Logic & Language'' (project leader: Robert van Rooij), and ''Language & Computation'' (project leader: Jelle Zuidema) united by the key themes ''Explainable and Ethical AI'', ''Interpretable Machine Learning for Natural Language Processing'', ''Cognitive Modelling'', ''Logic, Games and Social Agency'' and ''Quantum Information and Computation''. The ILLC is involved in several international collaborations among which we highlight the Joint Research Centre for Logic (JRC), a special collaborative partnership between

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbr. THU) is a national public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is a member of the C9 League, Double First Class University Plan, Projec ...

and the University of Amsterdam. In addition to its research activities, the ILLC is running the Graduate Programme in Logic with a PhD programme and the MSc in Logic, an international top-ranked and interdisciplinary MSc degree in logic
MSc Logic webpage
. In September 2018, the institute opened the Minor in Logic and Computation, welcoming local and international bachelor students. The programme of the Minor in Logic and Computation consists of 30 EC, chosen from a list of high-profile courses organised according to four themes: Mathematics, Philosophy, Theoretical Computer Science, and Computational Linguistics and AI.

History

The ILLC started off in 1986 as ''Instituut voor Taal, Logica en Informatie'' (ITLI; Institute for Language, Logic and Information). In the beginning, it was an informal association of staff members from the Faculty of

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

and the Faculty of

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

, and was joined by computational linguists from the Faculty of Humanities in 1989. In 1991 the institute was officially established as a University Research Institute. During 1991–1996 the programming research group of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science was also part of the institute. The Applied Logic Lab from the Faculty of Social Sciences was part of the ILLC from 1996 to 2003. Other groups in computer science and cognitive science have associated themselves with the institute in 1996. The ILLC is rooted in the Amsterdam logic research tradition dating back to the early twentieth century (including researchers such as

L.E.J. Brouwer Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (; ; 27 February 1881 – 2 December 1966), usually cited as L. E. J. Brouwer but known to his friends as Bertus, was a Dutch mathematician and philosopher, who worked in topology, set theory, measure theory and compl ...

Arend Heyting __NOTOC__ Arend Heyting (; 9 May 1898 – 9 July 1980) was a Dutch mathematician and logician. Biography Heyting was a student of Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer at the University of Amsterdam, and did much to put intuitionistic logic on a ...

, and

Evert Willem Beth Evert Willem Beth (7 July 1908 – 12 April 1964) was a Dutch philosopher and logician, whose work principally concerned the foundations of mathematics. He was a member of the Significs Group. Biography Beth was born in Almelo, a small ...

). It considers Beth's ''Instituut voor Grondslagenonderzoek en Filosofie der Exacte Wetenschappen'' (founded in 1952) as its precursor.

Directors

Members

Other notable members and past members include: *

Renate Bartsch Renate Irmtraut Bartsch (born 12 December 1939) is a German philosopher of language. She was a professor at the University of Amsterdam between 1974 and 2004. Career Bartsch was born on 12 December 1939 in Königsberg. She earned her Doctor title ...

* Harry Buhrman *

Peter van Emde Boas Peter van Emde Boas (born 3 April 1945, Amsterdam) is a Dutch computer scientist and professor at the University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university l ...

* Henkjan Honing * Luca Incurvati *

Theo Janssen Theo Janssen (born 27 July 1981) is a Dutch former footballer who played as a midfielder for various clubs in the Netherlands, including Vitesse Arnhem, Twente and Ajax, as well as on loan for Belgian club Genk. He spent 10 years with Vitesse b ...

Dick de Jongh Dick Herman Jacobus de Jongh (born 19 October 1939, Enschede) is a Dutch logician and mathematician and a retired professor at the University of Amsterdam. He received his PhD degree in 1968 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison under su ...

Michiel van Lambalgen Michiel van Lambalgen (born 6 November 1954, Krimpen aan den IJssel) is a professor of Logic and Cognitive Science at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation and the Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam in the Netherland ...

Benedikt Löwe Benedikt Löwe (born 1972) is a German mathematician and logician working at the universities of Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Cambridge. He is known for his work on mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics, as well as for initiating the ...

Remko Scha Remko Jan Hendrik Scha (15 September 1945 – 9 November 2015) was a professor of computational linguistics at the faculty of humanities and Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam. He made important contributio ...

* Anne Troelstra * Jouko Väänänen *

Paul Vitányi Paul Michael Béla Vitányi (born 21 July 1944) is a Dutch computer scientist, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Amsterdam and researcher at the Dutch Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica. Biography Vitányi was born in Budapest to a ...

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Logic, Language and Computation, Institute for Research institutes in the Netherlands Cognitive science research institutes Computer science institutes in the Netherlands Logic organizations University of Amsterdam

History

Directors

Members

See also

External links