Computer Science and Philosophy

Number of places at Balliol

2

Subject information

Please see the Department of Computer Science web pages and the University undergraduate admissions website for detailed information about the subject.

Course requirements

For information on what subject you need to study, please see the University undergraduate admissions website.

College requirements

None specific to Balliol.

Admissions/Selection criteria

For information on how applicants are assessed, see the admissions criteria page of the Philosophy Faculty and that of the Computing Laboratory.

You can also consult a list of subjects and their criteria.

Computer Science and Philosophy at Balliol

Balliol was one of the first three Oxford colleges to have a Tutorial Fellow in Computer Science, and undergraduate study in the subject is well supported here. All first year and second year core courses in computer science are taught in College. Computing teaching and computing students are well integrated into the broader mathematics community within Balliol. The College library is richly stocked with study resources in Computing subjects. In addition to the Tutorial Fellow in Computation, the Fellowship includes Nick Trefethen, Professor of Numerical Analysis, and William Dutton, the Professor of Internet Studies. The Oxford Internet Institute is also housed within Balliol.

There is a flourishing undergraduate mathematical society, which helps introduce new mathematics students to the College and also organizes an annual dinner with a guest mathematical speaker.

Balliol tutors in both Computer Science and Philosophy recognize the special requirements of this joint course and work together to organize the teaching to best fit the structure of the course. With a number of fellows and lecturers in both subjects, Balliol guarantees good teaching and caters for a large number of options.

Tutors

Tom Melham, the Computation Tutor, specializes in the construction of logical and mathematical proofs using computer software, and in the use of mathematical logic for modelling and analysing complex computing systems.
David Wallace, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy.
Bob Hargrave, Lecturer in Philosophy. Bob teaches Logic, and the core papers in the History of Philosophy and Knowledge and Reality.
Ofra Magidor, Fellow in Philosophy. Ofra teaches the General Philosophy course for the Prelim and the Philosophy of Logic and Language and Knowledge and Reality core papers.
Jessica Moss, Fellow in Philosophy. Jessica teaches Plato and Aristotle, and courses on Ethics.
Rowland Stout, Lecturer in Philosophy. Rowland teaches the Ethics core paper in Philosophy.