Master in Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering COSSE KTH Royal Institute of Technology

The master's programme in Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering (COSSE) focuses on the multidisciplinary field of Computational Science and Engineering, an enabling technology for scientific discovery and engineering design. It involves mathematical modelling, numerical analysis, computer science, high-performance computing and visualisation. The programme is highly research-oriented, and two-thirds of graduates go on to PhD studies at leading universities worldwide.

Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering at KTH, TU Berlin and TU Delft

The master's programme in Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering (COSSE) is a programme within the multidisciplinary field of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), which is an enabling technology for scientific discovery and engineering design. CSE involves mathematical modelling, numerical analysis, computer science, high-performance computing and visualisation. The remarkable development of large-scale computing in recent decades has turned CSE into the "third pillar" of science, complementing theory and experiment.

The programme is a two-year programme including compulsory mobility for the students. It is given jointly by KTH, the Technical University of Berlin in Germany and the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Students will enter one of the universities and continue in their second year at one of the other universities. Generally, students are admitted to TU Berlin for the first year.

The programme includes three semesters of courses followed by a fourth research semester spent on a master's degree project under the supervision of both universities attended. The students receive two degrees from both the first and second-year universities.

Workshop

After the beginning of the second semester, students, scholars and teachers of all partner universities will meet for a joint workshop to advise students on their elective courses, including possible topics for their master's degree project. The workshop will include joint research and cultural activities and provide contacts to research departments in academia and industry.

Degree project

The master's degree project comprises 30 ECTS credits and is carried out in the second half of the second year of the programme. Students are supervised and examined by faculty staff from both the home and the host university. The project work may be performed in a research group at the institute or as a project in an industry or consultancy company.

This is a two-year programme (120 ECTS credits) given in English. Graduates are awarded the degree of Master of Science from KTH and an equivalent degree from the attended universities, respectively. At KTH, the programme is given mainly on its Campus in Stockholm by the School of Engineering Sciences (at KTH).

Topics covered

Computational fluid dynamics, numerical linear algebra, high-performance computing, data assimilation, optimal control, control theory, numerical analysis, biocomputing, bioinformatics, and machine learning.

Students in the master's programme in Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering will become very familiar with the tools of CSE, which include:

• mathematical modelling techniques,
• simulation techniques (discretisations, algorithms, data structures, software in CSE),
• and analysis techniques (data mining, data management, visualisation).

The students will become experts in the generic tools as applied to one of the specialisations offered by the universities. Upon graduation, the students will have acquired:

• familiarity with selected scientific and engineering application areas and their mathematical models.
• a knowledge base and skills ranging from formulating mathematical models to constructing software for high-performance computer architectures.
• effective communication skills for interacting on written and oral presentations with the professional community as well as management and society at large.
• a degree of independent and critical appraisal of the capability and limitations of, and results produced by, computational modelling.

As to career opportunities, a degree from the master's programme in Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering opens several opportunities:

• to join the international research community by continuing PhD studies in the CSE and science/engineering fields where simulation and high-performance computing are applied: fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, molecular physics, quantum chemistry, material science, chemical engineering, structural mechanics, biocomputing, and many more.
• to gain employment in "end-user" high-tech industry and "provider companies", using and developing tools for advanced computer simulation in, for example, the pharmaceutical, automotive, materials, aeronautics, power generation, and microelectronics industry.
• to start new innovative companies which are based on CSE expertise.

The programme is highly research-oriented. So far, roughly two-thirds of the graduates have continued with a PhD position at the consortium partners KTH, TU Berlin, and TU Delft, as well as other leading international universities, for example, MIT (USA), Oxford University (UK), Purdue University (USA), Uppsala University (Sweden), ETH (Switzerland), Karolinska Institute (Sweden), University Melbourne (Australia), INRIA (France), Simon Fraser University (Canada), UPC Barcelona (Spain), NTU Singapore, and many others.

The graduates of this programme are also in high demand in the labour market. Graduates work in large and smaller companies such as Ericsson (Sweden), IBM Peking (China), BASF (Germany), Tata Steel (The Netherlands), DeCode genetics (Iceland), Sabic (India), AT Kearney (The Netherlands), HERE (Germany), TNO (The Netherlands) and many others.