Master Media Informatics
Program Structure
Table of Contents
In order to complete the Media Informatics Master program, students must obtain a total/minimum of 120 ECTS credit points (CP) while respecting the subject areas’ requirements as well as completing the compulsory modules and, finally, the master thesis.
| 120 CP | 18 to 22 CP | Compulsory Subjects | 6 to 8 CP | Module: Data Science
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| 6 to 8 CP | Module: Computer Graphics (choose 1 of 2 options)
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| 6 CP | Module: Designing Interactive Systems
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| 14 to 22 CP | Subject area: Computer and Communication Technology (CCT) | up to 35 CP | Multiple subjects from a module catalog | |
| 14 to 26 CP | Subject area: Multimedia Technology (MMT) | up to 35 CP | Multiple subjects from a module catalog | |
| 4 to 16 CP | Subject area: Multimedia Use and Impact (MMUI) | up to 35 CP | Multiple subjects from a module catalog | |
| 17 to 20 CP | Practical Labs | 10 CP | Fraunhofer Lab | |
| 7 to 10 CP | Second Lab from RWTH Aachen University or University of Bonn | |||
| 12 CP | Communication Skills | 4 CP | Seminar | |
| 4 CP | Technical Writing | |||
| 4 CP | German course or, for German proficient students, a non-technical course | |||
| 30 CP | Master thesis | |||
The program’s structure and all currently offered courses can be viewed in RWTH Aachen Unversity’s campus information system RWTHonline. The system and most of its content is available in English and in German. Detailed course descriptions can be found by navigating to the individual courses and clicking on the book icon in the same row.
Note: you can change the language between English and German in the upper right corner.
Subject areas
The MI master program is divided into 6 subject areas providing students with a broad variety of software engineering courses:
- Compulsory Subjects (18 to 22 CP)
- Computer and Communication Technology (14 to 22 CP)
- Multimedia Technology (14 to 26 CP)
- Multimedia Use and Impact (4 to 16 CP)
- Practical Labs (17 to 20 CP)
- Communication Skills (12 CP)
This subject area structure allows students to choose whether they want to generalize (study some courses from all areas) or to specialize (focus on certain areas), while ensuring that the focus is not too narrow. To realize this, each subject area has an upper limit for the credit points that students must consider when choosing their courses from the module catalogs (see individual curriculum section for details).
Compulsory Subjects
Compulsory subjects are courses that all MI students are required to complete. These courses are offered primarily at the b-it building in Bonn and cover three areas:
- Data Science,
- Computer Graphics and
- Designing Interactive Systems.
The following is mandatory:
- Students need to complete one compulsory subject in each of the three areas.
- Students only have two failed attempts for each area. They need to complete each area within three examination attempts.
- For Computer Graphics, alternating courses by Uni Bonn or RWTH Aachen are offered at b-it. Students are only allowed to complete one of both courses. Depending on the course, students may receive 8 CP (offered by Uni Bonn) or 6 CP (offered by RWTH Aachen).
Seminars
Seminar selection
Students must make sure to not miss the seminar and lab selection deadline (usually around January for the following summer term and around June for the following winter term).
Seminars introduce students to academic research and writing and allow students to learn more about a specific area in software engineering. Students must complete one mandatory seminar as part of the area: Communication Skills. The seminar is worth 4 CP.
Students can choose from a broad variety of seminars offered by the many chairs and research groups of the Computer Science department of RWTH Aachen University or University of Bonn.
While seminar selection at RWTH Aachen University is centralized and offered in January/June every year for the upcoming summer/winter semester, seminars at University of Bonn are assigned via individual registrations in the beginning of the respective semester.
Lab course
Lab course selection
Students must make sure to not miss the seminar and lab selection deadline (usually around January for the following summer term and around June for the following winter term).
Lab courses give students the opportunity to conduct a project as a team over a few months. As part of the program, students are required to complete two mandatory lab courses:
- Fraunhofer Lab (10 CP)
- Second Lab (7 to 9 CP)
Students can choose from a broad variety of lab courses offered by the many chairs and research groups of the Computer Science department. Each lab course has a different topic and a different focus (from research-oriented to applied computer science) and some of the lab courses are conducted in cooperation with industry partners.
German course / additional seminar
The mandatory German course enables international students to learn the German language. Students with no prior knowledge do an entry-level German course. Students that already have learned some German can do a higher-level German course. The German courses are offered by RWTH Aachen University’s or University of Bonn’s language center and the mandatory German course is free of charge. The students must pass a German course providing 4 CP, which is a 4-hours-per-week course at the language center.
German-proficient students can choose an additional seminar instead of the German course. Students are considered as German-proficient if they either have German as native language or can provide a proof of sufficient German proficiency. Accepted German proficiency proofs are
- “Deutsch (ZD)” certificate with minimum grade “gut” (good);
- “Test Deutsch als Fremdsprache” (TestDAF) certificate with a niveau level of 3 in all examined areas; and
- “Goethe” certificate with level of at least B2.
Individual curriculum
The students in the MI master program are not provided with a pre-defined curriculum / study schedule. Students are responsible for organizing their curriculum themselves and they have to ensure that in the end they meet the program’s required structure as described above.
This enables students to compose their own curriculum focusing on their individual interests in the area of media informatics (within the mentioned limits). For the core subjects and elective subjects, the students can choose from the respective module catalogs. The majority of modules rarely change, but from time to time courses are added, replaced, or removed from the catalogs. Note that most modules in the catalogs are offered either in summer terms or in winter terms. Additionally, students need to consider that not all modules yield the same amout of credit points.
Most of the elective modules are offered in English allowing students that are not proficient in German to study the MI master program with many courses to choose from. There may be few elective modules that are in German only and MI students are free to choose these as well.
Exceeding a subject area’s credit point limit
Each subject area has an upper limit for the credit points ensuring that MI master students receive a broad education in different areas of multimedia. For the MI curriculum, a student may not exceed a subject area’s upper credit point limit. If an elective course is completed such that the subject area’s limit is exceeded (in order of their examination dates), then the course is considered as an additional course that does not contribute to the student’s MI curriculum and is not counted towards the overall grade for the master.
Exemplary curriculum
The table below shows an exemplary curriculum / study schedule for completing the MI master program within the intended two years (4 semesters):
| Semester | Winter / summer term | CP | Schedule |
| 1. semester | winter term | ~30 |
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| 2. semester | summer term | ~30 |
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| 3. semester | winter term | ~30 |
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| 4. semester | summer term | 30 |
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