Search result: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2018

Computer Science Master Information
Interfocus Courses
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
263-0008-00LComputational Intelligence Lab
Only for master students, otherwise a special permission by the study administration of D-INFK is required.
O8 credits2V + 2U + 1AT. Hofmann
AbstractThis laboratory course teaches fundamental concepts in computational science and machine learning with a special emphasis on matrix factorization and representation learning. The class covers techniques like dimension reduction, data clustering, sparse coding, and deep learning as well as a wide spectrum of related use cases and applications.
ObjectiveStudents acquire fundamental theoretical concepts and methodologies from machine learning and how to apply these techniques to build intelligent systems that solve real-world problems. They learn to successfully develop solutions to application problems by following the key steps of modeling, algorithm design, implementation and experimental validation.

This lab course has a strong focus on practical assignments. Students work in groups of two to three people, to develop solutions to three application problems: 1. Collaborative filtering and recommender systems, 2. Text sentiment classification, and 3. Road segmentation in aerial imagery.

For each of these problems, students submit their solutions to an online evaluation and ranking system, and get feedback in terms of numerical accuracy and computational speed. In the final part of the course, students combine and extend one of their previous promising solutions, and write up their findings in an extended abstract in the style of a conference paper.

(Disclaimer: The offered projects may be subject to change from year to year.)
Contentsee course description
Focus Courses
Focus Courses in Computational Science
Focus Core Courses Computational Science
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
263-2300-00LHow To Write Fast Numerical Code Information Restricted registration - show details
Does not take place this semester.
Number of participants limited to 84.

Prerequisite: Master student, solid C programming skills.
W6 credits3V + 2UM. Püschel
AbstractThis course introduces the student to the foundations and state-of-the-art techniques in developing high performance software for numerical functionality such as linear algebra and others. The focus is on optimizing for the memory hierarchy and for special instruction sets. Finally, the course will introduce the recent field of automatic performance tuning.
ObjectiveSoftware performance (i.e., runtime) arises through the interaction of algorithm, its implementation, and the microarchitecture the program is run on. The first goal of the course is to provide the student with an understanding of this interaction, and hence software performance, focusing on numerical or mathematical functionality. The second goal is to teach a general systematic strategy how to use this knowledge to write fast software for numerical problems. This strategy will be trained in a few homeworks and semester-long group projects.
ContentThe fast evolution and increasing complexity of computing platforms pose a major challenge for developers of high performance software for engineering, science, and consumer applications: it becomes increasingly harder to harness the available computing power. Straightforward implementations may lose as much as one or two orders of magnitude in performance. On the other hand, creating optimal implementations requires the developer to have an understanding of algorithms, capabilities and limitations of compilers, and the target platform's architecture and microarchitecture.

This interdisciplinary course introduces the student to the foundations and state-of-the-art techniques in high performance software development using important functionality such as linear algebra functionality, transforms, filters, and others as examples. The course will explain how to optimize for the memory hierarchy, take advantage of special instruction sets, and, if time permits, how to write multithreaded code for multicore platforms. Much of the material is based on state-of-the-art research.

Further, a general strategy for performance analysis and optimization is introduced that the students will apply in group projects that accompany the course. Finally, the course will introduce the students to the recent field of automatic performance tuning.
Focus Elective Courses Computational Science
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0526-00LStatistical Learning Theory Information W6 credits2V + 3PJ. M. Buhmann
AbstractThe course covers advanced methods of statistical learning :
Statistical learning theory;variational methods and optimization, e.g., maximum entropy techniques, information bottleneck, deterministic and simulated annealing; clustering for vectorial, histogram and relational data; model selection; graphical models.
ObjectiveThe course surveys recent methods of statistical learning. The fundamentals of machine learning as presented in the course "Introduction to Machine Learning" are expanded and in particular, the theory of statistical learning is discussed.
Content# Theory of estimators: How can we measure the quality of a statistical estimator? We already discussed bias and variance of estimators very briefly, but the interesting part is yet to come.

# Variational methods and optimization: We consider optimization approaches for problems where the optimizer is a probability distribution. Concepts we will discuss in this context include:

* Maximum Entropy
* Information Bottleneck
* Deterministic Annealing

# Clustering: The problem of sorting data into groups without using training samples. This requires a definition of ``similarity'' between data points and adequate optimization procedures.

# Model selection: We have already discussed how to fit a model to a data set in ML I, which usually involved adjusting model parameters for a given type of model. Model selection refers to the question of how complex the chosen model should be. As we already know, simple and complex models both have advantages and drawbacks alike.

# Statistical physics models: approaches for large systems approximate optimization, which originate in the statistical physics (free energy minimization applied to spin glasses and other models); sampling methods based on these models
Lecture notesA draft of a script will be provided;
transparencies of the lectures will be made available.
LiteratureHastie, Tibshirani, Friedman: The Elements of Statistical Learning, Springer, 2001.

L. Devroye, L. Gyorfi, and G. Lugosi: A probabilistic theory of pattern recognition. Springer, New York, 1996
Prerequisites / NoticeRequirements:

knowledge of the Machine Learning course
basic knowledge of statistics, interest in statistical methods.

It is recommended that Introduction to Machine Learning (ML I) is taken first; but with a little extra effort Statistical Learning Theory can be followed without the introductory course.
Seminar Computational Science
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-5251-00LComputational Science
Takes place for the last time.
W2 credits2SP. Arbenz, P. Chatzidoukas
AbstractClass participants study and make a 40 minute presentation (in English) on fundamental papers of Computational Science. A preliminary discussion of the talk (structure, content, methodology) with the responsible professor is required. The talk has to be given in a way that the other seminar participants can understand it and learn from it. Participation throughout the semester is mandatory.
ObjectiveStudying and presenting fundamental works of Computational Science. Learning how to make a scientific presentation.
ContentClass participants study and make a 40 minute presentation (in English) on fundamental papers of Computational Science. A preliminary discussion of the talk (structure, content, methodology) with the responsible professor is required. The talk has to be given in a way that the other seminar participants can understand it and learn from it. Participation throughout the semester is mandatory.
Lecture notesnone
LiteraturePapers will be distributed in the first seminar in the first week of the semester
252-5704-00LAdvanced Methods in Computer Graphics Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 24.
W2 credits2SM. Gross
AbstractThis seminar covers advanced topics in computer graphics with a focus on the latest research results. Topics include modeling, rendering, visualization,
animation, physical simulation, computational photography, and others.
ObjectiveThe goal is to obtain an in-depth understanding of actual problems and
research topics in the field of computer graphics as well as improve
presentation and critical analysis skills.
Focus Courses in Distributed Systems
Focus Core Courses Distributed Systems
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
227-0558-00LPrinciples of Distributed Computing Information W6 credits2V + 2U + 1AR. Wattenhofer, M. Ghaffari
AbstractWe study the fundamental issues underlying the design of distributed systems: communication, coordination, fault-tolerance, locality, parallelism, self-organization, symmetry breaking, synchronization, uncertainty. We explore essential algorithmic ideas and lower bound techniques.
ObjectiveDistributed computing is essential in modern computing and communications systems. Examples are on the one hand large-scale networks such as the Internet, and on the other hand multiprocessors such as your new multi-core laptop. This course introduces the principles of distributed computing, emphasizing the fundamental issues underlying the design of distributed systems and networks: communication, coordination, fault-tolerance, locality, parallelism, self-organization, symmetry breaking, synchronization, uncertainty. We explore essential algorithmic ideas and lower bound techniques, basically the "pearls" of distributed computing. We will cover a fresh topic every week.
ContentDistributed computing models and paradigms, e.g. message passing, shared memory, synchronous vs. asynchronous systems, time and message complexity, peer-to-peer systems, small-world networks, social networks, sorting networks, wireless communication, and self-organizing systems.

Distributed algorithms, e.g. leader election, coloring, covering, packing, decomposition, spanning trees, mutual exclusion, store and collect, arrow, ivy, synchronizers, diameter, all-pairs-shortest-path, wake-up, and lower bounds
Lecture notesAvailable. Our course script is used at dozens of other universities around the world.
LiteratureLecture Notes By Roger Wattenhofer. These lecture notes are taught at about a dozen different universities through the world.

Distributed Computing: Fundamentals, Simulations and Advanced Topics
Hagit Attiya, Jennifer Welch.
McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-07-709352 6

Introduction to Algorithms
Thomas Cormen, Charles Leiserson, Ronald Rivest.
The MIT Press, 1998, ISBN 0-262-53091-0 oder 0-262-03141-8

Disseminatin of Information in Communication Networks
Juraj Hromkovic, Ralf Klasing, Andrzej Pelc, Peter Ruzicka, Walter Unger.
Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, 2005, ISBN 3-540-00846-2

Introduction to Parallel Algorithms and Architectures: Arrays, Trees, Hypercubes
Frank Thomson Leighton.
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1991, ISBN 1-55860-117-1

Distributed Computing: A Locality-Sensitive Approach
David Peleg.
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), 2000, ISBN 0-89871-464-8
Prerequisites / NoticeCourse pre-requisites: Interest in algorithmic problems. (No particular course needed.)
Focus Elective Courses Distributed Systems
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0312-00LUbiquitous Computing Information W3 credits2VF. Mattern, S. Mayer
AbstractUbiquitous computing integrates tiny wirelessly connected computers and sensors into the environment and everyday objects. Main topics: The vision of ubiquitous computing, trends in technology, smart cards, RFID, Personal Area Networks (Bluetooth), sensor networks, location awareness, privacy and security, application areas, economic and social impact.
ObjectiveThe vision of ubiquitous computing, trends in technology, smart cards, RFID, Personal Area Networks (Bluetooth), sensor networks, location awareness, privacy and security, application areas, economic and social impact.
Lecture notesCopies of slides will be made available
LiteratureWill be provided in the lecture. To put you in the mood:
Mark Weiser: The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American, September 1991, pp. 94-104
252-0807-00LInformation Systems Laboratory Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 12.

In the Master Programme max. 10 credits can be accounted by Labs on top of the Interfocus Courses. Additional Labs will be listed on the Addendum.
W10 credits9PM. Norrie
AbstractThe purpose of this laboratory course is to practically explore modern techniques to build large-scale distributed information systems. Participants will work in groups of three or more students, and develop projects in several phases.
ObjectiveThe students will gain experience of working with technologies used in the design and development of information systems.
ContentFirst week: Kick-off meeting and project assignment
Second week: Meeting with the project supervisor to discuss the goals and scope of the project.
During the semester: Individual group work. Each team member should contribute to the project roughly about 10h/week, excluding any necessary reading or self-studying (e.g. the time spent to learn a new technology). In addition, it is expected that each team can meet with their supervisor on a regular basis.
End of semester: Final presentation.
252-0817-00LDistributed Systems Laboratory Information
In the Master Programme max. 10 credits can be accounted by Labs
on top of the Interfocus Courses. Additional Labs will be listed on the Addendum.
W10 credits9PG. Alonso, T. Hoefler, F. Mattern, T. Roscoe, A. Singla, R. Wattenhofer, C. Zhang
AbstractThis course involves the participation in a substantial development and/or evaluation project involving distributed systems technology. There are projects available in a wide range of areas: from web services to ubiquitous computing including as well wireless networks, ad-hoc networks, and distributed application on mobile phones.
ObjectiveStudents acquire practical knowledge about technologies from the area of distributed systems.
ContentThis course involves the participation in a substantial development and/or evaluation project involving distributed systems technology. There are projects available in a wide range of areas: from web services to ubiquitous computing including as well wireless networks, ad-hoc networks, and distributed application on mobile phones. The objecte of the project is for the students to gain hands-on-experience with real products and the latest technology in distributed systems. There is no lecture associated to the course.
For information of the course or projects available, please contact Prof. Mattern, Prof. Wattenhofer, Prof. Roscoe or Prof. G. Alonso.
263-3501-00LAdvanced Computer Networks Information W5 credits2V + 2UA. Singla, P. M. Stüdi
AbstractThis course covers a set of advanced topics in computer networks. The focus is on principles, architectures, and protocols used in modern networked systems, such as the Internet and data center networks.
ObjectiveThe goals of the course are to build on basic undergraduate-level networking, and provide an understanding of the tradeoffs and existing technology in the design of large, complex networked systems, together with concrete experience of the challenges through a series of lab exercises.
ContentThe focus of the course is on principles, architectures, and protocols used in modern networked systems. Topics include data center network topologies, software defined networking, network function virtualization, flow control and congestion control in data centers, end-point optimizations, and server virtualization.
263-3710-00LMachine Perception Information Restricted registration - show details
Students, who have already taken 263-3700-00 User Interface Engineering are not allowed to register for this course!
W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AO. Hilliges
AbstractRecent developments in neural network (aka “deep learning”) have drastically advanced the performance of machine perception systems in a variety of areas including drones, self-driving cars and intelligent UIs. This course is a deep dive into details of the deep learning algorithms and architectures for a variety of perceptual tasks.
ObjectiveStudents will learn about fundamental aspects of modern deep learning approaches for perception. Students will learn to implement, train and debug their own neural networks and gain a detailed understanding of cutting-edge research in learning-based computer vision, robotics and HCI. The final project assignment will involve training a complex neural network architecture and applying it on a real-world dataset of human motion.

