Application Area
Students of the master's program Scientific Computing study an additional an application area (minor subject) as part of their education. In the application area, 16 ECTS points have to be collected by taking suitable courses, usually from the master's program of the minor field.
Typical application areas include the Biosciences, Physics, Economics, Chemistry and Computational Linguistics. In some fields, also very specialized course packages are available. Remark: Please note that some of these minor subjects are presented in German language at Heidelberg University.
To facilitate the selection, the following list gives prearranged module combinations in two different ways:
- An Applications Field is a broad topic where students can chose from a larger variety of courses.
- An Application Focus defines a combination of specific modules that should be taken to understand the research area of specific work groups.
Remark: These packages are suggestions to from the large set of possible courses. In general, any set of master courses that amounts to 16 ECTS in one approved minor subject is fine to complete the application area requirement.
Application Focus: Biophysics
Theoretical Biophysics (lecture+exercise; summer term; 6 ECTS)
Experimental Biophysics (lecture+exercise; winter term; 6 ECTS)
Nonlinear Dynamics (extraordinary course; 2 ECTS)
Stochastic Dynamic (extraordinary course; 2 ECTS)
Research Seminar on special topics of Biophysics (exercise; winter/summer term; 2 ECTS)
Application Focus: Medical Physics
Medical Physics I (4h-lecture; winter term; 6 ECTS)
Medical Physics II (4h-lecture; summer term, 6 ECTS)
Advanced Seminar on Medical Physics (exercise; winter/summer term; 6 ECTS)
Participating researcher: Prof. Jürgen Hesser
Application Focus: Environmental Physics
Fundamentals of Computational Environmental Physics (lecture; winter term; 8 ECTS)
Chaotic and complex environmental systems (lecture; summer term; 4 ECTS)
Seminar Environmental Physics (Prof. K.Roth) (seminar; any time; 6 ECTS)
Application Focus: Biomedical Informatics and Systems Medicine
Introduction to Bioinformatics (Einführung in die Bioinformatik) LSF# 350943 (winter term; 3 ECTS)
Components, Interactions and Networks LSF LSF# 350949 (winter term; 3 ECTS)
Lab Practical at the Dieterich Lab (individual, upon request; 10 ECTS)
Participating external researchers:
Prof. Christoph Dieterich
Prof. Julio Saez-Rodriguez
Application Field: Economics
Economics uses computational methods for a deeper understanding of relationships between economical partners and to derive financial anlysis and forecasts. Students in this area should learn principle theory in micro and/or Macro economics, after which they can further specialize through elective master modules.
- Master module "Microeconomics" (lecture+exercise; winter term; 8 ECTS)
- Master module "Macroeconomics" (lecture+exercise; winter term; 8 ECTS)
- Any elective master module (lecture+exercise; any term; 6 ECTS)
Elective master modules could include "Public Economics" (summer term), "Environmental & Climate Economics" (summer term), "Behavioral Game Theory" (winter term), "Impact Evaluations for Social Programs" (winter term) and many more.
Note that you cannot credit courses that mainly teach mathematical or computational methods of economics!
Link to the master's program in economics.
Application Field: Computational Linguistics
Computational Linguistics is a central topic in scientific computing research and therefore a popular application area in the master program. In co-operation with the department we offer the following modules for students to select their educational pathway in computational linguistics.
- Introduction to Computational Linguistics (bachelor; German; 6 ECTS)
- Statistical Methods for Computational Linguistics (bachelor; German/English; 6 ECTS)
- Empirical Methods for Natural Language Processing and Data Science (master level; English; 8 ECTS)
- Any main seminar (Hauptseminar) in Computational Linguistics (master level; English; 8 ECTS)
Link to the Department of Computational Linguistics
Application Field: Biosciences
- Lectures or seminar modules from the dept. of bioscience (6 ECTS or more). It is best to search for a work group for your internship (see below) and ask the group leader for suitable modules that you can attend.
- Lab internship [SCLI] (8-10 weeks) (practical lab training; any time; 10 ECTS)
Remark: Note that the former lab rotation is now replaced by the lab internship which is offered as a module for any application area (10 ECTS). The lab internship has to be planned well in advance. The practical follows the regulations of the lab internship module.
As short summary:
- Find a supervisor in the biosciences to host the lab practical.
- The lab host defines an internship project for you to work on for the duration of usually 8-10 weeks.
- The module is worth 10 credits (ECTS); the definition of the final exam/evaluation is up to the host - usually a presentation and a written report are evaluated.
- The host directly sens the grading of the internship to the master's program (mastersc@iwr.uni-heidelberg.de).