Master of Science in

Artificial Intelligence
Options:
• Engineering and Computer Science (ECS)
• Speech and Language Technology (SLT)
• Big Data Analytics (BDA)

Faculty of Engineering Science

Faculty of Science

KU Leuven. Inspiring the outstanding.

Discover KU Leuven
Situated in Belgium, in the heart of Western Europe, KU Leuven has been a centre
of learning for nearly six centuries. Today, it is Belgium's largest and highest-ranked
university and, founded in 1425, one of the oldest and most renowned universities in
Europe. As a leading European research university and co-founder of the League of
European Research Universities (LERU), KU Leuven offers a wide variety of international
master’s programmes, all supported by high-quality, innovative, interdisciplinary research.

Since its founding, KU Leuven has been based in the city that shares its name. Leuven
is a pleasant, safe and bustling student town, where centuries-rich history meets cutting-
edge science. The university also offers degree programmes at campuses in 11 Belgian
cities, including Brussels, Ghent and Antwerp.

Artificial Intelligence
Investigating the true nature of intelligence is one of today’s most fascinating research
avenues. Advances in the study of cognitive processes and models, natural language
and perception, human knowledge, representation, and reasoning attest to this.

Relatedly, one of the scientific community’s key research objectives is the development of
an intelligent robot, that is, a robot that can perceive and communicate
using natural language, collect information using vision, sensors, and
movement, plan ahead and act based on this information, assimilate
new knowledge from experience and interaction with its environment and,
in general, perform tasks considered typical for intelligent human beings.

The Master of Artificial Intelligence programme at KU Leuven explores

and builds on these fascinating challenges. For many years, it has
provided an internationally acclaimed advanced study programme on
artificial intelligence. The multidisciplinary programme trains students from
a variety of backgrounds – including engineering, sciences, economics,
management, psychology, and linguistics – in all areas of knowledge-
based technology, cognitive science, and their
applications. The one-year programme,
taught entirely in English, is the result of a
collaboration between many internationally
prominent research units from seven different
faculties of the university.

Depending on their backgrounds, students

choose among course offerings emphasising
either engineering and computer science,
speech and language technology or big
data analytics.
Master AI: a bridge to your future
Patrick Jeuniaux

“My interest in artificial intelligence (AI) emerged while completing

my master's degree in psychology and statistics at the Université
Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). I was very glad to enter the
Master’s programme in Artificial Intelligence (MAI) at KU Leuven
to satisfy this interest. I enrolled in the programme as a part-time
student, and completed it in two years (cognitive science).
Since then, I have been a PhD student in psychology at the
University of Memphis (TN, USA) working as a research assistant
at the Institute for Intelligent Systems.

Of all the educational programmes I have followed, the MAI is among the most challenging,
diverse, and interesting. Not only did it satisfy my goals as a growing cognitive scientist
(exposing me to various computer science frameworks and methodologies completely
unknown to me, as well as with advanced theories in linguistics, logic, philosophy, and
psychology), but it really went beyond my expectations. The MAI helped me to see the
big picture and also to understand a tremendous amount of helpful details about the
functioning of many state-of-the-art AI enterprises – and all this delivered by a pool of
highly competent researchers. Moreover, the MAI significantly helped make me comfortable
interacting with people from various academic backgrounds and addressing issues
outside my area of expertise (e.g., issues involving programming languages). Finally,
Leuven is a beautiful city: an amazing environment for studying and living! You will love it.”

Nathalie Pochet

“With my background in engineering and computer science,

the master’s programme in Artificial Intelligence has greatly
broadened my perspectives. Aside from robot and game AI,
I was mainly fascinated by the ability of machine-learning
techniques to learn prediction models and to extract relevant
information from huge amounts of data. Although these
techniques can be applied to a wide range of applications,
I decided to specialise in bioinformatics. I pursued my PhD
research at KU Leuven on the use of machine-learning
techniques for biomedical data analysis in several cancer
applications in collaboration with University Hospitals Leuven.
Consequently, I had the opportunity to do postdoctoral research at Harvard University
and MIT. In a biomedical project, we found, for the first time, distinct physiological states
of the malaria parasite in malaria-infected patients using machine learning techniques.”
Admission requirements
Holders of the following degrees may be directly admitted:
• Master of Science in Computer Science
• Master of Science in Engineering: Informatics
• Master of Science in Engineering: Information and Communication Technology
• Master of Arts in Psychology: Theoretical Psychology
• Master of Advanced Studies in Linguistics: Theoretical / Computational Linguistics

With the exception of native English speakers, all applicants must present proof of
English proficiency. Only paper-based TOEFL test scores are accepted. The minimum
score is 550.

Holders of the following degrees may be admitted based upon evaluation of a

complete application file:
• All other master's degrees in science, engineering, applied economics, psychology,
philosophy, arts, law, medicine
• A bachelor’s degree in science, engineering, applied economics, psychology,
philosophy, arts, law or medicine based on a study programme with a normal duration
of at least four years.