The core competency acquired through this course is a solid foundation in deep-learning algorithms to process and interpret human input into computing systems. In particular, students should be able to develop systems that deal with the problem of recognizing people in images, detecting and describing body parts, inferring their spatial configuration, performing action/gesture recognition from still images or image sequences, also considering multi-modal data, among others.
ContentWe will focus on teaching how to set up the problem of machine perception, the learning algorithms (e.g. backpropagation), practical engineering aspects as well as advanced deep learning algorithms including generative models.

The course covers the following main areas:
I) Machine-learning algorithms for input recognition, computer vision and image classification (human pose, object detection, gestures, etc.)
II) Deep-learning models for the analysis of time-series data (temporal sequences of motion)
III) Learning of generative models for synthesis and prediction of human activity.

Specific topics include: 
• Deep learning basics:
○ Neural Networks and training (i.e., backpropagation)
○ Feedforward Networks
○ Recurrent Neural Networks
• Deep Learning techniques user input recognition:
○ Convolutional Neural Networks for classification
○ Fully Convolutional architectures for dense per-pixel tasks (i.e., segmentation)
○ LSTMs & related for time series analysis
○ Generative Models (GANs, Variational Autoencoders)
• Case studies from research in computer vision, HCI, robotics and signal processing
LiteratureDeep Learning
Book by Ian Goodfellow and Yoshua Bengio
Prerequisites / NoticeThis is an advanced grad-level course that requires a background in machine learning. Students are expected to have a solid mathematical foundation, in particular in linear algebra, multivariate calculus, and probability. The course will focus on state-of-the-art research in deep-learning and is not meant as extensive tutorial of how to train deep networks with Tensorflow..

Please take note of the following conditions:
1) The number of participants is limited to 100 students (MSc and PhDs).
2) Students must have taken the exam in Machine Learning (252-0535-00) or have acquired equivalent knowledge
3) All practical exercises will require basic knowledge of Python and will use libraries such as TensorFlow, scikit-learn and scikit-image. We will provide introductions to TensorFlow and other libraries that are needed but will not provide introductions to basic programming or Python.

The following courses are strongly recommended as prerequisite:
* "Machine Learning"
* "Visual Computing" or "Computer Vision"

The course will be assessed by a final written examination in English. No course materials or electronic devices can be used during the examination. Note that the examination will be based on the contents of the lectures, the associated reading materials and the exercises.
Seminar in Distributed Systems
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-3600-02LSmart Systems Seminar Information W2 credits2SO. Hilliges, S. Coros, F. Mattern
AbstractSeminar on various topics from the broader areas of Ubiquitous Computing, Human Computer Interaction, Robotics and Digital Fabrication.
ObjectiveLearn about various current topics from the broader areas of Ubiquitous Computing, Human Computer Interaction, Robotics and Digital Fabrication.
Prerequisites / NoticeThere will be an orientation event several weeks before the start of the semester (possibly at the end of the preceding semester) where also first topics will be assigned to students. Please check Link for further information.
263-3830-00LSoftware Defined Networking: The Data Centre Perspective Information W2 credits2ST. Roscoe, D. Wagenknecht-Dimitrova
AbstractSoftware Defined Networks (SDN) is a change supported not only by research but also industry and redifens how traditional network management and configuration is been done.
ObjectiveThrough review and discussion of literature on an exciting new trend in networking, the students get the opportunity to get familiar with one of the most promising new developments in data centre connectivity, while at the same time they can develop soft skills related to the evaluation and presentation of professional content.
ContentSoftware Defined Networks (SDN) is a change supported not only by research but also industry and redifens how traditional network management and configuration is been done. Although much has been already investigated and there are already functional SDN-enabled switches there are many open questions ahead of the adoption of SDN inside and outside the data centre (traditional or cloud-based). With a series of seminars we will reflect on the challenges, adoption strategies and future trends of SDN to create an understanding how SDN is affecting the network operators' industry.
LiteratureThe seminar is based on recent publications by academia and industry. Links to the publications are placed on the Seminar page and can be downloaded from any location with access to the ETH campus network.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe seminar bases on active and interactive participation of the students.
263-3840-00LHardware Architectures for Machine Learning Information W2 credits2SG. Alonso, T. Hoefler, O. Mutlu, C. Zhang
AbstractThe seminar covers recent results in the increasingly important field of hardware acceleration for data science and machine learning, both in dedicated machines or in data centers.
ObjectiveThe seminar aims at students interested in the system aspects of machine learning, who are willing to bridge the gap across traditional disciplines: machine learning, databases, systems, and computer architecture.
ContentThe seminar is intended to cover recent results in the increasingly important field of hardware acceleration for data science and machine learning, both in dedicated machines or in data centers.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe seminar should be of special interest to students intending to complete a master's thesis or a doctoral dissertation in related topics.
263-4845-00LDistributed Stream Processing: Systems and Algorithms Information
Does not take place this semester.
W2 credits2S
AbstractIn this seminar, we will study the design and architecture of modern distributed streaming systems as well as fundamental algorithms for analyzing data streams. We will also consider current research topics and open issues in the area of distributed stream processing.
ObjectiveThe seminar will focus on high-impact research contributions addressing open issues in the design and implementation of modern distributed stream processors. In particular, the students will read, review, present, and discuss a series of research and industrial papers.
ContentModern distributed stream processing technology enables continuous, fast, and reliable analysis of large-scale unbounded datasets. Stream processing has recently become highly popular across industry and academia due to its capabilities to both improve established data processing tasks and to facilitate novel applications with real-time requirements.

The students will read, review, present, and discuss a series of research and industrial papers covering the following topics:

- Fault-tolerance and processing guarantees
- State management
- Windowing semantics and optimizations
- Basic data stream mining algorithms (e.g. sampling, counting, filtering)
- Query languages and libraries for stream processing (e.g. Complex Event Processing, online machine learning)
227-0126-00LAdvanced Topics in Networked Embedded Systems Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 12.
W2 credits1SL. Thiele, J. Beutel, Z. Zhou
AbstractThe seminar will cover advanced topics in networked embedded systems. A particular focus are cyber-physical systems and sensor networks in various application domains.
ObjectiveThe goal is to get a deeper understanding on leading edge technologies in the discipline, on classes of applications, and on current as well as future research directions.
ContentThe seminar enables Master students, PhDs and Postdocs to learn about latest breakthroughs in wireless sensor networks, networked embedded systems and devices, and energy-harvesting in several application domains, including environmental monitoring, tracking, smart buildings and control. Participants are requested to actively participate in the organization and preparation of the seminar.
227-0559-00LSeminar in Distributed Computing Information W2 credits2SR. Wattenhofer
AbstractIn this seminar participating students present and discuss recent research papers in the area of distributed computing. The seminar consists of algorithmic as well as systems papers in distributed computing theory, peer-to-peer computing, ad hoc and sensor networking, or multi-core computing.
ObjectiveIn the last two decades, we have experienced an unprecedented growth in the area of distributed systems and networks; distributed computing now encompasses many of the activities occurring in today's computer and communications world. This course introduces the basics of distributed computing, highlighting common themes and techniques. We study the fundamental issues underlying the design of distributed systems: communication, coordination, synchronization, uncertainty. We explore essential algorithmic ideas and lower bound techniques.

In this seminar, students present the latest work in this domain.

Seminar language: English
ContentDifferent each year. For details see: Link
Lecture notesSlides of presentations will be made available.
LiteraturePapers.
The actual paper selection can be found on Link.
851-0740-00LBig Data, Law, and Policy Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 35

Students will be informed by 4.3.2018 at the latest
W3 credits2SS. Bechtold, T. Roscoe, E. Vayena
AbstractThis course introduces students to societal perspectives on the big data revolution. Discussing important contributions from machine learning and data science, the course explores their legal, economic, ethical, and political implications in the past, present, and future.
ObjectiveThis course is intended both for students of machine learning and data science who want to reflect on the societal implications of their field, and for students from other disciplines who want to explore the societal impact of data sciences. The course will first discuss some of the methodological foundations of machine learning, followed by a discussion of research papers and real-world applications where big data and societal values may clash. Potential topics include the implications of big data for privacy, liability, insurance, health systems, voting, and democratic institutions, as well as the use of predictive algorithms for price discrimination and the criminal justice system. Guest speakers, weekly readings and reaction papers ensure a lively debate among participants from various backgrounds.
Focus Courses in Information Security
Focus Core Courses Information Security
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0407-00LCryptography Foundations Information W7 credits3V + 2U + 1AU. Maurer
AbstractFundamentals and applications of cryptography. Cryptography as a mathematical discipline: reductions, constructive cryptography paradigm, security proofs. The discussed primitives include cryptographic functions, pseudo-randomness, symmetric encryption and authentication, public-key encryption, key agreement, and digital signature schemes. Selected cryptanalytic techniques.
ObjectiveThe goals are:
(1) understand the basic theoretical concepts and scientific thinking in cryptography;
(2) understand and apply some core cryptographic techniques and security proof methods;
(3) be prepared and motivated to access the scientific literature and attend specialized courses in cryptography.
ContentSee course description.
Lecture notesyes.
Prerequisites / NoticeFamiliarity with the basic cryptographic concepts as treated for
example in the course "Information Security" is required but can
in principle also be acquired in parallel to attending the course.
Focus Elective Courses Information Security
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0408-00LCryptographic Protocols Information W5 credits2V + 2UM. Hirt, U. Maurer
AbstractThe course presents a selection of hot research topics in cryptography. The choice of topics varies and may include provable security, interactive proofs, zero-knowledge protocols, secret sharing, secure multi-party computation, e-voting, etc.
ObjectiveIndroduction to a very active research area with many gems and paradoxical
results. Spark interest in fundamental problems.
ContentThe course presents a selection of hot research topics in cryptography. The choice of topics varies and may include provable security, interactive proofs, zero-knowledge protocols, secret sharing, secure multi-party computation, e-voting, etc.
Lecture notesthe lecture notes are in German, but they are not required as the entire
course material is documented also in other course material (in english).
Prerequisites / NoticeA basic understanding of fundamental cryptographic concepts
(as taught for example in the course Information Security or
in the course Cryptography Foundations) is useful, but not required.
263-4600-00LFormal Methods for Information Security Information W4 credits2V + 1UR. Sasse, C. Sprenger
AbstractThe course focuses on formal methods for the modelling and analysis of security protocols for critical systems, ranging from authentication protocols for network security to electronic voting protocols and online banking.
ObjectiveThe students will learn the key ideas and theoretical foundations of formal modelling and analysis of security protocols. The students will complement their theoretical knowledge by solving practical exercises, completing a small project, and using state-of-the-art tools.
ContentThe course treats formal methods mainly for the modelling and analysis of security protocols. Cryptographic protocols (such as SSL/TLS, SSH, Kerberos, SAML single-sign on, and IPSec) form the basis for secure communication and business processes. Numerous attacks on published protocols show that the design of cryptographic protocols is extremely error-prone. A rigorous analysis of these protocols is therefore indispensable, and manual analysis is insufficient. The lectures cover the theoretical basis for the (tool-supported) formal modeling and analysis of such protocols. Specifically, we discuss their operational semantics, the formalization of security properties, and techniques and algorithms for their verification.

In addition to the classical security properties for confidentiality and authentication, we will study strong secrecy and privacy properties. We will discuss electronic voting protocols, and RFID protocols (a staple of the Internet of Things), where these properties are central. The accompanying tutorials provide an opportunity to apply the theory and tools to concrete protocols. Moreover, we will discuss methods to abstract and refine security protocols and the link between symbolic protocol models and cryptographic models.

Furthermore, we will also present a security notion for general systems based on non-interference as well as language-based information flow security where non-interference is enforced via a type system.
263-2925-00LProgram Analysis for System Security and Reliability Information W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AM. Vechev
AbstractThe course introduces modern analysis and synthesis techniques (both, deterministic and probabilistic) and shows how to apply these methods to build reliable and secure systems spanning the domains of blockchain, computer networks and deep learning.
Objective* Understand how classic analysis and synthesis techniques work, including discrete and probabilistic methods.

* Understand how to apply the methods to generate attacks and create defenses against applications in blockchain, computer networks and deep learning.

* Understand the state-of-the-art in the area as well as future trends.
ContentThe course will illustrate how the methods can be used to create more secure and reliable systems across four application domains:

Part I: Analysis and Synthesis for Computer Networks:
1. Analysis: Datalog, Batfish
2. Synthesis: CEGIS, SyNET (Link)
3. Probabilistic: (PSI: Link), its applications to networks (Bayonet)

Part II: Blockchain security
1. Introduction to space and tools.
2. Automated symbolic reasoning.
3. Applications: verification of smart contracts (Link)

Part III: Security and Robustness of Deep Learning:
1. Basics: affine transforms, activation functions
2. Attacks: gradient based method to adversarial generation
3. Defenses: affine domains, AI2 (Link)

Part IV: Probabilistic Security:
1. Enforcement: PSI + Spire.
2. Graphical models: CRFs, Structured SVM, Pseudo-likelihood.
3. Practical statistical de-obfuscation: DeGuard: Link, JSNice: Link, and more.

