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

research institute A research institute, research centre, 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 implies natural ...

of the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

, in which researchers from the Faculty of

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and the Faculty of

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

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

encoding In communications and Data processing, information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter (alphabet), letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes data compression, shortened or ...

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

and comprehension of

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

. Emphasis is on

natural Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...

and

formal Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements ( forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to: Dress code and events * Formal wear, attire for formal events * Semi-formal atti ...

languages, but other information carriers, such as images and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, 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 study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

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

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 Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

, and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. 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 (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

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 a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

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

and the Faculty of

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, 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 "Bertus" Brouwer (27 February 1881 – 2 December 1966) was a Dutch mathematician and philosopher who worked in topology, set theory, measure theory and complex analysis. Regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of the ...

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 foo ...

, 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 to ...

). 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 from 1974 to 2004. Career Bartsch was born on 12 December 1939 in Königsberg. She earned her doctorate at Heid ...

Harry Buhrman Harry Buhrman (born 1966) is a Dutch computer scientist, currently Chief Scientist Quantum Algorithms & Innovation at Quantinuum. He previously was ''Professor of algorithms, complexity theory, and quantum computing'' at the University of Amsterd ...

* Peter van Emde Boas * Henkjan Honing * Luca Incurvati *

Theo Janssen Theo Janssen (born 27 July 1981) is a Dutch assistant coach at SBV Vitesse, Vitesse and former association football, footballer who played as a midfielder for various clubs in the Netherlands, including SBV Vitesse, Vitesse, FC Twente, Twente an ...

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 supervi ...

* Michiel van Lambalgen * Benedikt Löwe * Remko Scha * Anne Troelstra *

Jouko Väänänen Jouko Antero Väänänen (born September 3, 1950 in Rovaniemi, Lapland) is a Finnish mathematical logician known for his contributions to set theory,J. VäänänenSecond order logic or set theory? Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 18(1), 91-121, 201 ...

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