University of Amsterdam, Master of Logic

The Master of Logic is THE academic program for lovers of the discipline. It grants easy access to an academic career in such field. Brouwer, Heyting, and Beth all studied in Amsterdam. When coming from Bologna’s bachelor’s degree in Informatics, you will be exempted from taking Mathematical Proof Methods for Logic and Complexity Theory. If you pick as an elective Metodi logici per la filosofia, you will also be (unreasonably) exempted from Introduction to Modal Logic, too. Because of this, if you pick the Logic and Computation track, you will only have two mandatory courses: Logic, Language, and Computation and Information Theory, which add up to only 9 ECTS. All other courses can be freely chosen from a long list of options. You can pick courses from different fields, including Philosophy or Languages, or focus exclusively on mathematical logic and theoretical computer science. An academic mentor (offer from your same academic background) will help you choose through the whole two years, but the choice is always up to you.

The program offers to its students small study rooms reserved to students of the Master of Logic. They are open 24/7, and one of them features external monitors. Professors will also talk about their recent work during each courses, so current research and teaching walk hand in hand.

This program also have its own flaws, though: there is almost no Free Software/Linux culture, with very few exceptions. Even if a handful of courses feature some programming/assisted proofs (Logical Verification, Computational Social Choice, Parallel Algorithms (MasterMath), Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Functional Programming, Automated Planning, Game Theory, Type Theory, …), you may not necessarily be interested in all of them. Still, it is possible to register and get credits for courses from other programs (e.g., the popular Master Computer Science) or universities (potentially in different cities).

Related professors: Fabio Zanasi (alumnus), Claudio Sacerdoti Coen, Ugo dal Lago, Eugenio Orlandelli.

Stefano (Informatics 2020-2023, Master of Logic 2023-2025)