To gain a deeper understanding, the course will involve a hands-on programming project.
Seminar in Information Security
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-4800-00LInformation & Physics Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 120.
Previously called Quantum Information and Cryptography

Um das vorhandene Angebot optimal auszunutzen, behält sich das D-INFK vor, Belegungen von Studierenden zu löschen, die sich in mehreren Veranstaltungen dieser Kategorie eingeschrieben haben, bereits die erforderlichen Leistungen in dieser Kategorie erbracht haben oder aus anderen organisatorischen Gründen nicht auf die Belegung der Veranstaltung angewiesen sind.
W2 credits4SS. Wolf
AbstractIn this advanced seminar, various topics are treated in the intersection of quantum physics, information theory, and cryptography.
Objectivesee above
263-2930-00LBlockchain Security Seminar Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 26.
W2 credits2SM. Vechev, D. Drachsler Cohen, P. Tsankov
AbstractThis seminar introduces students to the latest research trends in the field of blockchains.
ObjectiveThe objectives of this seminar are twofold: (1) learning about the blockchain platform, a prominent technology receiving a lot of attention in computer Science and economy and (2) learning to convey and present complex and technical concepts in simple terms, and in particular identifying the core idea underlying the technicalities.
ContentThis seminar introduces students to the latest research trends in the field of blockchains. The seminar covers the basics of blockchain technology, including motivation for decentralized currency, establishing trust between multiple parties using consensus algorithms, and smart contracts as a means to establish decentralized computation. It also covers security issues arising in blockchains and smart contracts as well as automated techniques for detecting vulnerabilities using programming language techniques.
Focus Courses in Information Systems
Focus Core Courses Information Systems
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
263-2925-00LProgram Analysis for System Security and Reliability Information W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AM. Vechev
AbstractThe course introduces modern analysis and synthesis techniques (both, deterministic and probabilistic) and shows how to apply these methods to build reliable and secure systems spanning the domains of blockchain, computer networks and deep learning.
Objective* Understand how classic analysis and synthesis techniques work, including discrete and probabilistic methods.

* Understand how to apply the methods to generate attacks and create defenses against applications in blockchain, computer networks and deep learning.

* Understand the state-of-the-art in the area as well as future trends.
ContentThe course will illustrate how the methods can be used to create more secure and reliable systems across four application domains:

Part I: Analysis and Synthesis for Computer Networks:
1. Analysis: Datalog, Batfish
2. Synthesis: CEGIS, SyNET (Link)
3. Probabilistic: (PSI: Link), its applications to networks (Bayonet)

Part II: Blockchain security
1. Introduction to space and tools.
2. Automated symbolic reasoning.
3. Applications: verification of smart contracts (Link)

Part III: Security and Robustness of Deep Learning:
1. Basics: affine transforms, activation functions
2. Attacks: gradient based method to adversarial generation
3. Defenses: affine domains, AI2 (Link)

Part IV: Probabilistic Security:
1. Enforcement: PSI + Spire.
2. Graphical models: CRFs, Structured SVM, Pseudo-likelihood.
3. Practical statistical de-obfuscation: DeGuard: Link, JSNice: Link, and more.

To gain a deeper understanding, the course will involve a hands-on programming project.
Focus Elective Courses Information Systems
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0312-00LUbiquitous Computing Information W3 credits2VF. Mattern, S. Mayer
AbstractUbiquitous computing integrates tiny wirelessly connected computers and sensors into the environment and everyday objects. Main topics: The vision of ubiquitous computing, trends in technology, smart cards, RFID, Personal Area Networks (Bluetooth), sensor networks, location awareness, privacy and security, application areas, economic and social impact.
ObjectiveThe vision of ubiquitous computing, trends in technology, smart cards, RFID, Personal Area Networks (Bluetooth), sensor networks, location awareness, privacy and security, application areas, economic and social impact.
Lecture notesCopies of slides will be made available
LiteratureWill be provided in the lecture. To put you in the mood:
Mark Weiser: The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American, September 1991, pp. 94-104
252-0355-00LObject Databases Information W4 credits2V + 1UA. K. de Spindler
AbstractThe course examines the principles and techniques of providing data management in object-oriented programming environments. After introducing the basics of object storage and management, we will cover semantic object models and their implementation. Finally, we discuss advanced data management services such as version models for temporal and engineering databases and for software configuration.
ObjectiveThe goal of this course is to extend the student's knowledge of database technologies towards object-oriented solutions. Starting with basic principles, students also learn about commercial products and research projects in the domain of object-oriented data management. Apart from getting to know the characteristics of these approaches and the differences between them, the course also discusses what application requirements justify the use of object-oriented databases. Therefore, it educates students to make informed decisions on when to use what database technology.
ContentThe course examines the principles and techniques of providing data management in object-oriented programming environments. It is divided into three parts that cover the road from simple object persistence, to object-oriented database management systems and to advanced data management services. In the first part, object serialisation and object-relational mapping frameworks will be introduced. Using the example of the open-source project db4o, the utilisation, architecture and functionality of a simple object-oriented database is discussed. The second part of the course is dedicated to advanced topics such as industry standards and solutions for object data management as well as storage and index technologies. Additionally, advanced data management services such as version models for temporal and engineering databases as well as for software configuration are discussed. In the third and last part of the course, an object-oriented data model that features a clear separation of typing and classification is presented. Together with the model, its implementation in terms of an object-oriented database management system is discussed also. Finally, an extension of this data model is presented that allows context-aware data to be managed.
Prerequisites / NoticePrerequisites: Knowledge about the topics of the lectures "Introduction to Databases" and "Information Systems" is required.
252-0807-00LInformation Systems Laboratory Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 12.

In the Master Programme max. 10 credits can be accounted by Labs on top of the Interfocus Courses. Additional Labs will be listed on the Addendum.
W10 credits9PM. Norrie
AbstractThe purpose of this laboratory course is to practically explore modern techniques to build large-scale distributed information systems. Participants will work in groups of three or more students, and develop projects in several phases.
ObjectiveThe students will gain experience of working with technologies used in the design and development of information systems.
ContentFirst week: Kick-off meeting and project assignment
Second week: Meeting with the project supervisor to discuss the goals and scope of the project.
During the semester: Individual group work. Each team member should contribute to the project roughly about 10h/week, excluding any necessary reading or self-studying (e.g. the time spent to learn a new technology). In addition, it is expected that each team can meet with their supervisor on a regular basis.
End of semester: Final presentation.
252-3005-00LNatural Language Understanding Information W4 credits2V + 1UT. Hofmann, M. Ciaramita
AbstractThis course presents topics in natural language processing with an emphasis on modern techniques, primarily focusing on statistical and deep learning approaches. The course provides an overview of the primary areas of research in language processing as well as a detailed exploration of the models and techniques used both in research and in commercial natural language systems.
ObjectiveThe objective of the course is to learn the basic concepts in the statistical processing of natural languages. The course will be project-oriented so that the students can also gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art tools and techniques.
ContentThis course presents an introduction to general topics and techniques used in natural language processing today, primarily focusing on statistical approaches. The course provides an overview of the primary areas of research in language processing as well as a detailed exploration of the models and techniques used both in research and in commercial natural language systems.
LiteratureLectures will make use of textbooks such as the one by Jurafsky and Martin where appropriate, but will also make use of original research and survey papers.
Seminar in Information Systems
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-3002-00LAlgorithms for Database Systems Information
Limited number of participants.
W2 credits2SP. Widmayer, P. Uznanski
AbstractQuery processing, optimization, stream-based systems, distributed and parallel databases, non-standard databases.
ObjectiveDevelop an understanding of selected problems of current interest in the area of algorithms for database systems.
252-3100-00LComputer Supported Cooperative Work Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 12.

Takes place for the last time.
W2 credits2SM. Norrie
AbstractComputer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is the study of how people work together using computer technology. It is a multi-disciplinary research field dealing with the social, theoretical, practical and technical aspects of collaboration and how the use of technology can affect groups, organisations and communities. The diversity of the CSCW field is reflected in the range of topics covered.
ObjectiveComputer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is the study of how people work together using computer technology. It is a multi-disciplinary research field dealing with the social, theoretical, practical and technical aspects of collaboration and how the use of technology can affect groups, organisations, communities and societies. The CSCW community is interested in how people use everyday tools such as email, the web and chat systems as well as specialist groupware applications that support groups of people engaged in shared tasks such as software development or product design. A better understanding of how people communicate and work together can in turn lead to a better understanding of the problems of current technologies and systems and influence the design of new technologies and tools.
Focus Courses in Software Engineering
Focus Core Courses Software Engineering
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
263-2925-00LProgram Analysis for System Security and Reliability Information W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AM. Vechev
AbstractThe course introduces modern analysis and synthesis techniques (both, deterministic and probabilistic) and shows how to apply these methods to build reliable and secure systems spanning the domains of blockchain, computer networks and deep learning.
Objective* Understand how classic analysis and synthesis techniques work, including discrete and probabilistic methods.

* Understand how to apply the methods to generate attacks and create defenses against applications in blockchain, computer networks and deep learning.

* Understand the state-of-the-art in the area as well as future trends.
ContentThe course will illustrate how the methods can be used to create more secure and reliable systems across four application domains:

Part I: Analysis and Synthesis for Computer Networks:
1. Analysis: Datalog, Batfish
2. Synthesis: CEGIS, SyNET (Link)
3. Probabilistic: (PSI: Link), its applications to networks (Bayonet)

Part II: Blockchain security
1. Introduction to space and tools.
2. Automated symbolic reasoning.
3. Applications: verification of smart contracts (Link)

Part III: Security and Robustness of Deep Learning:
1. Basics: affine transforms, activation functions
2. Attacks: gradient based method to adversarial generation
3. Defenses: affine domains, AI2 (Link)

Part IV: Probabilistic Security:
1. Enforcement: PSI + Spire.
2. Graphical models: CRFs, Structured SVM, Pseudo-likelihood.
3. Practical statistical de-obfuscation: DeGuard: Link, JSNice: Link, and more.

To gain a deeper understanding, the course will involve a hands-on programming project.
Focus Elective Courses Software Engineering
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
263-2812-00LProgram Verification Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 30.
W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AA. J. Summers
AbstractA hands-on introduction to the theory and construction of deductive software verifiers, covering both cutting-edge methodologies for formal program reasoning, and a perspective over the broad tool stacks making up modern verification tools.
ObjectiveStudents will earn the necessary skills for designing and developing deductive verification tools which can be applied to modularly analyse complex software, including features challenging for reasoning such as heap-based mutable data and concurrency. Students will learn both a variety of fundamental reasoning principles, and how these reasoning ideas can be made practical via automatic tools.

Students will be gain practical experience with reasoning tools at various levels of abstraction, from SAT and SMT solvers at the lowest level, up through intermediate verification languages and tools, to verifiers which target front-end code in executable languages.

By the end of the course, students should have a good working understanding and experience of the issues and decisions involved with designing and building practical verification tools, and the theoretical techniques which underpin them.
ContentThe course will be organized around building up a "tool stack", starting at the lowest-level with background on SAT and SMT solving techniques, and working upwards through tools at progressively-higher levels of abstraction. The notion of intermediate verification languages will be explored, and the Boogie (Microsoft Research) and Viper (ETH) languages will be used in depth to tackle increasingly ambitious verification tasks.

The course will intermix technical content with hands-on experience; at each level of abstraction, we will build small tools on top which can tackle specific program correctness problems, starting from simple puzzle solvers (Soduko) at the SAT level, and working upwards to full functional correctness of application-level code. This practical work will include three mini-projects (each worth 10% of the final grade) spread throughout the course, which count towards the final grade. An oral examination (worth 70% of the final grade) will cover the technical content covered.
Lecture notesSlides and other materials will be available online.
LiteratureBackground reading material and links to tools will be published on the course website.
Prerequisites / NoticeSome programming experience is essential, as the course contains several practical assignments. A basic familiarity with propositional and first-order logic will be assumed.

Courses with an emphasis on formal reasoning about programs (such as Formal Methods and Functional Programming) are advantageous background, but are not a requirement.
263-2300-00LHow To Write Fast Numerical Code Information Restricted registration - show details
Does not take place this semester.
Number of participants limited to 84.

Prerequisite: Master student, solid C programming skills.
W6 credits3V + 2UM. Püschel
AbstractThis course introduces the student to the foundations and state-of-the-art techniques in developing high performance software for numerical functionality such as linear algebra and others. The focus is on optimizing for the memory hierarchy and for special instruction sets. Finally, the course will introduce the recent field of automatic performance tuning.
ObjectiveSoftware performance (i.e., runtime) arises through the interaction of algorithm, its implementation, and the microarchitecture the program is run on. The first goal of the course is to provide the student with an understanding of this interaction, and hence software performance, focusing on numerical or mathematical functionality. The second goal is to teach a general systematic strategy how to use this knowledge to write fast software for numerical problems. This strategy will be trained in a few homeworks and semester-long group projects.
ContentThe fast evolution and increasing complexity of computing platforms pose a major challenge for developers of high performance software for engineering, science, and consumer applications: it becomes increasingly harder to harness the available computing power. Straightforward implementations may lose as much as one or two orders of magnitude in performance. On the other hand, creating optimal implementations requires the developer to have an understanding of algorithms, capabilities and limitations of compilers, and the target platform's architecture and microarchitecture.

This interdisciplinary course introduces the student to the foundations and state-of-the-art techniques in high performance software development using important functionality such as linear algebra functionality, transforms, filters, and others as examples. The course will explain how to optimize for the memory hierarchy, take advantage of special instruction sets, and, if time permits, how to write multithreaded code for multicore platforms. Much of the material is based on state-of-the-art research.

