Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 27, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Saarland University has launched the new interdisciplinary “Visual Computing” master’s degree program, for which students with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, physics, electrical engineering and other related subjects can apply.
Participants in the new degree program are first taught how images are generated, for example in a digital camera or an ultrasound scanner. In addition, they learn how to process and analyze images, for example by filtering medical images so that tumors can be recognized more easily. It also deals with how images and animations can be generated artificially so that they reflect reality as accurately as possible.
The English-language master’s degree program starts in the winter semester 2006/2007 and is designed to last four semesters. Applications are possible until September 15, 2006. Computer science, mathematics and mechatronics at Saarland University are involved in the new degree program. In addition, medical engineering at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering in St. Ingbert and the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science in Saarbrücken are involved.
The Saarbrücken professors involved in the master’s degree program have earned an international reputation. This is reflected, among other things, in the high scientific awards: Prof. Hans-Peter Seidel, director at the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science, received the Leibniz Prize in 2003 for his research work. Philipp Slusallek, professor of computer graphics at Saarland University, brought the real-time ray tracing process, an interactive visualization technique, to market maturity and, together with his team, received the European IST Prize 2005, among other awards, for this work. Joachim Weickert, professor of mathematical image processing at the university, and his group received the Longuet-Higgins Award, the highest European award in the field of computer vision, in 2004 for the world’s most accurate method for motion analysis. Prof. Dr. Günter Rolf Fuhr, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering, also received the Philip Morris Prize in 2002.
Knowledge in the field of “Visual Computing” is in demand in many industries today: In medical engineering, methods are being researched for reconstructing ultrasound images and magnetic resonance imaging scans in high quality. The automotive industry is developing driver assistance systems that warn, for example, when a child runs in front of the car. Digital motion analyses are necessary for robotics in order to design better control systems. Manufacturers of multimedia systems are researching methods that can compress video data in such a way that no essential image information is lost. Numerous image-processing companies are working on fast methods for industrial quality control. In addition, experts who also master the theoretical foundations of digital image processing and computer graphics are in demand in the games and film industries as well as media design.
Saarland University has compiled information about the “Visual Computing” master’s degree program on the web (address below).
Further links:
- Information about the “Visual Computing” degree program