Micro-Degree Offers in Quarter 4

Big data and cloud computing are leading edge IT technologies that team together as key enablers for today’s IT industry with its emerging AI-based solutions.
In this module, students learn about the basics and advanced topics of big data and cloud computing.
We look into the interplay of existing big data and cloud computing technologies, platforms and systems, their design and implementation, and their utilization in industrial and commercial applications.

Learning Objectives

• Remembering the motivation, basics and terminology of big data and cloud computing.
• Understanding the principles of distributed data processing.
• Applying big data and cloud computing APIs and tools.
• Analyzing the role of cloud providers and the business impact of cloud computing.
• Evaluating cloud-based system architectures.
• Creating the next generation of AI and data processing solutions.

Module Instructor: Prof. Dr. Raad Bin Tareaf

This module aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how immersive technologies create engaging and interactive experiences by blending the digital and physical worlds. Students will explore the technical aspects of developing immersive content including 3D modelling, real-time rendering, and user interaction.

Learning Objectives

• Grasp the core principles and ecosystems of immersive technologies, including their hardware and software.
• Acquire technical skills for designing user-centered immersive experiences, encompassing 3D modeling, animation, real-time rendering, and interface design.
• Evaluate the use of immersive technologies across industries to understand their impact, benefits, and challenges.

Module Instructor: Prof. Dr. Daniele Di Mitri

Irrespective of the area of implementation, digitalization and digital transformation pose complex challenges. Often, problems are not well-defined and need to be tackled in diverse areas being aware of many interrelated elements. The skill to solve complex problems belongs to a set of so-called "future skills", which are needed to thrive in and design the digital age.

Learning Objectives

• Develop theoretical, methodological, and problem-solving skills to address complex issues.
• Practice teamwork, including conflict management, while enhancing cognitive, emotional, and social abilities.
• Present complex problems and solutions effectively to an audience, incorporating feedback and critique.

Module Instructor: Dr. Maurice Steinhoff

This course equips participants with essential knowledge and skills to navigate the rapidly evolving field of cybersecurity. It provides a foundational understanding of key concepts such as the CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability) triad, common threats, and attack vectors, helping students understand and address today’s cyber threat landscape.

Learning Objectives

• Gain theoretical and methodological knowledge in cybersecurity while reinforcing IT fundamentals, including networking, operating systems, and software with a cybersecurity focus.
• Understand key security issues, attack categories, the cyber kill chain, and principles and technologies of modern cybersecurity.
• Explore current practices, emerging challenges, and research trends in the field of cybersecurity.

Module Instructor: Dr. Pejman Najafi

This Course is an introduction to symbolic AI. First the basics of logic systems are discussed, followed by the presentation of combinatorial algorithms for the solution of AI problems. Prolog is used as the implementation language. Students learn to prove assertions of predicate logic and implement simple proof systems in Prolog.

Learning Objectives

• Learn logic, proof systems, and combinatorial algorithms, and apply them to solve symbolic problems.
• Develop programming skills for symbolic AI systems and practice teamwork on benchmark problems.
• Master various proof methods for tackling symbolic challenges effectively.

Module Instructor: Dr. Felix Weitkämper

The course provides a deep dive into software development. Software is a crucial component of every modern device and plays an essential role. To better understand the process behind software development, the coding camp places students into a team software development project in which they get to understand and experience it.

Learning Objectives

• Students are aware of and can explain different models of software development, such as agile as well as traditional development principles.
• Students experience working and developing code for a project in a (small) team.
• Students have developed and experienced the lifecycle of a software development project.

Module Instructor: Dr. Thomas Staubitz

Applying digital capabilities to processes, products, and assets improves efficiency, enhances customer value, and creates new revenue opportunities. This course provides an advanced understanding of digital technologies and focuses on digital media, and the fundamentals of the Internet, the WWW, and emerging digital technologies.

Learning Objectives

• Provide students with advanced understanding and design capabilities of digital technologies.
• Be prepared to assess the potentials of and be able to apply digital technologies in companies as well as in public institutions.

Module Instructor: Profs. Drs. Christoph Meinel and Mike Friedrichsen

This module is part of the "Rootcamp" which onboards students to the program, the teaching and learning methods. Irrespective of the area of implementation, digitalization and digital transformation pose complex challenges. Often, problems are not well-defined and need to be tackled in diverse areas being aware of many interrelated elements. Therefore, the skill to solve complex problems belongs to a set of so-called "future skills", which humans need to thrive in and design the digital age.