Further, a general strategy for performance analysis and optimization is introduced that the students will apply in group projects that accompany the course. Finally, the course will introduce the students to the recent field of automatic performance tuning.
Seminar in Software Engineering
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
263-2100-00LResearch Topics in Software Engineering Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 22.
W2 credits2ST. Gross
AbstractThis seminar introduces students to the latest research trends that help to improve various aspects of software quality.

Topics cover the following areas of research: Compilers, domain-specific languages, concurrency, formal methods, performance optimization, program analysis, program generation, program synthesis, testing, tools, verification
ObjectiveAt the end of the course, the students should be:

- familiar with a broad range of key research results in the area as well as their applications.

- know how to read and assess high quality research papers

- be able to highlight practical examples/applications, limitations of existing work, and outline potential improvements.
ContentThe course will be structured as a sequence of presentations of high-quality research papers, spanning both theory and practice. These papers will have typically appeared in top conferences spanning several areas such as POPL, PLDI, OOPSLA, OSDI, ASPLOS, SOSP, AAAI, ICML and others.
LiteratureThe publications to be presented will be announced on the seminar home page at least one week before the first session.
Prerequisites / NoticePapers will be distributed during the first lecture.
263-2926-00LDeep Learning for Big Code Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 24.
W2 credits2SM. Vechev
AbstractThe seminar covers some of the latest and most exciting developments (industrial and research) in the field of Deep Learning for Code, including new methods and latest systems, as well as open challenges and opportunities.
ObjectiveThe objective of the seminar is to:

- Introduce students to the field of Deep Learning for Big Code.

- Learn how machine learning models can be used to solve practical challenges in software engineering and programming beyond traditional methods.

- Highlight the latest research and work opportunities in industry and academia available on this topic.
ContentThe last 5 years have seen increased interest in applying advanced machine learning techniques such as deep learning to new kind of data: program code. As the size of open source code increases dramatically (over 980 billion lines of code written by humans), so comes the opportunity for new kind of deep probabilistic methods and commercial systems that leverage this data to revolutionize software creation and address hard problems not previously possible. Examples include: machines writing code, program de-obfuscation for security, code search, and many more.

Interestingly, this new type of data, unlike natural language and images, introduces technical challenges not typically encountered when working with standard datasets (e.g., images, videos, natural language), for instance, finding the right representation over which deep learning operates. This in turn has the potential to drive new kinds of machine learning models with broad applicability.

Because of this, there has been substantial interest over the last few years in both industry (e.g., companies such as Facebook starting, various start-ups in the space such as Link), academia (e.g., Link) and government agencies (e.g., DARPA) on using machine learning to automate various programming tasks.

In this seminar, we will cover some of the latest and most exciting developments in the field of Deep Learning for Code, including new methods and latest systems, as well as open challenges and opportunities.

The seminar is carried out as a set of presentations chosen from a list of available papers. The grade is determined as a function of the presentation, handling questions and answers, and participation.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe seminar is carried out as a set of presentations chosen from a list of available papers. The grade is determined as a function of the presentation, handling questions and answers, and participation.

The seminar is ideally suited for M.Sc. students in Computer Science.
263-2930-00LBlockchain Security Seminar Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 26.
W2 credits2SM. Vechev, D. Drachsler Cohen, P. Tsankov
AbstractThis seminar introduces students to the latest research trends in the field of blockchains.
ObjectiveThe objectives of this seminar are twofold: (1) learning about the blockchain platform, a prominent technology receiving a lot of attention in computer Science and economy and (2) learning to convey and present complex and technical concepts in simple terms, and in particular identifying the core idea underlying the technicalities.
ContentThis seminar introduces students to the latest research trends in the field of blockchains. The seminar covers the basics of blockchain technology, including motivation for decentralized currency, establishing trust between multiple parties using consensus algorithms, and smart contracts as a means to establish decentralized computation. It also covers security issues arising in blockchains and smart contracts as well as automated techniques for detecting vulnerabilities using programming language techniques.
Focus Courses in Theoretical Computer Science
Focus Core Courses Theoretical Computer Science
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0407-00LCryptography Foundations Information W7 credits3V + 2U + 1AU. Maurer
AbstractFundamentals and applications of cryptography. Cryptography as a mathematical discipline: reductions, constructive cryptography paradigm, security proofs. The discussed primitives include cryptographic functions, pseudo-randomness, symmetric encryption and authentication, public-key encryption, key agreement, and digital signature schemes. Selected cryptanalytic techniques.
ObjectiveThe goals are:
(1) understand the basic theoretical concepts and scientific thinking in cryptography;
(2) understand and apply some core cryptographic techniques and security proof methods;
(3) be prepared and motivated to access the scientific literature and attend specialized courses in cryptography.
ContentSee course description.
Lecture notesyes.
Prerequisites / NoticeFamiliarity with the basic cryptographic concepts as treated for
example in the course "Information Security" is required but can
in principle also be acquired in parallel to attending the course.
261-5110-00LOptimization for Data Science Information W8 credits3V + 2U + 2AB. Gärtner, D. Steurer
AbstractThis course teaches an overview of modern optimization methods, with applications in particular for machine learning and data science.
ObjectiveUnderstanding the theoretical and practical aspects of relevant optimization methods used in data science. Learning general paradigms to deal with optimization problems arising in data science.
ContentThis course teaches an overview of modern optimization methods, with applications in particular for machine learning and data science.

In the first part of the course, we will discuss how classical first and second order methods such as gradient descent and Newton's method can be adapated to scale to large datasets, in theory and in practice. We also cover some new algorithms and paradigms that have been developed specifically in the context of data science. The emphasis is not so much on the application of these methods (many of which are covered in other courses), but on understanding and analyzing the methods themselves.

In the second part, we discuss convex programming relaxations as a powerful and versatile paradigm for designing efficient algorithms to solve computational problems arising in data science. We will learn about this paradigm and develop a unified perspective on it through the lens of the sum-of-squares semidefinite programming hierarchy. As applications, we are discussing non-negative matrix factorization, compressed sensing and sparse linear regression, matrix completion and phase retrieval, as well as robust estimation.
Prerequisites / NoticeAs background, we require material taught in the course "252-0209-00L Algorithms, Probability, and Computing". It is not necessary that participants have actually taken the course, but they should be prepared to catch up if necessary.
Focus Elective Courses Theoretical Computer Science
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0408-00LCryptographic Protocols Information W5 credits2V + 2UM. Hirt, U. Maurer
AbstractThe course presents a selection of hot research topics in cryptography. The choice of topics varies and may include provable security, interactive proofs, zero-knowledge protocols, secret sharing, secure multi-party computation, e-voting, etc.
ObjectiveIndroduction to a very active research area with many gems and paradoxical
results. Spark interest in fundamental problems.
ContentThe course presents a selection of hot research topics in cryptography. The choice of topics varies and may include provable security, interactive proofs, zero-knowledge protocols, secret sharing, secure multi-party computation, e-voting, etc.
Lecture notesthe lecture notes are in German, but they are not required as the entire
course material is documented also in other course material (in english).
Prerequisites / NoticeA basic understanding of fundamental cryptographic concepts
(as taught for example in the course Information Security or
in the course Cryptography Foundations) is useful, but not required.
252-1403-00LInvitation to Quantum Informatics Information W3 credits2VS. Wolf
AbstractFollowed by an introduction to the basic principles of quantum physics, such as superposition, interference, or entanglement, a variety of subjects are treated: Quantum algorithms, teleportation, quantum communication complexity and "pseudo-telepathy", quantum cryptography, as well as the main concepts of quantum information theory.
ObjectiveIt is the goal of this course to get familiar with the most important notions that are of importance for the connection between Information and Physics. The formalism of Quantum Physics will be motivated and derived, and the use of these laws for information processing will be understood. In particular, the important algorithms of Grover as well as Shor will be studied and analyzed.
ContentAccording to Landauer, "information is physical". In quantum information, one is interested in the consequences and the possibilites offered by the laws of quantum physics for information processing. Followed by an introduction to the basic principles of quantum physics, such as superposition, interference, or entanglement, a variety of subjects are treated: Quantum algorithms, teleportation, quantum communication complexity and "pseude-telepathy", quantum cryptography, as well as the main concepts of quantum information theory.
252-1424-00LModels of ComputationW6 credits2V + 2U + 1AM. Cook
AbstractThis course surveys many different models of computation: Turing Machines, Cellular Automata, Finite State Machines, Graph Automata, Circuits, Tilings, Lambda Calculus, Fractran, Chemical Reaction Networks, Hopfield Networks, String Rewriting Systems, Tag Systems, Diophantine Equations, Register Machines, Primitive Recursive Functions, and more.
ObjectiveThe goal of this course is to become acquainted with a wide variety of models of computation, to understand how models help us to understand the modeled systems, and to be able to develop and analyze models appropriate for new systems.
ContentThis course surveys many different models of computation: Turing Machines, Cellular Automata, Finite State Machines, Graph Automata, Circuits, Tilings, Lambda Calculus, Fractran, Chemical Reaction Networks, Hopfield Networks, String Rewriting Systems, Tag Systems, Diophantine Equations, Register Machines, Primitive Recursive Functions, and more.
263-4110-00LInterdisciplinary Algorithms Lab Information Restricted registration - show details
In the Master Programme max. 10 credits can be accounted by Labs on top of the Interfocus Courses. Additional Labs will be listed on the Addendum.
W5 credits2PA. Steger, D. Steurer, J. Lengler
AbstractIn this course students will develop solutions for algorithmic problems posed by researchers from other fields.
ObjectiveStudents will learn that in order to tackle algorithmic problems from an interdisciplinary or applied context one needs to combine a solid understanding of algorithmic methodology with insights into the problem at hand to judge which side constraints are essential and which can be loosened.
Prerequisites / NoticeStudents will work in teams. Ideally, skills of team members complement each other.

Interested Bachelor students can apply for participation by sending an email to Link explaining motivation and transcripts.
263-4310-00LLinear Algebra Methods in Combinatorics Information W5 credits2V + 2UP. Penna
AbstractThis course describes the linear algebra bound technique also called dimension argument. To learn the technique we discuss several examples in combinatorics, geometry, and computer science. Besides this technique, the course aims at showing the mathematical elegance of certain proofs and the simplicity of the statements.
ObjectiveBecoming familiar with the method and being able to apply it to problems similar to those encountered during the course.
ContentThis course is (essentially) about one single technique called the "linear algebra bound" (also known as "dimension argument"). We shall see several examples in combinatorics, geometry, and computer science and learn the technique throughout these examples. Towards the end of the course, we shall see the power of this method in proving rather amazing results (e.g., a circuit complexity lower bound, explicit constructions of Ramsey graphs, and a famous conjecture in geometry disproved). The course also aims at illustrating the main ideas behind the proofs and how the various problems are in fact connected to each other.
Lecture notesLecture notes of each single lecture will be made available (shortly after the lecture itself).
LiteratureMost of the material of the course is covered by the following book:

1. Linear algebra methods in combinatorics, by L. Babai and P. Frankl, Department of Computer Science, University of Chicago, preliminary version, 1992.

Some parts are also taken from

2. Extremal Combinatorics (with Applications in Computer Science), by Stasys Jukna, Springer-Verlag 2001.
263-4312-00LAdvanced Data Structures Information W5 credits2V + 2UP. Uznanski
AbstractData structures play a central role in modern computer science and are essential building blocks in obtaining efficient algorithms. The course covers major results and research directions in data structures, that (mostly) have not yet made it into standard computer science curriculum.
ObjectiveLearning modern models of computation. Applying new algorithmic techniques to the construction of efficient data structures. Understanding techniques used in both lower- and upper- bound proofs on said data structures.
ContentThis course will survey important developments in data structures that have not (yet) worked their way into the standard computer science curriculum.
Though we will cover state of the art techniques, the presentation is relatively self-contained, and only assumes a basic undergraduate data structures course (e.g., knowledge of binary search trees).

The course material includes (but is not exhausted by):
- computation models and memory models
- string indexing (suffix trees, suffix arrays)
- search trees
- static tree processing (Lowest Common Ancestor queries, Level Ancestry queries)
- range queries on arrays (queries for minimal element in a given range)
- integers-only data structures: how to sort integers in linear time, faster predecessor structures (van Emde Boas trees)
- hashing
- dynamic graphs connectivity
Prerequisites / NoticeThis is a highly theoretical course. You should be comfortable with:
- algorithms and data structures
- probability

Completing Algorithms, Probability, and Computing course (252-0209-00L) is a good indicator.
272-0301-00LMethods for Design of Random Systems Information
This course d o e s n o t include the Mentored Work Specialised Courses with an Educational Focus in Computer Science B.
W4 credits2V + 1UH.‑J. Böckenhauer, D. Komm, R. Kralovic
AbstractThe students should get a deep understanding of the notion of randomness and its usefulness. Using basic elements probability theory and number theory the students will discover randomness as a source of efficiency in algorithmic. The goal is to teach the paradigms of design of randomized algorithms.
ObjectiveTo understand the computational power of randomness and to learn the basic
methods for designing randomized algorithms
Lecture notesJ. Hromkovic: Randomisierte Algorithmen, Teubner 2004.

