MSc ACS: Artificial Intelligence / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course description

Artificial Intelligence is a well-established, exciting branch of computer science concerned with methods to make computers, or machines in general, intelligent - so that they are able to learn from experience, to derive implicit knowledge from the one given explicitly, to understand natural languages such as English, Arabic, or Urdu, to determine the content of images, to work collaboratively together, etc. The techniques used in AI are as diverse as the problems tackled: they range from classical logic to statistical approaches to simulate brains.

This pathway reflects the diversity of AI in that it freely combines a number of themes related to AI techniques, namely Making Sense of Complex Data, Learning from Data, Reasoning and Optimisation, and Advanced Web Technologies.

Teaching and learning

Computational thinking is becoming increasingly pervasive and is informing our understanding of phenomena across a range of areas; from engineering and physical sciences, to business and society. This is reflected in the way the Manchester course is taught, with students able to choose from an extremely broad range of units that not only cover core computer science topics, but that draw on our interdisciplinary research strengths in areas such as the medical, health and life sciences and the humanities.

Coursework and assessment

Lectures and seminars are supported by practical exercises that impart skills as well as knowledge. These skills are augmented through an MSc project that enables students to put into practice the techniques they have been taught throughout the course.

Course unit details

For September 2024 entry, we are making several changes to our course unit offering. These changes are not yet reflected in the course unit list below, but are summarised here as follows:

Masters Project COMP66060 (60 credits)

This course unit remains mandatory but will be worth 60 credits instead of 90 credits. In this course unit you will learn about the dissertation project process, how to plan the project and how to write the dissertation, including ethical and professional considerations. We will provide you with the skills to undertake, manage and deliver a technical project in the broad field of computer science, over the course of approximately 3 months (June-August). 

The following two optional course units are being introduced under a new theme, which will be available to select in Semester 2: Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Reasoning and Learning Under Uncertainty COMP64102 (15 credits)

Machine learning is increasingly being used for decision support in data driven applications. A key concept when making decisions based on predictive models is that of uncertainty, e.g., in applications of AI where safety or trustworthiness are required. Uncertainty quantification recognises that exact predictions are often out-of-reach due to theoretical or practical limitations. This course unit studies different probabilistic machine learning models that incorporate uncertain reasoning and the mathematical concepts and algorithms required to learn such models from data.

Reinforcement Learning COMP64202 (15 credits)

Reinforcement learning (RL) looks to create machine learning models that are able to make decisions. An agent learns to achieve a goal in an uncertain, potentially complex environment. Successful real-world applications include but are not limited to robotics, control, operation research, games, economics, and human-computer interactions. This course will cover the breadth of modern model-free RL methods, discuss their limitations, and introduce various current research topics. In particular, we expect to cover the following: deep learning methodology and architectures, stabilisation of approximated value estimation, modern actor-critic methods, planning as inference, exploration with deep networks, offline reinforcement learning, deep multi-agent reinforcement learning, multi-task and meta-learning.

Course unit list

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Foundations of Machine Learning COMP61011 15 Mandatory
Representation Learning COMP61021 15 Mandatory
Text Mining COMP61332 15 Mandatory
Cognitive Robotics and Computer Vision COMP61342 15 Mandatory
Masters Project COMP66090 90 Mandatory
Data Engineering COMP60711 15 Optional
Systems Governance COMP60721 15 Optional
Cryptography COMP61411 15 Optional
Cyber Security COMP61421 15 Optional
Querying Data on the Web COMP62421 15 Optional
Software Security COMP63342 15 Optional
Displaying 10 of 11 course units

Additional fee information

Scholarships and bursaries

Across our institution, we offer a number of postgraduate taught scholarships and awards to outstanding UK and international students each year.

The University of Manchester is committed to widening participation in master's study, and allocates £300,000 in funding each year. Our Manchester Masters Bursaries are aimed at widening access to master's courses by removing barriers to postgraduate education for students from underrepresented groups.

For more information, see the Computer Science Fees and funding page or visit the University of Manchester funding for masters courses  website for more information.

Facilities

  • Newly refurbished computing labs furnished with modern desktop computers
  • Access to world leading academic staff
  • Collaborative working labs complete with specialist computing and audio visual equipment to support group working.
  • Over 300 computers in the Department dedicated exclusively for the use of our students.
  • An Advanced Interfaces Laboratory to explore real time collaborative working;
  • A Nanotechnology Centre for the fabrication of new generation electronic devices;
  • An e-Science Centre and Access Grid facility for world wide collaboration over the internet.
  • Access to a range of Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
  • Specialist electronic system design and computer engineering tools.

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service. Email: dass@manchester.ac.uk