Learning Objectives

• Acquire subject-specific theoretical and methodological knowledge.
• Understand and work on features of complex problems.
• Practice cognitive, emotional and social skills in a team.
• Practice teamwork and conflict management.
• Present complex problems and possible solution scenarios in front of an audience and in the face of critique.

Module Instructor: Dr. Maurice Steinhoff

This course offers students a practical, hands-on experience in developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, focusing on limited-scope but complex real-world problems. Instead of recognizing faces, fingerprints, or speech across large, undefined populations, students tackle AI challenges within a constrained group (e.g., identifying 100 individuals or recognizing a small vocabulary). Through the full solution pipeline—from data capture to model development and cloud deployment—students gain deep insight into both the technical and practical aspects of AI.

Students select a focused AI problem, such as face recognition, fingerprint identification, pedestrian detection, or speech recognition with limited vocabulary, and work in small teams to develop a complete, functioning system. They will either build a new dataset or adapt existing ones, apply AI frameworks and libraries, and deploy their solutions in the cloud. The course culminates in a team presentation showcasing the working system, lessons learned, and their development journey.

By the end of the course, participants will have developed critical skills in AI model development, teamwork, project management, cloud integration, and real-world problem solving—preparing them for future careers or advanced studies in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Requirements

Students should have basic knowledge of machine learning concepts, programming experience in Python, and familiarity with AI libraries such as TensorFlow or PyTorch. Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and version control tools (e.g., Git) is helpful but not required. Teamwork and communication skills are essential for successful project completion.

Module Instructor: Prof. Dr. Raad Bin Tareaf

This module explores the transformative impact of digital ecosystems and platforms on the contemporary business landscape. Students will examine how these interconnected systems create value, reshape market dynamics, and challenge traditional business models.

Students will gain a comprehensive economic understanding of digital ecosystems and platforms, equipping them with the skills to navigate and leverage these modern business frameworks effectively.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the characteristics, opportunities, and challenges of digital ecosystems and platforms.
• Understand how digital ecosystems and platforms create value for stakeholders and how to assess their economic significance.
• Develop strategic insights for launching and managing successful digital platforms.

Module Instructor: Prof. Dr. Marco Bade

In this module, the students learn how to in-terpret, modify and create new deep learning architectures. We look at the different kinds of networking, activation functions and shortcuts, developing a classification of architectural principles that can be used for new projects.

One important aspect is also understanding how to train networks and simplify them later, using self-learning principles.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the pillars of sustainability and their effects on organizational behavior and performance
• Understand business ethics and be able to apply ethical managerial practice in diverse contexts
• Practice communication skills
• Practice teamwork and problem solving
• Are given the opportunity for self-assessment

The "Haptics and Multisensory Integration" course delves into the science and technology behind tactile feedback and the integration of multiple sensory channels. Students explore haptic hardware systems, such as wearable devices and tactile surfaces, along with the algorithms that simulate touch and force in virtual environments.

The course also examines the psychological foundations of sensory integration, helping students understand how humans combine sight, sound, and touch into coherent experiences. Emphasis is placed on designing multisensory user experiences for virtual reality, human-computer interaction, robotics, and teleoperation systems.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the fundamental principles of haptic technology and multisensory integration.
• Develop skills in designing and imple-menting haptic feedback systems and multisensory experiences, focusing on enhancing user interaction and immersion in digital environments.
• Analyze and evaluate the impact of haptics and multisensory integration on user experience, identifying best practices for various applications in VR, AR, and other interactive technologies.
• Gain practical experience through projects that involve the creation and testing of multisensory systems, demon-strating the ability to effectively integrate haptic feedback and other sensory modalities into interactive applications.

Module Instructor: Prof. Dr. Daniele Di Mitri

Software systems and web applications are being used in more and more scenarios. As a result, these systems are becoming more complex, and the security of these software systems is becoming increasingly important.

This module focuses on methods and ap-proaches for developing secure applications (e.g. secure coding and security by design). It also looks at different security measures for web applications, applications for smartphones/tablets and traditional applications. This module also covers various analysis methods that enable the identification and analysis of vulnerabilities and corresponding attack vectors at both theoretical and practical level.

