History

Historical Background

In the 1997/1998 winter term, the Faculty of Engineering began its English-language based Master Program in Computational Engineering with funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD). In the winter term 1999/2000 the German-language based bachelor program was added, and the master program was revised according to the experience gained. The degrees offered at present are: Bachelor of Science after 6 semesters, and Master of Science after a further 4 semesters. With a total of ten semesters, the level of the Master degree is comparable with a German Diploma degree. The Master degree is also acknowledged as a prerequisite for German PhD programs.

The combined bachelor-master program consists of a compulsory set of courses in computer science and applied (or technical) Mathematics, a Technical Application Field (TAF) chosen from the School of Engineering (excluding computer science), and Elective Technical Subjects (technische Wahlmodule).
In this program, the TAF is central and has therefore significantly more weight than a subsidiary subject of the traditional kind. Thus it becomes possible to teach fundamentals of a technical discipline to which computer-science methods can then be applied fruitfully.