Computational Engineering Programs at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

The Computational Engineering Program at the University of Erlangen was initiated by the Department of Computer Science as a two year graduate program leading to a Master’s degree in 1997. In 1999, a three year undergraduate program was added. As a peculiarity, the Masters program is taught in English and is thus open to international students who do not speak German. The curriculum consists of approximately equal parts taken from computer science, (applied) mathematics, and an engineering discipline of choice. Within the current program, this includes material sciences, mechanical engineering, fluid dynamics, and several choices from electrical engineering, such as automatic control, information technology, microelectronics, semiconductor technology, or sensor technology. 1 Organisational Background Computational Engineering (CE) at the University of Erlangen was initiated by the Department of Computer Science in 1997 as a two year postgraduate program leading to a Masters degree. Originally the program was funded by the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) within a project to attract more international students to Germany. Thus all core courses of the Master’s program (but not the undergraduate program) are taught in English and are thus open to international students without knowledge of German. The CE program is presently offered within Erlangen’s School of Engineering (Technische Fakultät), which includes the Departments of Computer Science, Electrical, Chemical, and Mechanical Engineering, and the Department of Material Sciences. The mathematics courses of the curriculum are being taught by the Department of Applied Mathematics in the School of Sciences. The Bachelor-Master structure of academic programs is still in an experimental stage in Germany. The traditional German Diploma degree still dominates and both faculty and (prospective) students view the new Bachelor or Master programs with considerable scepticism. Despite this, the CE program is currently accepting approximately 50 new undergraduate students and 40 graduate students annually. P.M.A. Sloot et al. (Eds.): ICCS 2002, LNCS 2331, pp. 852−857, 2002.  Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002 Formal Ph.D. programs are traditionally not offered within the German university system. However, sufficiently well qualified Master graduates are routinely being offered Ph.D. studentships and research assistantships by the faculty participating in the CE program. 2 Undergraduate Curriculum The undergraduate curriculum consists of an approximately equal number of credits in computer science, (applied) mathematics, and an engineering discipline of choice. Required courses consist of the traditional German four semester sequence in Engineering Mathematics which contains elements from calculus, analysis, linear algebra, and ordinary and partial differential equations(PDEs). Starting with the second year, students are required to take a two semester sequence in Numerical Analysis. The core computer science courses are taken from Erlangen’s standard computer science curriculum. CE students must take the two semester sequence Algorithmik that teaches the standard algorithms of computer science, data structures, programming languages, compilers, plus some elements of theoretical computer science. Additionally, students are required to take two semesters of Organisation and Technology of Computers and Systems Programming which include basic computer architecture and operating systems. All students must choose a Technical Application Field. Presently, the program offers specialisation in – Mechanical Engineering, – Micro Electronics, – Information Technology, – Automatic Control, – Thermoand Fluid Dynamics, – Material Sciences, and – Sensor Technology. Depending on the particular choice of the technical application, each student must take a sequence of 10 to 20 credits of application specific required courses. With specialisation in, for example, Thermoand Fluid Dynamics the required courses are – Elementary Physics, – Thermo Dynamics (two semesters), – Heatand Mass Transfer, and – Fluid Dynamics (two semesters). Additional requirements are a 12 week internship in industry and participation in a seminar. All courses listed above are taken from existing degree curricula. A new course, specifically designed for the CE program, is Scientific Computing (6 853 Computational Engineering Programs at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg