Psychology, Brain and Cognitive Science (MBM)
Tsinghua University's Department of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences & Xinya College
Ⅰ Project Overview
Every person possesses two worlds that are both connected and independent: the external natural world and the internal spiritual world. Research on these two worlds has run through the history of human civilization development: the evolution of the universe and the origin of life, along with the essence of intelligence and the origin of consciousness, have always been humanity's ultimate questions. Over the past several millennia, humans have achieved fruitful results in research on the natural world and laid the foundation for the material civilization of modern society; however, our scientific exploration of the spiritual world has just begun, with the unknown far exceeding the known.
Psychology is the science that explores humanity's spiritual world. Today, with the help of brain science, we understand the neural foundation of the spiritual world through neuronal firing and entanglement. With the help of cognitive science, we create silicon-based intelligence using our own intelligence as a template, thereby allowing us to use it as a mirror to reflect upon ourselves and understand ourselves. Thus, an emerging undergraduate training program that integrates psychology, brain science, and cognitive science, combining liberal arts, sciences, and engineering—‘Psychology, Brain and Cognitive Science’ (Mind, Brain, and Machine, MBM). MBM takes psychological phenomena as research questions, the brain as the research object, and cognitive science as the research paradigm, and through a completely new teaching mode that combines "phenomenon-based teaching" with "project-based teaching," cultivates disruptive future explorers to reveal the mysteries of biological and machine intelligence.
Ⅱ Project Training Objectives
This program is jointly created by Tsinghua University's Department of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Xinya College. MBM is an emerging interdisciplinary direction based on psychology, brain science, and artificial intelligence, cultivating disruptive innovative talent that spans the three major fields of liberal arts, sciences, and engineering, integrating liberal arts and sciences and combining science and engineering, exploring the cognitive neural mechanisms behind psychological phenomena, and developing bio-inspired intelligence.
Ⅲ Training Requirements
Solid professional foundation: Master the basic theoretical knowledge of psychology, brain science, and artificial intelligence as well as professional research and practical abilities, possess the ability to identify problems, solve them, pursue truth, and think critically;
Excellent humanistic qualities: Possess patriotic feelings, humanistic foundation, healthy psychology, and aesthetic taste;
Outstanding leadership: Courageous in breakthrough, daring to innovate, good at cooperation, with an international vision, laying the foundation for leading cutting-edge research and practical applications in the fields of psychology, brain science, and cognitive science.
Ⅳ Project Features
Students from Xinya College can apply to enter this professional direction after completing the first year of Xinya liberal arts and sciences general education curriculum. Course arrangement and credit allocation are conducted according to a four-year undergraduate system. The maximum study period for undergraduate education is six years. Degree conferred: Bachelor of Science degree.
Xinya College is the first "residential liberal arts college" established by Tsinghua University to explore world-class undergraduate education, implementing an undergraduate education model of "general education as foundation, integration of general education and professional education," with a teaching style of "high challenge, small class teaching, classic reading, full discussion, effective feedback," constructing a distinctive college system for both curricular and extracurricular cultivation.
Xinya College implements residential college cultivation, with all students arranged in dormitories according to the principle of interdisciplinary intersection, making the college a cultural venue and public space shared, built, and enjoyed by teachers and students, and a community that fosters both learning and interaction between them. In college education, Xinya College has formed a "Ten Thousand Hours of College" extracurricular cultivation system centered on three major programs: "Academic Romance Program," "Scholarly Interaction Program," and "Friendship Program."
The MBM direction established in Xinya College fully leverages Xinya's characteristics, adopting a cultivation path of "general education + frontier intersection, one strategy per person," comprehensively implementing "small class teaching," and adopting internationally advanced teaching concepts, including phenomenon-based teaching and project-based learning. Phenomenon-based teaching emphasizes starting from real-life phenomena, guiding students to independently explore the mysteries of knowledge through observation and thinking, focusing on cultivating students’ independence and practical skills, encouraging teamwork and independent inquiry, and stimulating students' innovative thinking. Project-based learning is student-centered, guiding students to learn through practice and cultivating practical application abilities.
Ⅴ Curriculum System
In general education, Xinya College has explored and formed a general education curriculum system of five major course groups, with "Values and Consensus" as the core, "Logic and Rationality," "Civilization and History," and "Literature and Aesthetics" as three major pillars, and "Possibility and Exploration" as infinite extension support, providing students with distributed, structural, and strategic general education in values, abilities, and knowledge, laying a solid foundation for students to face an uncertain future.
In professional education, MBM upholds the teaching philosophy of "student-centered," with courses emphasizing "few but refined, small but beautiful," focusing on deep foundational training and core professional qualities, and divided into three modules:
1.CREW: Critical Reading, Evaluating, &Writing
2.PATH: Project-based Academic abilities Training &Honing
3.SOAR: Supervised, Original& open, Academic Research
"Brain as universe, neurons as stars; in their dance, consciousness awakens." Welcome everyone to apply to Tsinghua University's Xinya College, at the intersection of psychology, brain science, and cognitive science, to explore upward the last frontier of science and serve society downward to construct humanity's beautiful spiritual world; and in this process, achieve self-growth and self-realization.