J.Hromkovic: Design and Analysis of Randomized Algorithms. Springer 2006.

J.Hromkovic: Algorithmics for Hard Problems, Springer 2004.
LiteratureJ. Hromkovic: Randomisierte Algorithmen, Teubner 2004.

J.Hromkovic: Design and Analysis of Randomized Algorithms. Springer 2006.

J.Hromkovic: Algorithmics for Hard Problems, Springer 2004.
272-0302-00LApproximation and Online Algorithms Information W4 credits2V + 1UH.‑J. Böckenhauer, D. Komm
AbstractThis lecture deals with approximative algorithms for hard optimization problems and algorithmic approaches for solving online problems as well as the limits of these approaches.
ObjectiveGet a systematic overview of different methods for designing approximative algorithms for hard optimization problems and online problems. Get to know methods for showing the limitations of these approaches.
ContentApproximation algorithms are one of the most succesful techniques to attack hard optimization problems. Here, we study the so-called approximation ratio, i.e., the ratio of the cost of the computed approximating solution and an optimal one (which is not computable efficiently).
For an online problem, the whole instance is not known in advance, but it arrives pieceweise and for every such piece a corresponding part of the definite output must be given. The quality of an algorithm for such an online problem is measured by the competitive ratio, i.e., the ratio of the cost of the computed solution and the cost of an optimal solution that could be given if the whole input was known in advance.

The contents of this lecture are
- the classification of optimization problems by the reachable approximation ratio,
- systematic methods to design approximation algorithms (e.g., greedy strategies, dynamic programming, linear programming relaxation),
- methods to show non-approximability,
- classic online problem like paging or scheduling problems and corresponding algorithms,
- randomized online algorithms,
- the design and analysis principles for online algorithms, and
- limits of the competitive ratio and the advice complexity as a way to do a deeper analysis of the complexity of online problems.
LiteratureThe lecture is based on the following books:

J. Hromkovic: Algorithmics for Hard Problems, Springer, 2004

D. Komm: An Introduction to Online Computation: Determinism, Randomization, Advice, Springer, 2016

Additional literature:

A. Borodin, R. El-Yaniv: Online Computation and Competitive Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1998
401-3052-05LGraph Theory Information W5 credits2V + 1UB. Sudakov
AbstractBasic notions, trees, spanning trees, Caley's formula, vertex and edge connectivity, blocks, 2-connectivity, Mader's theorem, Menger's theorem, Eulerian graphs, Hamilton cycles, Dirac's theorem, matchings, theorems of Hall, König and Tutte, planar graphs, Euler's formula, basic non-planar graphs, graph colorings, greedy colorings, Brooks' theorem, 5-colorings of planar graphs
ObjectiveThe students will get an overview over the most fundamental questions concerning graph theory. We expect them to understand the proof techniques and to use them autonomously on related problems.
Lecture notesLecture will be only at the blackboard.
LiteratureWest, D.: "Introduction to Graph Theory"
Diestel, R.: "Graph Theory"

Further literature links will be provided in the lecture.
Prerequisites / NoticeNOTICE: This course unit was previously offered as 252-1408-00L Graphs and Algorithms.
401-3903-11LGeometric Integer ProgrammingW6 credits2V + 1UR. Weismantel
AbstractInteger programming is the task of minimizing a linear function over all the integer points in a polyhedron. This lecture introduces the key concepts of an algorithmic theory for solving such problems.
ObjectiveThe purpose of the lecture is to provide a geometric treatment of the theory of integer optimization.
ContentKey topics are:
- lattice theory and the polynomial time solvability of integer optimization problems in fixed dimension,
- the theory of integral generating sets and its connection to totally dual integral systems,
- finite cutting plane algorithms based on lattices and integral generating sets.
Lecture notesnot available, blackboard presentation
LiteratureBertsimas, Weismantel: Optimization over Integers, Dynamic Ideas 2005.
Schrijver: Theory of linear and integer programming, Wiley, 1986.
Prerequisites / Notice"Mathematical Optimization" (401-3901-00L)
401-4904-00LCombinatorial Optimization Information W6 credits2V + 1UR. Zenklusen
AbstractCombinatorial Optimization deals with efficiently finding a provably strong solution among a finite set of options. This course discusses key combinatorial structures and techniques to design efficient algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems. We put a strong emphasis on polyhedral methods, which proved to be a powerful and unifying tool throughout combinatorial optimization.
ObjectiveThe goal of this lecture is to get a thorough understanding of various modern combinatorial optimization techniques with an emphasis on polyhedral approaches. Students will learn a general toolbox to tackle a wide range of combinatorial optimization problems.
ContentKey topics include:
- Polyhedral descriptions;
- Combinatorial uncrossing;
- Ellipsoid method;
- Equivalence between separation and optimization;
- Design of efficient approximation algorithms for hard problems.
Lecture notesLecture notes will be available online.
Literature- Bernhard Korte, Jens Vygen: Combinatorial Optimization. 5th edition, Springer, 2012.
- Alexander Schrijver: Combinatorial Optimization: Polyhedra and Efficiency, Springer, 2003. This work has 3 volumes.
Prerequisites / NoticePrior exposure to Linear Programming can greatly help the understanding of the material. We therefore recommend that students interested in Combinatorial Optimization get familiarized with Linear Programming before taking this lecture.
272-0300-00LAlgorithmics for Hard Problems Information
Does not take place this semester.
This course d o e s n o t include the Mentored Work Specialised Courses with an Educational Focus in Computer Science A.
W4 credits2V + 1UJ. Hromkovic
AbstractThis course unit looks into algorithmic approaches to the solving of hard problems. The seminar is accompanied by a comprehensive reflection upon the significance of the approaches presented for computer science tuition at high schools.
ObjectiveTo systematically acquire an overview of the methods for solving hard problems.
ContentFirst, the concept of hardness of computation is introduced (repeated for the computer science students). Then some methods for solving hard problems are treated in a systematic way. For each algorithm design method, it is discussed what guarantees it can give and how we pay for the improved efficiency.
Lecture notesUnterlagen und Folien werden zur Verfügung gestellt.
LiteratureJ. Hromkovic: Algorithmics for Hard Problems, Springer 2004.

R. Niedermeier: Invitation to Fixed-Parameter Algorithms, 2006.

M. Cygan et al.: Parameterized Algorithms, 2015.

F. Fomin, D. Kratsch: Exact Exponential Algorithms, 2010.
Seminar in Theoretical Computer Science
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-3002-00LAlgorithms for Database Systems Information
Limited number of participants.
W2 credits2SP. Widmayer, P. Uznanski
AbstractQuery processing, optimization, stream-based systems, distributed and parallel databases, non-standard databases.
ObjectiveDevelop an understanding of selected problems of current interest in the area of algorithms for database systems.
252-4102-00LSeminar on Randomized Algorithms and Probabilistic MethodsW2 credits2SA. Steger
AbstractThe aim of the seminar is to study papers which bring the students to the forefront of today's research topics. This semester we will study selected papers of the conference Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA18).
ObjectiveRead papers from the forefront of today's research; learn how to give a scientific talk.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe seminar is open for both students from mathematics and students from computer science. As prerequisite we require that you passed the course Randomized Algorithms and Probabilistic Methods (or equivalent, if you come from abroad).
252-4202-00LSeminar in Theoretical Computer Science Information W2 credits2SE. Welzl, B. Gärtner, M. Hoffmann, J. Lengler, A. Steger, B. Sudakov
AbstractPresentation of recent publications in theoretical computer science, including results by diploma, masters and doctoral candidates.
ObjectiveTo get an overview of current research in the areas covered by the involved research groups. To present results from the literature.
252-4302-00LSeminar Algorithmic Game Theory Information
Limited number of participants.
W2 credits2SP. Widmayer, P. Penna
AbstractIn the seminar we will get familiar with the current original research in the area of algorithmic game theory by reading and presenting selected research papers in that area.
ObjectiveDevelop an understanding of selected problems of current interest in the area of algorithmic game theory, and a practice of a scientific presentation.
ContentStudy and understanding of selected topics of current interest in algorithmic game theory such as: Complexity Results (class PPAD, PLS, NP), Sponsored Search, Approximation Algorithms via Algorithmic Game Theory, Price of Anarchy, New paradigms of computation (e.g., envy-fee, truthful), Mechanism Design.
LiteratureSelected research articles.
Prerequisites / NoticeYou must have passed our "Algorithmic Game Theory" class (or have acquired equivalent knowledge, in exceptional cases).
252-4800-00LInformation & Physics Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 120.
Previously called Quantum Information and Cryptography

Um das vorhandene Angebot optimal auszunutzen, behält sich das D-INFK vor, Belegungen von Studierenden zu löschen, die sich in mehreren Veranstaltungen dieser Kategorie eingeschrieben haben, bereits die erforderlichen Leistungen in dieser Kategorie erbracht haben oder aus anderen organisatorischen Gründen nicht auf die Belegung der Veranstaltung angewiesen sind.
W2 credits4SS. Wolf
AbstractIn this advanced seminar, various topics are treated in the intersection of quantum physics, information theory, and cryptography.
Objectivesee above
263-4203-00LGeometry: Combinatorics and Algorithms Information W2 credits2SM. Hoffmann, E. Welzl, L. F. Barba Flores, P. Valtr
AbstractThis seminar complements the course Geometry: Combinatorics & Algorithms. Students of the seminar will present original research papers, some classic and some of them very recent.
ObjectiveEach student is expected to read, understand, and elaborate on a selected research paper. To this end, (s)he should give a 45-min. presentation about the paper. The process includes

* getting an overview of the related literature;
* understanding and working out the background/motivation:
why and where are the questions addressed relevant?
* understanding the contents of the paper in all details;
* selecting parts suitable for the presentation;
* presenting the selected parts in such a way that an audience
with some basic background in geometry and graph theory can easily understand and appreciate it.
ContentThis seminar is held once a year and complements the course Geometry: Combinatorics & Algorithms. Students of the seminar will present original research papers, some classic and some of them very recent. The seminar is a good preparation for a master, diploma, or semester thesis in the area.
Prerequisites / NoticePrerequisite: Successful participation in the course "Geometry: Combinatorics & Algorithms" (takes place every HS) is required.
Focus Courses in Visual Computing
Focus Core Courses Visual Computing
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0538-00LShape Modeling and Geometry Processing Information W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AS. Coros
AbstractThis course covers some of the latest developments in geometric modeling and digital geometry processing. Topics include surface modeling based on polygonal meshes, mesh generation, surface reconstruction, mesh fairing and simplification, discrete differential geometry, interactive shape editing, topics in digital shape fabrication.
ObjectiveThe students will learn how to design, program and analyze algorithms and systems for interactive 3D shape modeling and digital geometry processing.
ContentRecent advances in 3D digital geometry processing have created a plenitude of novel concepts for the mathematical representation and interactive manipulation of geometric models. This course covers some of the latest developments in geometric modeling and digital geometry processing. Topics include surface modeling based on triangle meshes, mesh generation, surface reconstruction, mesh fairing and simplification, discrete differential geometry, interactive shape editing and digital shape fabrication.
Lecture notesSlides and course notes
Prerequisites / NoticePrerequisites:
Visual Computing, Computer Graphics or an equivalent class. Experience with C++ programming. Some background in geometry or computational geometry is helpful, but not necessary.
Focus Elective Courses Visual Computing
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0526-00LStatistical Learning Theory Information W6 credits2V + 3PJ. M. Buhmann
AbstractThe course covers advanced methods of statistical learning :
Statistical learning theory;variational methods and optimization, e.g., maximum entropy techniques, information bottleneck, deterministic and simulated annealing; clustering for vectorial, histogram and relational data; model selection; graphical models.
ObjectiveThe course surveys recent methods of statistical learning. The fundamentals of machine learning as presented in the course "Introduction to Machine Learning" are expanded and in particular, the theory of statistical learning is discussed.
Content# Theory of estimators: How can we measure the quality of a statistical estimator? We already discussed bias and variance of estimators very briefly, but the interesting part is yet to come.

# Variational methods and optimization: We consider optimization approaches for problems where the optimizer is a probability distribution. Concepts we will discuss in this context include:

* Maximum Entropy
* Information Bottleneck
* Deterministic Annealing

# Clustering: The problem of sorting data into groups without using training samples. This requires a definition of ``similarity'' between data points and adequate optimization procedures.

# Model selection: We have already discussed how to fit a model to a data set in ML I, which usually involved adjusting model parameters for a given type of model. Model selection refers to the question of how complex the chosen model should be. As we already know, simple and complex models both have advantages and drawbacks alike.

# Statistical physics models: approaches for large systems approximate optimization, which originate in the statistical physics (free energy minimization applied to spin glasses and other models); sampling methods based on these models
Lecture notesA draft of a script will be provided;
transparencies of the lectures will be made available.
LiteratureHastie, Tibshirani, Friedman: The Elements of Statistical Learning, Springer, 2001.

L. Devroye, L. Gyorfi, and G. Lugosi: A probabilistic theory of pattern recognition. Springer, New York, 1996
Prerequisites / NoticeRequirements:

knowledge of the Machine Learning course
basic knowledge of statistics, interest in statistical methods.