Learning Objectives

• Students understand the challenges of developing se-cure and highly complex software systems.
• Students know common security measures and concepts for different categories of applications.
• Students know possible analysis methods for identifying and analyzing vulnerabilities and attack possibilities and can use them accordingly.
• Students can independently access and use suitable sources of information to solve problems.
• Students acquire experience in dealing with analysis systems and tools.
• Students have gained an insight into current state and open challenges of practice and research on the topic of Software & Application security.

Module Instructor: Dr. Pejman Najafi

The goal of cybersecurity is to identify cyber risks and reduce them to an acceptable level. From a strategic view, an organization’s cyber-security program and cyber risk management has to fulfill five core functions. There have to be processes to identify cyber risks, a deployment of safeguards and detection capabilities, as well as organizational and technical measures to respond and recover from a cyber incident.

The module provides students with an over-view and understanding of the principles of information security management that are commonly used in industry. It introduces widely used cybersecurity standards, frameworks, and methods. It explores critically the suitability and appropriateness of these standards, frameworks and methods for addressing challenges on today's organizational security requirements.

Learning Objectives

• Students understand key themes and principles of information security management.
• Students learn relevant knowledge on governance and security policy, legal and compliance, Security awareness and security implementation considerations, security standards and check-lists.
• Students practice common methods for risk management, threat and vulnerability analysis, critical infrastructure security, information leakage detection and prevention, incident response, disaster recovery.
• Students evaluate the interrelationship between various elements of information security management and roles in protecting organizations.
• Students can apply principles, knowledge, and methods in designing and implementing solutions to managing security risks effectively.

Module Instructor: Prof. Dr. Tim Stuchtey

Considering increased and exponential requirements of Citizen Services, restricted public sector budgets and the extreme necessity to attend publics as much as possible with less resources and timing the option of Digital transformation in Public Sector is more than a relieved solution it is the starting point of a new wave of Services that provide all the information needed by Citizens on-time, with accuracy, integrity and safely and at the best possible quality and equity.
Public Digital Services imply the proper understanding of Citizens critical information requirements in order to properly receive public services based on appropriated info systems designed with modern tools and based on current available IT technologies and based on the philosophy of Services Oriented Computing.
Business Process Management, Business Technology Platforms, Artificial Intelligent Services, Big Data, Cloud computing, Communication systems, Agile technologies, End -
User oriented applications and Systems Management are the leading edge IT and management technologies holistically designed to work together as key enablers for today’s Public Services AI-based solutions.
In this module, students learn about the basics and advanced topics of Public Digital Services.

Learning Objectives

• Understanding of current global environment of Digital Public Sector
• Understanding new approach of Digital Public Services applying new IT (including AI) and management techniques 
• Refresh and Acquire new knowledge on Digital Public Services to XXI Citizens
• Discussion of best alternatives to create new Digital Public Services
• Understand current AI limits in Public Sector, from ethics and compliance to regulations, from implementation to testing and evaluation
• Discuss the future of Digital Public Services

Module Instructor: Prof. Lorenzo Valle Garcilazo

This module delves into the intersection of entrepreneurship, finance, and innovation, exploring how funding mechanisms and financial strategies are integral to the growth and success of innovative start-ups. Students will learn about the unique challenges and opportunities faced by entrepreneurial ventures in securing funding, and how these financial decisions influence their innovation trajectories.

Students will develop a robust understanding of the entrepreneurial finance landscape, enabling them to effectively navigate funding options, assess investor motivations, and implement strategic financial decisions to foster innovation and growth in start-ups.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the unique characteristics of entrepreneurial ventures compared to traditional businesses.
• Evaluate the various funding sources available to start-ups, including their advantages and limitations.
• Develop skills for assessing and negotiating contracts with investors, including cash flow rights, control rights, and corporate governance.

Module Instructor: Prof. Dr. Marco Bade

The advancements of digital technologies put companies across industries under pressure to digitize their internal processes, focus on new ways of customer value creation and develop and implement new business models. This requires significant changes within organizations and requires managers and executives at different levels to have advanced specific skills.

The module focuses on advanced theoretical as well as practical frameworks and methods for leadership in the digital world as well as the required change management tools to achieve digital transformation within an organization.

Learning Objectives

• Provide students with an understanding of advanced concepts of leadership and change management in the digital age.
• have in-depth knowledge of the change management process
• apply leadership theories and change management concepts in practice, e.g. in companies of various industries or public institutionshow to create and realize new business ideas outside and inside of existing organizations

Module Instructor: Prof. Dr. Georg Loscher