The new Computer Science Masters Degree of FCTUNL

The new Computer Science Masters Degree of FCT/UNL “Course outline”

FCT/UNL’s MSc degree in the late 80’s Since 30 years ago, FCT/UNL provides an engineering degree (BSc) in Computer Science with a 5 years duration l By the late 80’s we started a MSc degree course: l ¡ ¡ Main initial goal: to provide a path for academic progress for young teaching assistants During the first year the student should pick 6 or 7 different courses (40 ECTS) among a broad offer and elaborate a MSc thesis during the 2 nd year Initially, the MSc course had a small number of students - in general already enrolled with the university

FCT/UNL’s MSc degree in the late 90’s l By the late 90’s the MSc course degree attracted more students (coming with our own BSc degree as well as with similar degrees from other universities) l The number of offered course options was higher, and l There was a certain overlap between the contents of courses of the BSc fifth year and the ones of the MSc first year l We then started a major restructuring of the MSc degree

The current Computer Science MSc degree l Type B courses - deepening courses (well grounded material, behind the fundamentals) l Type A courses - introduction to research l 4 different non overlapping tracks (specializations) Artificial Intelligence, Computer and Network Systems, Software Technology, and Technology of Information Systems l The student is required to: ¡ ¡ ¡ to take at least 4 type B courses and 2 type A courses, to take at least 50% of the credits in the same track, elaborate a Master Dissertation on its specialization

Integration of the Computer Science BSc and MSc course degrees l Nowadays, type B courses are common to the 5 th year of the engineering degree (BSc) l MSc students coming from our BSc (or similar Computer Science Engineering degrees) are exempt from type B courses l One good student, coming from a good 5 year BSc degree, can finish the Master in one year (2 type A courses plus the master thesis in one year) thus finishing a BSc and a MSc in 6 years

The “Bolonha conformant” Computer Science (CS) MSc degree of FCT/UNL “Outline of the course proposal”

Agenda l Approach and methodology l Skills and competences to be acquired by students l Curriculum structure l Offered courses and their structuring l The new concept of specialization l How we compare our degree proposal to similar ones

Course positioning

Methodology Two years degree (second cycle) after a three year first cycle l At course entrance, students must already master the basics of Computer Science (ACM and IEEE curriculum) — this will be enforced by an admission exam if required l Flexibility is paramount - the course allows flexible curriculum tracks and emphasis; the course must allow the student: l ¡ ¡ to master state of the art engineering practices and to get an introduction to computer science research Students, helped by a tutor, are co-responsible for their course choices - almost no mandatory courses l Besides CS, students must improve their skills in several disciplines namely: mathematics, technical and scientific communication and economy and management l Optionally, students may become specialists in a branch of CS by following a concentrating of optional courses l

Course goals and students skills l l l To deepen parts of the ACM/IEEE Computer Science (CS) curriculum State of the art engineering practices and introduction to research Communication and management skills System vision, ability to deal with complexity Autonomy and self-learning skills

Curriculum structure: scientific areas Main area: Computer Science (Informatics) l Complementary areas: l ¡ ¡ ¡ Mathematics Human and Social Sciences Economy and Management Electronics Engineering, . . .

Scientific areas Scientific area Label ECTS Computer Science (Informatics) INF 93 Mathematics MAT 6 Economy and Management EG 6 Human and Social Sciences CHS 3 Open 12 Total 120

Mandatory courses l Introduction to Operations Research (MAT - 6 ECTS) l Economy and Management (EG - 6 ECTS) l Technical and Scientific Communication (CHS - 3 ECTS) l Masters Dissertation (INF - 42 ECTS)

Optional courses l Optional courses in Computer Science (INF - from 51 to 63 ECTS ) l Optional courses in different scientific areas (from 0 to 12 ECTS)

Structure of the Computer Science (INF) optional courses (from 51 to 63 credits) l Initial or basic set courses ¡ l Complementary courses ¡ l Students must obtain at least 18 ECTS in this subset No other constraints besides “course pre-requirements” Advanced topics courses ¡ No other constraints besides “course pre-requirements”

The initial or basic set l Knowledge l Database l Human Representation and Reasoning Systems Computer Interaction l Construction Systems l Software and Analysis of Software Architectures l Distributed Systems

The advanced topics set l Advanced Topics on Decision Support and Artificial Intelligence l Advanced Topics on Parallel and Distributed Computing l Tópicos Avançados em Linguagens e Modelos de Programação l Advanced Topics on Constraint Programming l Advanced Topics on Distributed Systems l Advanced Topics on Information Systems l Advanced Topics on Software Engineering l Advanced Topics on Visualization

Other Computer Science courses l Several different courses l Some deepen the initial set l Some introducing new topics l Please see table

Other optional courses (from 0 to 12 credits) l Applied Statistics l Stochastic Methods l Wireless communications l Digital Systems Synthesis l Computing and Cognitive Sciences l Ethics and Computer Systems l Project Management l. . .

Specializations The course allows the student to optionally concentrate the credits obtained in CS in a specialization l Each CS course can contribute to 0, 1 or more specialization l If the student concentrates up to 30 ECTS in a concentration (chooses courses contributing to that specialization), and presents a dissertation in the same area, it will get a Masters degree with the suffix, “Specialized in. . ” l The specialist concentrates 72 in 93 credits in a special course track l

Available Specializations l Decision Support and Artificial Intelligence Graphical and Multimedia Systems Information Systems Technology Computer Systems and Networks Software Construction and Analysis Software Engineering l See the course table l l l

What is a specialization ? l A specialization is not necessarily a sub scientific area l It can be presented by a menu metaphor — besides the “menu a la carte” there are several pre-composed menus or pre-defined tracks l These menus have different “budgets” and focus

Student tutor l Supports the student in her choices; explains the course structure and the future implications of her choices l Freely chosen by the student or appointed by the degree coordinator l The thesis advisor becomes the student tutor in the second year

How does this course compares to similar ones ? l Very flexible set of curriculum tracks l Several specializations providing from state of the art engineering practices up to introductions to research l( 15 + 12 ) / 120 = 22. 5% credits can be obtained in areas complementary to the main course area