Application Period Wintersemester 2024/25
The application period for admissions in winter 2024/25 has ended. Admissions will reopen again from 1st April, 2025 till 1st June, 2025 for the winter semester 2025/26. You can find the requirement and application procedure for applying on our application page here
- Total Applications received this time: 1780
- Uni-assist processing complete.
- Selection procedure ongoing.
- Response to accepted students are being sent.
- Rejected candidates will receive their rejection notification later than 15th August, 2024.
- Enrollment details for accepted students here
Slides from the Intro Event
Introduction (Prof. Scheffer)
How to study Data Science (Nina Eißner)
Connect: Please join the DISCORD and SLACK channel. Real names welcome.
Preliminary Semesterticket
You are in the special case that youhave paid your semester fees already but you are waiting for your PUCK (student ID) to be generated, the current semester already started and you need to use the public transportation provided by VBB:
There is the possibility to get a "Vorläufiges Semesterticket" (preliminary semesterticket) from AStA, such that you do not have to pay for public transportation!
Procedure:
- Get a proof of your payment (e.g. money transfer print)
- Visit AStA during their office hours (AStA Bürozeit, left column) or get an appointment outside opening hours (AStA contact) and ask for "Vorläufiges Semesterticket"
- Take your "Vorläufiges Semesterticket"
Study Regulation
The most important document you should know, including an overview of modules and their respective ECTS can be found here:
Discipline-Specific Admission Regulations for the Master’s Program in Data Science at the University of Potsdam.
Please read this document (and possibly existing recent amendments - see here ).
Be aware that there has been an untranslated change to the study regulation on July 03, 2019 where the phrase under §5 "The student must select either the “A” or “B” version of a module, not both." was removed. That means you can now take also both versions of a module in case you want to specialize in a certain field.
Recommended Study Plans
Course Catalogue
Each semester this document is created but unfortunately not provided in English language. Nevertheless, you can find an overview of courses in this PDF:
Course Catalogue Data Science PDF
If you feel more comfortable to browse through the PULS Webpage please find the current course overview here:
Course Catalog Data Science PULS
Also it might be worth exploring the course offer of the Digital Engineering Faculty.
Modules
Modules are containers that can be filled with courses; often, several alternative courses are linked to a module and can be selected. In order to take any course, you have to book the course under a module in the University of Potsdam's study-program management software PULS. In many cases, you can log into PULS and navigate to the node "Vorlesungsverzeichnis / Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Informatik und Computational Science / Master of Science / Data Science" to see which courses are available for each module. Additional courses can be added on request.
Departments and Faculties
The Department of Computer Science, Department of Mathematics, Department of Business Information Systems, and other institutes contribute classes to the master program Data Science. Many classes of the Faculty of Science can be selected for the (advanced) applied data science modules. The Digital Engineering Faculty offers classes for the masters programs IT System Engineering and Data Engineering that can be selected for many modules.
It is worthwhile to browse the complete course catalog of these departments and faculties for courses that relate to the topic of a module but are not linked to the module in PULS. If the faculty member who is responsible for the module agrees that the course is a fit, then the course can be taken. To find out who holds responsibility for a chosen module please talk to the lecturer. The person responsible for the module has to verify your allowance in an e-mail to the Data Science Program Coordinator and the course will be linked to a adequate module. This, however, is only possible in the first two weeks of each semester.
The following paragraphs provide an overview of courses taken under some specific modules, including the semester in case courses are not offered on a regular basis.