It is recommended that Introduction to Machine Learning (ML I) is taken first; but with a little extra effort Statistical Learning Theory can be followed without the introductory course.
252-0570-00LGame Programming Laboratory Information
In the Master Programme max. 10 credits can be accounted by Labs on top of the Interfocus Courses. Additional Labs will be listed on the Addendum.
W10 credits9PB. Sumner
AbstractThe goal of this course is the in-depth understanding of the technology and programming underlying computer games. Students gradually design and develop a computer game in small groups and get acquainted with the art of game programming.
ObjectiveThe goal of this new course is to acquaint students with the
technology and art of programming modern three-dimensional computer
games.
ContentThis is a new course that addresses modern three-dimensional computer
game technology. During the course, small groups of students will
design and develop a computer game. Focus will be put on technical
aspects of game development, such as rendering, cinematography,
interaction, physics, animation, and AI. In addition, we will
cultivate creative thinking for advanced gameplay and visual effects.

The "laboratory" format involves a practical, hands-on approach with
neither traditional lectures nor exercises. Instead, we will meet
once a week to discuss technical issues and to track progress. We
plan to utilize Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express, which is a
collection libraries and tools that facilitate game development.
While development will take place on PCs, we will ultimately deploy
our games on the XBox 360 console.

At the end of the course we will present our results to the public.
Lecture notesOnline XNA documentation.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe number of participants is limited.

Prerequisites include:

- good programming skills (Java, C++, C#, etc.)

- CG experience: Students should have taken, at a minimum, Visual
Computing. Higher level courses are recommended, such as Introduction
to Computer Graphics, Surface Representations and Geometric Modeling,
and Physically-based Simulation in Computer Graphics.
252-0579-00L3D Vision Information W4 credits3GT. Sattler, M. R. Oswald
AbstractThe course covers camera models and calibration, feature tracking and matching, camera motion estimation via simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and visual odometry (VO), epipolar and mult-view geometry, structure-from-motion, (multi-view) stereo, augmented reality, and image-based (re-)localization.
ObjectiveAfter attending this course, students will:
1. understand the core concepts for recovering 3D shape of objects and scenes from images and video.
2. be able to implement basic systems for vision-based robotics and simple virtual/augmented reality applications.
3. have a good overview over the current state-of-the art in 3D vision.
4. be able to critically analyze and asses current research in this area.
ContentThe goal of this course is to teach the core techniques required for robotic and augmented reality applications: How to determine the motion of a camera and how to estimate the absolute position and orientation of a camera in the real world. This course will introduce the basic concepts of 3D Vision in the form of short lectures, followed by student presentations discussing the current state-of-the-art. The main focus of this course are student projects on 3D Vision topics, with an emphasis on robotic vision and virtual and augmented reality applications.
252-5706-00LMathematical Foundations of Computer Graphics and Vision Information W4 credits2V + 1UM. R. Oswald, C. Öztireli
AbstractThis course presents the fundamental mathematical tools and concepts used in computer graphics and vision. Each theoretical topic is introduced in the context of practical vision or graphic problems, showcasing its importance in real-world applications.
ObjectiveThe main goal is to equip the students with the key mathematical tools necessary to understand state-of-the-art algorithms in vision and graphics. In addition to the theoretical part, the students will learn how to use these mathematical tools to solve a wide range of practical problems in visual computing. After successfully completing this course, the students will be able to apply these mathematical concepts and tools to practical industrial and academic projects in visual computing.
ContentThe theory behind various mathematical concepts and tools will be introduced, and their practical utility will be showcased in diverse applications in computer graphics and vision. The course will cover topics in sampling, reconstruction, approximation, optimization, robust fitting, differentiation, quadrature and spectral methods. Applications will include 3D surface reconstruction, camera pose estimation, image editing, data projection, character animation, structure-aware geometry processing, and rendering.
263-3710-00LMachine Perception Information Restricted registration - show details
Students, who have already taken 263-3700-00 User Interface Engineering are not allowed to register for this course!
W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AO. Hilliges
AbstractRecent developments in neural network (aka “deep learning”) have drastically advanced the performance of machine perception systems in a variety of areas including drones, self-driving cars and intelligent UIs. This course is a deep dive into details of the deep learning algorithms and architectures for a variety of perceptual tasks.
ObjectiveStudents will learn about fundamental aspects of modern deep learning approaches for perception. Students will learn to implement, train and debug their own neural networks and gain a detailed understanding of cutting-edge research in learning-based computer vision, robotics and HCI. The final project assignment will involve training a complex neural network architecture and applying it on a real-world dataset of human motion.

The core competency acquired through this course is a solid foundation in deep-learning algorithms to process and interpret human input into computing systems. In particular, students should be able to develop systems that deal with the problem of recognizing people in images, detecting and describing body parts, inferring their spatial configuration, performing action/gesture recognition from still images or image sequences, also considering multi-modal data, among others.
ContentWe will focus on teaching how to set up the problem of machine perception, the learning algorithms (e.g. backpropagation), practical engineering aspects as well as advanced deep learning algorithms including generative models.

The course covers the following main areas:
I) Machine-learning algorithms for input recognition, computer vision and image classification (human pose, object detection, gestures, etc.)
II) Deep-learning models for the analysis of time-series data (temporal sequences of motion)
III) Learning of generative models for synthesis and prediction of human activity.

Specific topics include: 
• Deep learning basics:
○ Neural Networks and training (i.e., backpropagation)
○ Feedforward Networks
○ Recurrent Neural Networks
• Deep Learning techniques user input recognition:
○ Convolutional Neural Networks for classification
○ Fully Convolutional architectures for dense per-pixel tasks (i.e., segmentation)
○ LSTMs & related for time series analysis
○ Generative Models (GANs, Variational Autoencoders)
• Case studies from research in computer vision, HCI, robotics and signal processing
LiteratureDeep Learning
Book by Ian Goodfellow and Yoshua Bengio
Prerequisites / NoticeThis is an advanced grad-level course that requires a background in machine learning. Students are expected to have a solid mathematical foundation, in particular in linear algebra, multivariate calculus, and probability. The course will focus on state-of-the-art research in deep-learning and is not meant as extensive tutorial of how to train deep networks with Tensorflow..

Please take note of the following conditions:
1) The number of participants is limited to 100 students (MSc and PhDs).
2) Students must have taken the exam in Machine Learning (252-0535-00) or have acquired equivalent knowledge
3) All practical exercises will require basic knowledge of Python and will use libraries such as TensorFlow, scikit-learn and scikit-image. We will provide introductions to TensorFlow and other libraries that are needed but will not provide introductions to basic programming or Python.

The following courses are strongly recommended as prerequisite:
* "Machine Learning"
* "Visual Computing" or "Computer Vision"

The course will be assessed by a final written examination in English. No course materials or electronic devices can be used during the examination. Note that the examination will be based on the contents of the lectures, the associated reading materials and the exercises.
227-1034-00LComputational Vision (University of Zurich) Information
No enrolment to this course at ETH Zurich. Book the corresponding module directly at UZH.
UZH Module Code: INI402

Mind the enrolment deadlines at UZH:
Link
W6 credits2V + 1UD. Kiper, K. A. Martin
AbstractThis course focuses on neural computations that underlie visual perception. We study how visual signals are processed in the retina, LGN and visual cortex. We study the morpholgy and functional architecture of cortical circuits responsible for pattern, motion, color, and three-dimensional vision.
ObjectiveThis course considers the operation of circuits in the process of neural computations. The evolution of neural systems will be considered to demonstrate how neural structures and mechanisms are optimised for energy capture, transduction, transmission and representation of information. Canonical brain circuits will be described as models for the analysis of sensory information. The concept of receptive fields will be introduced and their role in coding spatial and temporal information will be considered. The constraints of the bandwidth of neural channels and the mechanisms of normalization by neural circuits will be discussed.
The visual system will form the basis of case studies in the computation of form, depth, and motion. The role of multiple channels and collective computations for object recognition will
be considered. Coordinate transformations of space and time by cortical and subcortical mechanisms will be analysed. The means by which sensory and motor systems are integrated to allow for adaptive behaviour will be considered.
ContentThis course considers the operation of circuits in the process of neural computations. The evolution of neural systems will be considered to demonstrate how neural structures and mechanisms are optimised for energy capture, transduction, transmission and representation of information. Canonical brain circuits will be described as models for the analysis of sensory information. The concept of receptive fields will be introduced and their role in coding spatial and temporal information will be considered. The constraints of the bandwidth of neural channels and the mechanisms of normalization by neural circuits will be discussed.
The visual system will form the basis of case studies in the computation of form, depth, and motion. The role of multiple channels and collective computations for object recognition will
be considered. Coordinate transformations of space and time by cortical and subcortical mechanisms will be analysed. The means by which sensory and motor systems are integrated to allow for adaptive behaviour will be considered.
LiteratureBooks: (recommended references, not required)
1. An Introduction to Natural Computation, D. Ballard (Bradford Books, MIT Press) 1997.
2. The Handbook of Brain Theorie and Neural Networks, M. Arbib (editor), (MIT Press) 1995.
Seminar in Visual Computing
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-5704-00LAdvanced Methods in Computer Graphics Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 24.
W2 credits2SM. Gross
AbstractThis seminar covers advanced topics in computer graphics with a focus on the latest research results. Topics include modeling, rendering, visualization,
animation, physical simulation, computational photography, and others.
ObjectiveThe goal is to obtain an in-depth understanding of actual problems and
research topics in the field of computer graphics as well as improve
presentation and critical analysis skills.
263-5904-00LDeep Learning for Computer Vision: Seminal Work Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 24.
W2 credits2ST. Sattler, L. M. Koch
AbstractThis seminar covers seminal papers on the topic of deep learning for computer vision. The students will present and discuss the papers and gain an understanding of the most influential research in this area - both past and present.
ObjectiveThe objectives of this seminar are two-fold. Firstly, the aim is to provide a solid understanding of key contributions to the field of deep learning for vision (including a historical perspective as well as recent work). Secondly, the students will learn to critically read and analyse original research papers and judge their impact, as well as how to give a scientific presentation and lead a discussion on their topic.
ContentThe seminar will start with introductory lectures to provide (1) a compact overview of challenges and relevant machine learning and deep learning research, and (2) a tutorial on critical analysis and presentation of research papers. Each student then chooses one paper from the provided collection to present during the remainder of the seminar. The students will be supported in the preparation of their presentation by the seminar assistants.
Lecture notesThe selection of research papers will be presented at the beginning of the semester.
LiteratureThe course "Machine Learning" is recommended.
Focus Courses General Studies
Core Focus Courses General Studies
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0407-00LCryptography Foundations Information W7 credits3V + 2U + 1AU. Maurer
AbstractFundamentals and applications of cryptography. Cryptography as a mathematical discipline: reductions, constructive cryptography paradigm, security proofs. The discussed primitives include cryptographic functions, pseudo-randomness, symmetric encryption and authentication, public-key encryption, key agreement, and digital signature schemes. Selected cryptanalytic techniques.
ObjectiveThe goals are:
(1) understand the basic theoretical concepts and scientific thinking in cryptography;
(2) understand and apply some core cryptographic techniques and security proof methods;
(3) be prepared and motivated to access the scientific literature and attend specialized courses in cryptography.
ContentSee course description.
Lecture notesyes.
Prerequisites / NoticeFamiliarity with the basic cryptographic concepts as treated for
example in the course "Information Security" is required but can
in principle also be acquired in parallel to attending the course.
252-0538-00LShape Modeling and Geometry Processing Information W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AS. Coros
AbstractThis course covers some of the latest developments in geometric modeling and digital geometry processing. Topics include surface modeling based on polygonal meshes, mesh generation, surface reconstruction, mesh fairing and simplification, discrete differential geometry, interactive shape editing, topics in digital shape fabrication.
ObjectiveThe students will learn how to design, program and analyze algorithms and systems for interactive 3D shape modeling and digital geometry processing.
ContentRecent advances in 3D digital geometry processing have created a plenitude of novel concepts for the mathematical representation and interactive manipulation of geometric models. This course covers some of the latest developments in geometric modeling and digital geometry processing. Topics include surface modeling based on triangle meshes, mesh generation, surface reconstruction, mesh fairing and simplification, discrete differential geometry, interactive shape editing and digital shape fabrication.
Lecture notesSlides and course notes
Prerequisites / NoticePrerequisites:
Visual Computing, Computer Graphics or an equivalent class. Experience with C++ programming. Some background in geometry or computational geometry is helpful, but not necessary.
261-5110-00LOptimization for Data Science Information W8 credits3V + 2U + 2AB. Gärtner, D. Steurer
AbstractThis course teaches an overview of modern optimization methods, with applications in particular for machine learning and data science.
ObjectiveUnderstanding the theoretical and practical aspects of relevant optimization methods used in data science. Learning general paradigms to deal with optimization problems arising in data science.
ContentThis course teaches an overview of modern optimization methods, with applications in particular for machine learning and data science.

In the first part of the course, we will discuss how classical first and second order methods such as gradient descent and Newton's method can be adapated to scale to large datasets, in theory and in practice. We also cover some new algorithms and paradigms that have been developed specifically in the context of data science. The emphasis is not so much on the application of these methods (many of which are covered in other courses), but on understanding and analyzing the methods themselves.

