Additional Competences
The rules for the area additional competences are defined in the official exam regulations.
Here are some (inofficial) informations in English.
You can use 0-12 CP for the area "additonal competences" (in particular, this area is optional). The credits from this area count for 120 CP that are required for completing the degree. The grades, however, do not count for the overall grade.
The purpose of the area "additonal competences" is to give you the opportunity to study non-technical courses that you are interested in, or to gain basic competences from mathematics or computer science that you are missing (because one can join the Data Science program with a background from computer science, mathematics, or physics, students have different basic knowledge in these areas).
More specifically:
- You can take a language course offered by the university for 4 CP. These courses are offered by the language center. Please contact them directly with any questions concerning the language courses.
- You can take non-technical courses offered at RWTH Aachen, for example, from history, philosophy, economics, social sciences up to 6 CP. There is (currently) no list of such courses. You have to browse the courses in RWTHonline yourself and see if you find something that is of interest to you.
- Additionally, you can take bridge courses or basic bachelor courses in math or computer science depending on your background:
- If you joined the M.Sc. Data Science with the profile "computer science", then you can take bridge courses or basic bachelor courses from math as additonal competences.
- If you joined the M.Sc. Data Science with the profile "mathmatics" or "physics", then you can take bridge courses or basic bachelor courses from computer science as additonal competences.
In particular, courses that are offered in the core or specialization areas of Data Science cannot be taken as additional competences.
For registration of non-technical courses that you want to take as additional competences, you should contact the organizers of the course. For some courses you can use "free registration" in RWTHonline, but anyway the organizers of the course should know your status as participant.
If you pass the exam in such a course, then the organizers should give you a paper certificate, which can then be sent to the ZPA to be added to your additional competences.
In general, your choices for additional competences have to be approved by the academic advisor (except for the language course).
Bridge Courses in Summer 21
All the bridge courses have 4 credits. Information on the bridge courses "Algorithms and Data Structures" and "Databases" can be found on the respective websites. These bridge courses can be taken by students who joined with a background from mathematics or physics:
Algorithms and Data Structures
There are no bridge courses for students with computer science background in summer 21.
Bridge Courses in Winter 2020/21
All the bridge courses have 4 credits. Information on the bridge courses "Algorithms and Data Structures" and "Databases" can be found on the respective websites. These bridge courses can be taken by students who joined with a background from mathematics or physics:
Algorithms and Data Structures
Bridge Course Stochastics II
The bridge course "Stochastics II" can be taken by students who joined with a background from computer science or physics. Here is some further information:
Course Contents*
- Measurable Mappings
- Theory if Integration (integral with respect to a measure, expected values)
- Probability Measures with Densities
- Product Measures and Stochastic Independence
- Convergence Theorems (strong low of large numbers, central limit theorem)
- Characteristic Functions
- Applications of Characteristic Functions and Convergence in Distribution
*Correspond to chapters 11-17 of the lecture notes of the course Stochastik II (B.Sc. Mathematics): Kamps, U. and Cramer, E. (2018). Grundzüge der Stochastik: Skript für Bachelorstudierende (in German)
Literature
- Billingsley, P. (1995). Probability and Measure. Wiley, 3d ed.
- Capinski, M. and Kopp, P. E. (2004). Measure, Integral and Probability, Springer, 2nd ed.
- Klenke, A. (2014). Probability Theory: A Comprehensive Course, Springer.
Further Information
You can register for this course in RWTHonline using "free registration". You will be added to the moodle room of the lecture "Stochastik II" which is given in German. There will be English translations of the exercise sheets, and you need to obtain 50% of the points from the exercises for the admission to the exam. The exam will be held in parallel to the one for the German lecture "Stochastik II".
For further questions on the bridge course, please contact the organizer Thomas van Bentum: thomas.bentum@rwth-aachen.de