Ideal applicants have experience with computing, proficiency in English, and excellent
results (at least cum laude) in previous studies.

Tuition fee:
For the 2012-2013 academic year, the tuition fee for all students admitted on the basis of
a complete admission file is 1400 EUR.
Profile
As a student, you should be able to formulate research goals, determine trajectories that
achieve those goals, collect and select information relevant to achieving research goals,
and critically interpret collected information. If you select the ECS option, you are
expected to be familiar with basic undergraduate-level mathematics.

Successful completion of the programme should enable you to understand the concepts,
methods, and applicability of the fundamentals of artificial intelligence, the basics of
neuroscience, neural computing, and cognitive science as well as the philosophical
aspects of artificial intelligence. You will become familiar with AI programming languages
and several advanced areas of AI, including current research trajectories.

Programme
The Master of Artificial Intelligence is an advanced 60-ECTS academic programme.
The programme can be completed on a one-year, full-time basis or a two-year,
part-time basis. A basic introductory part of the programme consists of the fundamentals
of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence.
Within the programme,
students choose between
three options:
• Engineering and
Computer Science
(ECS)
• Speech and Language
Technology (SLT)
• Big Data Analytics
(BDA)

Each option contains a

number of mandatory
and elective courses,
a computer programming
component, and a
master's thesis.

The ECS option is intended for students with a background in engineering or exact
sciences. After an introduction to basic AI concepts, tools, and areas of application,
topics of focus include advanced programming languages, knowledge-based systems,
artificial neural networks, robotics, computer vision, machine learning, data mining,
support vector machines, bioinformatics, genetic algorithms and evolutionary
computation, multi-agent systems, and others.

The central focus of the SLT option is the processing of natural language, both in its written
and spoken forms. The programme offers a solid linguistic basis covering the fields of syntax,
semantics, morphology, phonetics, and lexicography and continues with advanced
courses in natural-language processing, speech recognition and speech synthesis.

Following the success of major multinational companies (Google, Amazon and many
others) industry is seeking specialists in analysing big data collections, who are able to
extract hidden knowledge from the large data collections that companies have on their
business. This new BDA option optimally prepares you to be the expert on data analysis
that these companies desperately seek. The option will instruct on all the skills in
programming with big data, in statistical analysis, in machine learning and data mining
that you need to successfully fulfil these tasks. It will also make you an expert in many
of the application areas, in information retrieval, bio-informatics and image analysis.

For detailed descriptions of this programme’s courses and for the course
timetable, please consult www.kuleuven.be/coursecatalogue
Career outlook
With a master’s degree in artificial intelligence you will be welcomed by companies
working in information technology, data mining, speech and language technology,
intelligent systems, diagnosis and quality control, fraud detection and biometric systems.
You will also be qualified to work in banking or provide support for the process industry,
biomedicine and bioinformatics, robotics and traffic systems. Some graduates go on to
begin a PhD programme.

Bart Hamers

“I graduated with a master’s degree in physics from KU Leuven.

Today, it is well known that computers are perfectly suited for
repetitive tasks and data storage. I strongly believe that
computers should be used for tasks that are more intelligent.
It should be our goal to programme computers such that
they are able to aid humans in as many tasks as possible.
I enrolled in the master’s programme in Artificial Intelligence
to pursue this. The AI programme gave us a very good
overview of the all the different aspects of intelligent
programme design by means of logic programming,
statistical techniques, and computational intelligence. These techniques are currently
being used in such applications as internet search engines, predictive marketing tools,
data mining, predictive analytics, speech recognition, medical diagnosis systems, robot
design, financial trading, quantitative financial risk analysis, etc.”
 KU LEUVEN
Oude Markt 13 box 5005
3000 LEUVEN, Belgium
onderwijscommunicatie@kuleuven.be
www.kuleuven.be

Learn more
www.kuleuven.be/ma/mai

General information
www.kuleuven.be/english
www.kuleuven.be/internationalprogrammes
www.kuleuven.be/admissions
www.kuleuven.be/tuitionfees

Publications
www.kuleuven.be/internationalbrochures

Faculty of Engineering Science

Secretariat Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence
Department of Computer Science
tel. + 32 16 32 78 17
MoAI@cs.kuleuven.be
www.mai.kuleuven.be

Programme Director
Prof. Danny De Schreye
Danny.DeSchreye@cs.kuleuven.be

www.fb.com/LeuvenUniversity v.u.: Isabelle Van Geet, Oude Markt 13, 3000 Leuven

This brochure provides the most complete and accurate information available
concerning this master’s programme offered at KU Leuven. However,
amendments to the composition of this programme may be approved at any
time. Consequently, KU Leuven is in no way legally bound by the information
provided in this brochure. The most recent information on all our academic
programmes can be consulted at www.kuleuven.be/internationalprogrammes

Last updated: January 2015