In the second part, we discuss convex programming relaxations as a powerful and versatile paradigm for designing efficient algorithms to solve computational problems arising in data science. We will learn about this paradigm and develop a unified perspective on it through the lens of the sum-of-squares semidefinite programming hierarchy. As applications, we are discussing non-negative matrix factorization, compressed sensing and sparse linear regression, matrix completion and phase retrieval, as well as robust estimation.
Prerequisites / NoticeAs background, we require material taught in the course "252-0209-00L Algorithms, Probability, and Computing". It is not necessary that participants have actually taken the course, but they should be prepared to catch up if necessary.
263-2925-00LProgram Analysis for System Security and Reliability Information W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AM. Vechev
AbstractThe course introduces modern analysis and synthesis techniques (both, deterministic and probabilistic) and shows how to apply these methods to build reliable and secure systems spanning the domains of blockchain, computer networks and deep learning.
Objective* Understand how classic analysis and synthesis techniques work, including discrete and probabilistic methods.

* Understand how to apply the methods to generate attacks and create defenses against applications in blockchain, computer networks and deep learning.

* Understand the state-of-the-art in the area as well as future trends.
ContentThe course will illustrate how the methods can be used to create more secure and reliable systems across four application domains:

Part I: Analysis and Synthesis for Computer Networks:
1. Analysis: Datalog, Batfish
2. Synthesis: CEGIS, SyNET (Link)
3. Probabilistic: (PSI: Link), its applications to networks (Bayonet)

Part II: Blockchain security
1. Introduction to space and tools.
2. Automated symbolic reasoning.
3. Applications: verification of smart contracts (Link)

Part III: Security and Robustness of Deep Learning:
1. Basics: affine transforms, activation functions
2. Attacks: gradient based method to adversarial generation
3. Defenses: affine domains, AI2 (Link)

Part IV: Probabilistic Security:
1. Enforcement: PSI + Spire.
2. Graphical models: CRFs, Structured SVM, Pseudo-likelihood.
3. Practical statistical de-obfuscation: DeGuard: Link, JSNice: Link, and more.

To gain a deeper understanding, the course will involve a hands-on programming project.
227-0558-00LPrinciples of Distributed Computing Information W6 credits2V + 2U + 1AR. Wattenhofer, M. Ghaffari
AbstractWe study the fundamental issues underlying the design of distributed systems: communication, coordination, fault-tolerance, locality, parallelism, self-organization, symmetry breaking, synchronization, uncertainty. We explore essential algorithmic ideas and lower bound techniques.
ObjectiveDistributed computing is essential in modern computing and communications systems. Examples are on the one hand large-scale networks such as the Internet, and on the other hand multiprocessors such as your new multi-core laptop. This course introduces the principles of distributed computing, emphasizing the fundamental issues underlying the design of distributed systems and networks: communication, coordination, fault-tolerance, locality, parallelism, self-organization, symmetry breaking, synchronization, uncertainty. We explore essential algorithmic ideas and lower bound techniques, basically the "pearls" of distributed computing. We will cover a fresh topic every week.
ContentDistributed computing models and paradigms, e.g. message passing, shared memory, synchronous vs. asynchronous systems, time and message complexity, peer-to-peer systems, small-world networks, social networks, sorting networks, wireless communication, and self-organizing systems.

Distributed algorithms, e.g. leader election, coloring, covering, packing, decomposition, spanning trees, mutual exclusion, store and collect, arrow, ivy, synchronizers, diameter, all-pairs-shortest-path, wake-up, and lower bounds
Lecture notesAvailable. Our course script is used at dozens of other universities around the world.
LiteratureLecture Notes By Roger Wattenhofer. These lecture notes are taught at about a dozen different universities through the world.

Distributed Computing: Fundamentals, Simulations and Advanced Topics
Hagit Attiya, Jennifer Welch.
McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-07-709352 6

Introduction to Algorithms
Thomas Cormen, Charles Leiserson, Ronald Rivest.
The MIT Press, 1998, ISBN 0-262-53091-0 oder 0-262-03141-8

Disseminatin of Information in Communication Networks
Juraj Hromkovic, Ralf Klasing, Andrzej Pelc, Peter Ruzicka, Walter Unger.
Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, 2005, ISBN 3-540-00846-2

Introduction to Parallel Algorithms and Architectures: Arrays, Trees, Hypercubes
Frank Thomson Leighton.
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1991, ISBN 1-55860-117-1

Distributed Computing: A Locality-Sensitive Approach
David Peleg.
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), 2000, ISBN 0-89871-464-8
Prerequisites / NoticeCourse pre-requisites: Interest in algorithmic problems. (No particular course needed.)
263-2300-00LHow To Write Fast Numerical Code Information Restricted registration - show details
Does not take place this semester.
Number of participants limited to 84.

Prerequisite: Master student, solid C programming skills.
W6 credits3V + 2UM. Püschel
AbstractThis course introduces the student to the foundations and state-of-the-art techniques in developing high performance software for numerical functionality such as linear algebra and others. The focus is on optimizing for the memory hierarchy and for special instruction sets. Finally, the course will introduce the recent field of automatic performance tuning.
ObjectiveSoftware performance (i.e., runtime) arises through the interaction of algorithm, its implementation, and the microarchitecture the program is run on. The first goal of the course is to provide the student with an understanding of this interaction, and hence software performance, focusing on numerical or mathematical functionality. The second goal is to teach a general systematic strategy how to use this knowledge to write fast software for numerical problems. This strategy will be trained in a few homeworks and semester-long group projects.
ContentThe fast evolution and increasing complexity of computing platforms pose a major challenge for developers of high performance software for engineering, science, and consumer applications: it becomes increasingly harder to harness the available computing power. Straightforward implementations may lose as much as one or two orders of magnitude in performance. On the other hand, creating optimal implementations requires the developer to have an understanding of algorithms, capabilities and limitations of compilers, and the target platform's architecture and microarchitecture.

This interdisciplinary course introduces the student to the foundations and state-of-the-art techniques in high performance software development using important functionality such as linear algebra functionality, transforms, filters, and others as examples. The course will explain how to optimize for the memory hierarchy, take advantage of special instruction sets, and, if time permits, how to write multithreaded code for multicore platforms. Much of the material is based on state-of-the-art research.

Further, a general strategy for performance analysis and optimization is introduced that the students will apply in group projects that accompany the course. Finally, the course will introduce the students to the recent field of automatic performance tuning.
Elective Focus Courses General Studies
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0312-00LUbiquitous Computing Information W3 credits2VF. Mattern, S. Mayer
AbstractUbiquitous computing integrates tiny wirelessly connected computers and sensors into the environment and everyday objects. Main topics: The vision of ubiquitous computing, trends in technology, smart cards, RFID, Personal Area Networks (Bluetooth), sensor networks, location awareness, privacy and security, application areas, economic and social impact.
ObjectiveThe vision of ubiquitous computing, trends in technology, smart cards, RFID, Personal Area Networks (Bluetooth), sensor networks, location awareness, privacy and security, application areas, economic and social impact.
Lecture notesCopies of slides will be made available
LiteratureWill be provided in the lecture. To put you in the mood:
Mark Weiser: The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American, September 1991, pp. 94-104
252-0355-00LObject Databases Information W4 credits2V + 1UA. K. de Spindler
AbstractThe course examines the principles and techniques of providing data management in object-oriented programming environments. After introducing the basics of object storage and management, we will cover semantic object models and their implementation. Finally, we discuss advanced data management services such as version models for temporal and engineering databases and for software configuration.
ObjectiveThe goal of this course is to extend the student's knowledge of database technologies towards object-oriented solutions. Starting with basic principles, students also learn about commercial products and research projects in the domain of object-oriented data management. Apart from getting to know the characteristics of these approaches and the differences between them, the course also discusses what application requirements justify the use of object-oriented databases. Therefore, it educates students to make informed decisions on when to use what database technology.
ContentThe course examines the principles and techniques of providing data management in object-oriented programming environments. It is divided into three parts that cover the road from simple object persistence, to object-oriented database management systems and to advanced data management services. In the first part, object serialisation and object-relational mapping frameworks will be introduced. Using the example of the open-source project db4o, the utilisation, architecture and functionality of a simple object-oriented database is discussed. The second part of the course is dedicated to advanced topics such as industry standards and solutions for object data management as well as storage and index technologies. Additionally, advanced data management services such as version models for temporal and engineering databases as well as for software configuration are discussed. In the third and last part of the course, an object-oriented data model that features a clear separation of typing and classification is presented. Together with the model, its implementation in terms of an object-oriented database management system is discussed also. Finally, an extension of this data model is presented that allows context-aware data to be managed.
Prerequisites / NoticePrerequisites: Knowledge about the topics of the lectures "Introduction to Databases" and "Information Systems" is required.
252-0408-00LCryptographic Protocols Information W5 credits2V + 2UM. Hirt, U. Maurer
AbstractThe course presents a selection of hot research topics in cryptography. The choice of topics varies and may include provable security, interactive proofs, zero-knowledge protocols, secret sharing, secure multi-party computation, e-voting, etc.
ObjectiveIndroduction to a very active research area with many gems and paradoxical
results. Spark interest in fundamental problems.
ContentThe course presents a selection of hot research topics in cryptography. The choice of topics varies and may include provable security, interactive proofs, zero-knowledge protocols, secret sharing, secure multi-party computation, e-voting, etc.
Lecture notesthe lecture notes are in German, but they are not required as the entire
course material is documented also in other course material (in english).
Prerequisites / NoticeA basic understanding of fundamental cryptographic concepts
(as taught for example in the course Information Security or
in the course Cryptography Foundations) is useful, but not required.
252-0526-00LStatistical Learning Theory Information W6 credits2V + 3PJ. M. Buhmann
AbstractThe course covers advanced methods of statistical learning :
Statistical learning theory;variational methods and optimization, e.g., maximum entropy techniques, information bottleneck, deterministic and simulated annealing; clustering for vectorial, histogram and relational data; model selection; graphical models.
ObjectiveThe course surveys recent methods of statistical learning. The fundamentals of machine learning as presented in the course "Introduction to Machine Learning" are expanded and in particular, the theory of statistical learning is discussed.
Content# Theory of estimators: How can we measure the quality of a statistical estimator? We already discussed bias and variance of estimators very briefly, but the interesting part is yet to come.

# Variational methods and optimization: We consider optimization approaches for problems where the optimizer is a probability distribution. Concepts we will discuss in this context include:

* Maximum Entropy
* Information Bottleneck
* Deterministic Annealing

# Clustering: The problem of sorting data into groups without using training samples. This requires a definition of ``similarity'' between data points and adequate optimization procedures.

# Model selection: We have already discussed how to fit a model to a data set in ML I, which usually involved adjusting model parameters for a given type of model. Model selection refers to the question of how complex the chosen model should be. As we already know, simple and complex models both have advantages and drawbacks alike.

# Statistical physics models: approaches for large systems approximate optimization, which originate in the statistical physics (free energy minimization applied to spin glasses and other models); sampling methods based on these models
Lecture notesA draft of a script will be provided;
transparencies of the lectures will be made available.
LiteratureHastie, Tibshirani, Friedman: The Elements of Statistical Learning, Springer, 2001.

L. Devroye, L. Gyorfi, and G. Lugosi: A probabilistic theory of pattern recognition. Springer, New York, 1996
Prerequisites / NoticeRequirements:

knowledge of the Machine Learning course
basic knowledge of statistics, interest in statistical methods.

It is recommended that Introduction to Machine Learning (ML I) is taken first; but with a little extra effort Statistical Learning Theory can be followed without the introductory course.
252-0570-00LGame Programming Laboratory Information
In the Master Programme max. 10 credits can be accounted by Labs on top of the Interfocus Courses. Additional Labs will be listed on the Addendum.
W10 credits9PB. Sumner
AbstractThe goal of this course is the in-depth understanding of the technology and programming underlying computer games. Students gradually design and develop a computer game in small groups and get acquainted with the art of game programming.
ObjectiveThe goal of this new course is to acquaint students with the
technology and art of programming modern three-dimensional computer
games.
ContentThis is a new course that addresses modern three-dimensional computer
game technology. During the course, small groups of students will
design and develop a computer game. Focus will be put on technical
aspects of game development, such as rendering, cinematography,
interaction, physics, animation, and AI. In addition, we will
cultivate creative thinking for advanced gameplay and visual effects.

The "laboratory" format involves a practical, hands-on approach with
neither traditional lectures nor exercises. Instead, we will meet
once a week to discuss technical issues and to track progress. We
plan to utilize Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express, which is a
collection libraries and tools that facilitate game development.
While development will take place on PCs, we will ultimately deploy
our games on the XBox 360 console.

At the end of the course we will present our results to the public.
Lecture notesOnline XNA documentation.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe number of participants is limited.

Prerequisites include:

- good programming skills (Java, C++, C#, etc.)

