Swiss Joint Master in Computer Science of the universities of Bern, Neuchâtel and Fribourg 1 The MSc program in computer science

Worldwide, computer scientists are in high The Swiss Joint Master program offers candidates demand. To cater for this demand, the computer with a Bachelor in Computer Science (or related science institutes of the three universities of domains) the opportunity to advance their Bern, Neuchâtel and Fribourg offer a Master of knowledge of computer science. Students co- Science in Computer Science. With this program, operate closely with one or more of the research it is possible to benefit from a large, well- groups of the three institutes to obtain a solid structured offering that combines the strengths knowledge in computer science. This degree of the involved universities. Graduates from this enables them to fill advanced positions in program have excellent career opportunities, various economic sectors, or continue their after an exciting time at the three universities studies towards a PhD degree, offering further forming one of the biggest Swiss university interesting employment opportunities in industry campuses offering just about everything that is and academia. typical for Switzerland. 2 Structure of the masters program

The masters program consists of lectures with reflecting different profiles in computer science. assignments, seminars, internships or other In order to ensure sufficient diversification, stu- forms of teaching, and a masters thesis. The dents choose teaching units from at least 3 dif- program comprises 90 ECTS credits (ECTS ferent tracks. Students who want to specialize stands for “European Credit Transfer and in a particular track complete at least 5 teaching Accumulation System”). These 90 ECTS credits units from that track and write their masters the- consist of 60 ECTS credits of teaching units and sis on a topic related to the chosen track. 30 ECTS credits of an individual masters thesis.

Masters thesis 30 ECTS credits Teaching units 60 ECTS credits Students submit a masters thesis related to one Students can choose 12 teaching units (worth 5 of the topics they have studied. The thesis is su- ECTS credits each) out of more than 60 units of- pervised by a professor. fered. Teaching units are grouped into 6 tracks 3 Tracks

The Swiss Joint Master in Computer Science offers an extensive choice of over 60 teaching units (courses, seminars, internships or other forms of teaching), which are grouped into 6 tracks reflecting different profiles in computer science.

T0 General T3 Advanced Information Processing A collection of teaching units from a variety of Signal processing for pattern recognition, docu- subject areas which supplement the teaching ment analysis, computational linguistics, multi- units offered in the other 5 tracks. modal interfaces, (re)acquisition of information and computer graphics, as well as exposure to T1 Distributed Systems artificial intelligence. Distributed systems, peer-to-peer networks, grid and cloud computing, mobile communica- T4 Logic tions, concurrency, foundations and algorithms, Computability and complexity, proof theory, verification and model checking, bio-inspired lambda calculus, logic programming and proof and parallel architectures, network security, search, classical and non-classical logics, uni- pervasive and context-aware computing. versal algebra, automata, verification, knowl- edge representation, data privacy, data mining, T2 Advanced Software Engineering ontologies, formal methods. Advanced methods for the analysis, develop- ment and testing of modern and reliable soft- T5 Information Systems and Decision Support ware systems in heterogeneous, service-orien­ eBusiness, eGovernment, information man- ted and closely connected system topologies. agement, database management systems and data warehousing, fuzzy classification, decision support, quantitative models and methods of Operations Research, applied to logistics, sup- ply chain management, and decision support for difficult managerial decisions.

4 Specialization

If students wish to focus their studies on a particular area of computer science, they can choose to specialize in one of these five tracks:

T1 Distributed Systems T2 Advanced Software Engineering T3 Advanced Information Processing T4 Logic T5 Information Systems and Decision Support

The requirements for a specialization are: at least 25 out of the 60 ECTS credits for teaching units must come from teaching units in the specialization track the masters thesis must be on a topic within the specialization track.