Compulsory Modules
MATVMD837 - Statistical Data Analysis - 9 ECTS
MATVMD838 - Bayesian Inference and Data Assimilation - 9 ECTS
INF-DS-C1 - Machine Learning - 9 ECTS
INF-DS-C2 - Data Infrastructures and Software Engineering - 6 ECTS
INF-DS-C3 - Data Science and Business Analytics - 9 ECTS
INF-DS-C4 - Applied Data Science - 6 ECTS
Elective Modules - Advanced Modules
MAT-DSAM2A - Advanced Statistical Data Analysis A - 9 ECTS
MAT-DSAM2B - Advanced Statistical Data Analysis B - 6 ECTS
MAT-DSAM3A - Advanced Data Assimilation and Modeling A - 9 ECTS
MAT-DSAM3B - Advanced Data Assimilation and Modeling B - 6 ECTS
MAT-DSAM8A - Mathematical Foundations of Data Science A - 9 ECTS
MAT-DSAM8A - Mathematical Foundations of Data Science A - 9 ECTS
MAT-DSAM8B - Mathematical Foundations of Data Science B - 6 ECTS
MAT-DSAM8B - Mathematical Foundations of Data Science B - 6 ECTS
BM3 - Advanced Problem Solving Techniques - 9 ECTS
INF-DSAM1A - Advanced Machine Learning A - 9 ECTS
INF-DSAM1B - Advanced Machine Learning B - 6 ECTS
INF-DSAM4A - Advanced Infrastructures and Software Engineering A - 9 ECTS
INF-DSAM4B - Advanced Infrastructures and Software Engineering B - 6 ECTS
INF-DSAM5A - Advanced Business Analytics A - 9 ECTS
INF-DSAM5B - Advanced Business Analytics B - 6 ECTS
INF-DSAM6A - Advanced Applied Data Science A - 9 ECTS
INF-DSAM6B - Advanced Applied Data Science B - 6 ECTS
INF-DSAM7 - Computer Engineering for Big Data - 6 ECTS
INF-DSAM7 - Computer Engineering for Big Data - 6 ECTS
INF-DSAM9 - Computational Foundations of Data Science - 6 ECTS
INF-DSAM9 - Computational Foundations of Data Science - 6 ECTS
INF-DSAM10 - Research Data Management, Law, and Ethics - 6 ECTS
Research Modules and Applied Data Science Internship
[INF-DS-RMA] / [INF-DS-RMA] Research Module A and Research Module B - 12/15 ECTS
[INF-DSAM11] Applied Data Science Internship
Study Organisation
Freiversuch - "Joker"
Most likely you have already heard about the "Freiversuch" or non-binding exams. Here you will find more information: Freiversuch.
Be aware that in the first semester you can basically fail each first exam trial of a module. It will erase your exam fail and will not effect the amount of exam trials you have in general for a module (3 trials). But it will be shown in your transcript that you made use of it.
For the Master program Data Science you additionally have 1 Freiversuch which you can use throughout the first 4 semesters (regular study period) in order to have another exam trial or to improve a grade. It can only be used for one module!
You have to send form "non-binding exam" no later then 14 days after the grades were published to the Central Examination Office.
Corona rule:
All students who were enrolled during the summer semester 2020 and/or winter term 2020/21 can still use their non-binding exam option as defined in the discipline-specific study and examination regulation for an examination that was taken in a regular semester of study (“Fachsemester”) following the end of the standard period of study.
Example to clarify:
A student has been studying in a Bachelor’s program for the standard period of study of six semesters as of the summer semester 2020. Contrary to the provisions in Section 13 (3) BAMA-O/BAMALA-O, the student can still use their non-binding exam option in the winter semester despite having reached their fifth semester of study by following the usual procedure. Students who had already surpassed their standard period of study by one semester in the summer semester 2020 and winter semester 2020/2021 will be informed separately at a given time.
How to book rooms for group work
If you want to choose the room yourself:
1) It is possible to check here: TIMEEDIT which rooms are free. Unfortunately, it is only provided in German but google translate will help.
2) Then you choose a room and compare the room capacity (corona) here: Capacity. This document is only accessible from Uni Network. Best get a VPN.
3) You can then book the room here: Lerngruppe.
Other then that you get a random room only following part 3).
Master Thesis Registration
Unfortunately the registration is only provided in German language at the moment. The respective webpage can be found here: Register Master Thesis Uni Potsdam.
According to BAMA-O §30 (3) you have the right to nominate but it is no guarantee that your proposed supervisors will be accepted. The final decision in respect to supervision is made by the examination board. External examiners supervisors are admissible, but the following rules have to be met.
- At least one of the supervisors has to be a professor and the other supervisor must be qualified to be an examiner.
- At least one supervisor has to be a member of the Department of Computer Science or the Department of Mathematics of the University of Potsdam.
If you have an external supervisor (not from the Department of Computer Science or the Department of Mathematics of the University of Potsdam), please present your topic idea to an internal supervisor (similar to a research project or internship). Once you found two supervisors and a topic please fill out the thesis assignment form below. It has to be signed by you first, then by both supervisors, and then by the head of the examination board who will send it to the central examination office. The form has to be filed before you start working on the thesis. The minimum writing period is 2 months (plus one week of registration duration via central examination office).
Please find the respective Documents here:
Moodle
Most courses use Moodle to distribute teaching materials and announcements. Please register for the courses that you want to take.
Current Job Offers
With your university account you will be able to explore current Job positions in University, well known research institutes or in industry. Job postings include student jobs (WerkstudentIn/Hilfswissenschafliche Mitarbeit), internships or positions with finished degree.
Good Luck!
Not Enough?
You are eager to learn more?! But you cannot squeeze it into your semester load?
Here you can find the online courses offered by the HPI:
Open HPI
Questions?
If you have any question, please contact the counsellor Henning Bordihn or program coordinator Maria Alegre Moral .