If all requirements are met, the specialization is 30 ECTS mentioned in the diploma supplement that the 5 ECTS students receive together with their diploma. 5 ECTS 5 ECTS 5 ECTS 5 ECTS 5 ECTS 5 ECTS Master thesis 5 ECTS 5 ECTS 30 ECTS credits 5 ECTS 5 ECTS 5 ECTS T2 T3 12 teaching units 60 ECTS credits T1 T4

T0 T5

5 Duration of the Swiss Joint Master program

The regular duration of the Swiss Joint Master pro- gram is three semesters, i.e. one and a half years of full-time study. Students are expected to follow a program of 30 ECTS credits in each semester: in the first two semesters, students attend teach- 7 Career prospects ing units of 60 ECTS credits, and in the third semester, they work on their masters thesis of Currently many more computer scientists are 30 ECTS credits. Students earning their living by leaving the Swiss job market (e.g, due to retire- working in parallel have the opportunity to extend ment) than all Swiss institutions of higher edu- their masters study. cation are releasing. This leads to a tremendous demand for computer scientists with a university degree in Switzerland. The same is occurring in the entire western world. Therefore, job prospects for computer scientists are absolutely excellent. 6 Language of study Since IT plays an important role in most econo­ mic sectors, computer scientists with a university Three different languages are used: English, degree will have the choice in which sector they French, and German. Usually, courses are taught want to work, ranging from financial industries to in English and sometimes in French or German high-tech companies, from journalism and enter- (depending on the professor), but linguistic pref- tainment to public administration, from teaching erences of the students are taken into account and continuing education to research, from auto­ whenever possible. Students who only know mation to gaming and sports, from communica- English can follow the program without tion technology to engineering and knowledge problems. management. 8 Admission and Registration

Admission conditions Application Deadline The Swiss Joint Master program is open to stu- Students can start the Joint Master program in dents holding a Bachelor in Computer Science the autumn or spring semester. Submit your ap- from a Swiss university or from any one of a large plication to the admission service of your home number of foreign universities. Degree holders university. Related instructions can be found at with similar qualifications are welcome to apply mcs.unibnf.ch under “Admission”. The deadlines and can be accepted under tailored conditions. for application are: In such cases, the applications are considered on a case by case basis and the branch committee may Autumn semester: April 30th require the applicant to earn additional ECTS cred- its (a maximum of 60) from courses at the bach- Spring semester: November 30th elor’s level.

Admission procedure Registration Choose your home university, i.e. Bern, Once admitted, you will receive instructions how Neuchâtel, or Fribourg. to register at your home university. Submit your application material to the ad- mission service of your home university.

9 Student life

The Swiss Joint Master in Computer Science is program have the opportunity to experience offered collectively by three universities: Bern, both cultures, and to acquire or improve their Neuchâtel, and Fribourg. This collaboration gives language skills either through immersion or students not only a high-quality and diversified by taking the many language courses provid- academic program, but also the opportunity ed for students by the universities. to study in a large, dynamic, multicultural and multilingual environment with many advantages A wide variety of cultural attractions: The such as: universities of Bern, Neuchâtel, and Fribourg are located in the heart of Switzerland, only Attractive accommodation: Bern, Neuchâtel a stone’s throw away from the three lakes of and Fribourg offer a larger number and vari- the region, a number of UNESCO world heri- ety of affordable accommodation than other tage sites, and the magnificent Swiss Alps. major cities in Switzerland. Students can participate in a wide range of summer and winter activities, either through Linguistic and cultural diversity: Since the organized excursions offered by various three universities are located in an area of sports and cultural clubs at the universities, Switzerland that is at the meeting point of or by exploring the area on their own. German and French cultures, students in the Contacts

Admission and University of Bern University of Neuchâtel University of Fribourg Registration Services Admissions Office Registration and Mobility Services Office for Admissions and Registration Hochschulstrasse 4 Avenue du 1er Mars 26 Avenue de l‘Europe 20 CH-3012 Bern CH-2000 Neuchâtel CH-1700 Fribourg www.imd.unibe.ch/index_e.html www.unine.ch/prospectivestudent www.unifr.ch/admission/en

Student advisors University of Bern University of Neuchâtel University of Fribourg Bettina Choffat Prof. Dr Jacques Savoy Prof. Dr Béat Hirsbrunner Institute of CS and Applied Mathematics Computer Science Department Department of Informatics Neubrückstrasse 10 Rue Emile-Argand 11 Boulevard de Pérolles 90 CH-3012 Bern CH-2000 Neuchâtel CH-1700 Fribourg [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Program coordinator University of Fribourg Dr Andreas Humm Department of Informatics Boulevard de Pérolles 90 CH-1700 Fribourg [email protected] mcs.unibnf.ch