- CG experience: Students should have taken, at a minimum, Visual
Computing. Higher level courses are recommended, such as Introduction
to Computer Graphics, Surface Representations and Geometric Modeling,
and Physically-based Simulation in Computer Graphics.
252-0579-00L3D Vision Information W4 credits3GT. Sattler, M. R. Oswald
AbstractThe course covers camera models and calibration, feature tracking and matching, camera motion estimation via simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and visual odometry (VO), epipolar and mult-view geometry, structure-from-motion, (multi-view) stereo, augmented reality, and image-based (re-)localization.
ObjectiveAfter attending this course, students will:
1. understand the core concepts for recovering 3D shape of objects and scenes from images and video.
2. be able to implement basic systems for vision-based robotics and simple virtual/augmented reality applications.
3. have a good overview over the current state-of-the art in 3D vision.
4. be able to critically analyze and asses current research in this area.
ContentThe goal of this course is to teach the core techniques required for robotic and augmented reality applications: How to determine the motion of a camera and how to estimate the absolute position and orientation of a camera in the real world. This course will introduce the basic concepts of 3D Vision in the form of short lectures, followed by student presentations discussing the current state-of-the-art. The main focus of this course are student projects on 3D Vision topics, with an emphasis on robotic vision and virtual and augmented reality applications.
252-0807-00LInformation Systems Laboratory Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 12.

In the Master Programme max. 10 credits can be accounted by Labs on top of the Interfocus Courses. Additional Labs will be listed on the Addendum.
W10 credits9PM. Norrie
AbstractThe purpose of this laboratory course is to practically explore modern techniques to build large-scale distributed information systems. Participants will work in groups of three or more students, and develop projects in several phases.
ObjectiveThe students will gain experience of working with technologies used in the design and development of information systems.
ContentFirst week: Kick-off meeting and project assignment
Second week: Meeting with the project supervisor to discuss the goals and scope of the project.
During the semester: Individual group work. Each team member should contribute to the project roughly about 10h/week, excluding any necessary reading or self-studying (e.g. the time spent to learn a new technology). In addition, it is expected that each team can meet with their supervisor on a regular basis.
End of semester: Final presentation.
252-0817-00LDistributed Systems Laboratory Information
In the Master Programme max. 10 credits can be accounted by Labs
on top of the Interfocus Courses. Additional Labs will be listed on the Addendum.
W10 credits9PG. Alonso, T. Hoefler, F. Mattern, T. Roscoe, A. Singla, R. Wattenhofer, C. Zhang
AbstractThis course involves the participation in a substantial development and/or evaluation project involving distributed systems technology. There are projects available in a wide range of areas: from web services to ubiquitous computing including as well wireless networks, ad-hoc networks, and distributed application on mobile phones.
ObjectiveStudents acquire practical knowledge about technologies from the area of distributed systems.
ContentThis course involves the participation in a substantial development and/or evaluation project involving distributed systems technology. There are projects available in a wide range of areas: from web services to ubiquitous computing including as well wireless networks, ad-hoc networks, and distributed application on mobile phones. The objecte of the project is for the students to gain hands-on-experience with real products and the latest technology in distributed systems. There is no lecture associated to the course.
For information of the course or projects available, please contact Prof. Mattern, Prof. Wattenhofer, Prof. Roscoe or Prof. G. Alonso.
252-1403-00LInvitation to Quantum Informatics Information W3 credits2VS. Wolf
AbstractFollowed by an introduction to the basic principles of quantum physics, such as superposition, interference, or entanglement, a variety of subjects are treated: Quantum algorithms, teleportation, quantum communication complexity and "pseudo-telepathy", quantum cryptography, as well as the main concepts of quantum information theory.
ObjectiveIt is the goal of this course to get familiar with the most important notions that are of importance for the connection between Information and Physics. The formalism of Quantum Physics will be motivated and derived, and the use of these laws for information processing will be understood. In particular, the important algorithms of Grover as well as Shor will be studied and analyzed.
ContentAccording to Landauer, "information is physical". In quantum information, one is interested in the consequences and the possibilites offered by the laws of quantum physics for information processing. Followed by an introduction to the basic principles of quantum physics, such as superposition, interference, or entanglement, a variety of subjects are treated: Quantum algorithms, teleportation, quantum communication complexity and "pseude-telepathy", quantum cryptography, as well as the main concepts of quantum information theory.
252-1424-00LModels of ComputationW6 credits2V + 2U + 1AM. Cook
AbstractThis course surveys many different models of computation: Turing Machines, Cellular Automata, Finite State Machines, Graph Automata, Circuits, Tilings, Lambda Calculus, Fractran, Chemical Reaction Networks, Hopfield Networks, String Rewriting Systems, Tag Systems, Diophantine Equations, Register Machines, Primitive Recursive Functions, and more.
ObjectiveThe goal of this course is to become acquainted with a wide variety of models of computation, to understand how models help us to understand the modeled systems, and to be able to develop and analyze models appropriate for new systems.
ContentThis course surveys many different models of computation: Turing Machines, Cellular Automata, Finite State Machines, Graph Automata, Circuits, Tilings, Lambda Calculus, Fractran, Chemical Reaction Networks, Hopfield Networks, String Rewriting Systems, Tag Systems, Diophantine Equations, Register Machines, Primitive Recursive Functions, and more.
252-3005-00LNatural Language Understanding Information W4 credits2V + 1UT. Hofmann, M. Ciaramita
AbstractThis course presents topics in natural language processing with an emphasis on modern techniques, primarily focusing on statistical and deep learning approaches. The course provides an overview of the primary areas of research in language processing as well as a detailed exploration of the models and techniques used both in research and in commercial natural language systems.
ObjectiveThe objective of the course is to learn the basic concepts in the statistical processing of natural languages. The course will be project-oriented so that the students can also gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art tools and techniques.
ContentThis course presents an introduction to general topics and techniques used in natural language processing today, primarily focusing on statistical approaches. The course provides an overview of the primary areas of research in language processing as well as a detailed exploration of the models and techniques used both in research and in commercial natural language systems.
LiteratureLectures will make use of textbooks such as the one by Jurafsky and Martin where appropriate, but will also make use of original research and survey papers.
252-5706-00LMathematical Foundations of Computer Graphics and Vision Information W4 credits2V + 1UM. R. Oswald, C. Öztireli
AbstractThis course presents the fundamental mathematical tools and concepts used in computer graphics and vision. Each theoretical topic is introduced in the context of practical vision or graphic problems, showcasing its importance in real-world applications.
ObjectiveThe main goal is to equip the students with the key mathematical tools necessary to understand state-of-the-art algorithms in vision and graphics. In addition to the theoretical part, the students will learn how to use these mathematical tools to solve a wide range of practical problems in visual computing. After successfully completing this course, the students will be able to apply these mathematical concepts and tools to practical industrial and academic projects in visual computing.
ContentThe theory behind various mathematical concepts and tools will be introduced, and their practical utility will be showcased in diverse applications in computer graphics and vision. The course will cover topics in sampling, reconstruction, approximation, optimization, robust fitting, differentiation, quadrature and spectral methods. Applications will include 3D surface reconstruction, camera pose estimation, image editing, data projection, character animation, structure-aware geometry processing, and rendering.
263-2812-00LProgram Verification Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 30.
W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AA. J. Summers
AbstractA hands-on introduction to the theory and construction of deductive software verifiers, covering both cutting-edge methodologies for formal program reasoning, and a perspective over the broad tool stacks making up modern verification tools.
ObjectiveStudents will earn the necessary skills for designing and developing deductive verification tools which can be applied to modularly analyse complex software, including features challenging for reasoning such as heap-based mutable data and concurrency. Students will learn both a variety of fundamental reasoning principles, and how these reasoning ideas can be made practical via automatic tools.

Students will be gain practical experience with reasoning tools at various levels of abstraction, from SAT and SMT solvers at the lowest level, up through intermediate verification languages and tools, to verifiers which target front-end code in executable languages.

By the end of the course, students should have a good working understanding and experience of the issues and decisions involved with designing and building practical verification tools, and the theoretical techniques which underpin them.
ContentThe course will be organized around building up a "tool stack", starting at the lowest-level with background on SAT and SMT solving techniques, and working upwards through tools at progressively-higher levels of abstraction. The notion of intermediate verification languages will be explored, and the Boogie (Microsoft Research) and Viper (ETH) languages will be used in depth to tackle increasingly ambitious verification tasks.

The course will intermix technical content with hands-on experience; at each level of abstraction, we will build small tools on top which can tackle specific program correctness problems, starting from simple puzzle solvers (Soduko) at the SAT level, and working upwards to full functional correctness of application-level code. This practical work will include three mini-projects (each worth 10% of the final grade) spread throughout the course, which count towards the final grade. An oral examination (worth 70% of the final grade) will cover the technical content covered.
Lecture notesSlides and other materials will be available online.
LiteratureBackground reading material and links to tools will be published on the course website.
Prerequisites / NoticeSome programming experience is essential, as the course contains several practical assignments. A basic familiarity with propositional and first-order logic will be assumed.

Courses with an emphasis on formal reasoning about programs (such as Formal Methods and Functional Programming) are advantageous background, but are not a requirement.
263-3501-00LAdvanced Computer Networks Information W5 credits2V + 2UA. Singla, P. M. Stüdi
AbstractThis course covers a set of advanced topics in computer networks. The focus is on principles, architectures, and protocols used in modern networked systems, such as the Internet and data center networks.
ObjectiveThe goals of the course are to build on basic undergraduate-level networking, and provide an understanding of the tradeoffs and existing technology in the design of large, complex networked systems, together with concrete experience of the challenges through a series of lab exercises.
ContentThe focus of the course is on principles, architectures, and protocols used in modern networked systems. Topics include data center network topologies, software defined networking, network function virtualization, flow control and congestion control in data centers, end-point optimizations, and server virtualization.
263-3710-00LMachine Perception Information Restricted registration - show details
Students, who have already taken 263-3700-00 User Interface Engineering are not allowed to register for this course!
W5 credits2V + 1U + 1AO. Hilliges
AbstractRecent developments in neural network (aka “deep learning”) have drastically advanced the performance of machine perception systems in a variety of areas including drones, self-driving cars and intelligent UIs. This course is a deep dive into details of the deep learning algorithms and architectures for a variety of perceptual tasks.
ObjectiveStudents will learn about fundamental aspects of modern deep learning approaches for perception. Students will learn to implement, train and debug their own neural networks and gain a detailed understanding of cutting-edge research in learning-based computer vision, robotics and HCI. The final project assignment will involve training a complex neural network architecture and applying it on a real-world dataset of human motion.

The core competency acquired through this course is a solid foundation in deep-learning algorithms to process and interpret human input into computing systems. In particular, students should be able to develop systems that deal with the problem of recognizing people in images, detecting and describing body parts, inferring their spatial configuration, performing action/gesture recognition from still images or image sequences, also considering multi-modal data, among others.
ContentWe will focus on teaching how to set up the problem of machine perception, the learning algorithms (e.g. backpropagation), practical engineering aspects as well as advanced deep learning algorithms including generative models.

The course covers the following main areas:
I) Machine-learning algorithms for input recognition, computer vision and image classification (human pose, object detection, gestures, etc.)
II) Deep-learning models for the analysis of time-series data (temporal sequences of motion)
III) Learning of generative models for synthesis and prediction of human activity.

Specific topics include: 
• Deep learning basics:
○ Neural Networks and training (i.e., backpropagation)
○ Feedforward Networks
○ Recurrent Neural Networks
• Deep Learning techniques user input recognition:
○ Convolutional Neural Networks for classification
○ Fully Convolutional architectures for dense per-pixel tasks (i.e., segmentation)
○ LSTMs & related for time series analysis
○ Generative Models (GANs, Variational Autoencoders)
• Case studies from research in computer vision, HCI, robotics and signal processing
LiteratureDeep Learning
Book by Ian Goodfellow and Yoshua Bengio
Prerequisites / NoticeThis is an advanced grad-level course that requires a background in machine learning. Students are expected to have a solid mathematical foundation, in particular in linear algebra, multivariate calculus, and probability. The course will focus on state-of-the-art research in deep-learning and is not meant as extensive tutorial of how to train deep networks with Tensorflow..

Please take note of the following conditions:
1) The number of participants is limited to 100 students (MSc and PhDs).
2) Students must have taken the exam in Machine Learning (252-0535-00) or have acquired equivalent knowledge
3) All practical exercises will require basic knowledge of Python and will use libraries such as TensorFlow, scikit-learn and scikit-image. We will provide introductions to TensorFlow and other libraries that are needed but will not provide introductions to basic programming or Python.

The following courses are strongly recommended as prerequisite:
* "Machine Learning"
* "Visual Computing" or "Computer Vision"

The course will be assessed by a final written examination in English. No course materials or electronic devices can be used during the examination. Note that the examination will be based on the contents of the lectures, the associated reading materials and the exercises.
263-4110-00LInterdisciplinary Algorithms Lab Information Restricted registration - show details
In the Master Programme max. 10 credits can be accounted by Labs on top of the Interfocus Courses. Additional Labs will be listed on the Addendum.
W5 credits2PA. Steger, D. Steurer, J. Lengler
AbstractIn this course students will develop solutions for algorithmic problems posed by researchers from other fields.
ObjectiveStudents will learn that in order to tackle algorithmic problems from an interdisciplinary or applied context one needs to combine a solid understanding of algorithmic methodology with insights into the problem at hand to judge which side constraints are essential and which can be loosened.
Prerequisites / NoticeStudents will work in teams. Ideally, skills of team members complement each other.

Interested Bachelor students can apply for participation by sending an email to Link explaining motivation and transcripts.
263-4310-00LLinear Algebra Methods in Combinatorics Information W5 credits2V + 2UP. Penna
AbstractThis course describes the linear algebra bound technique also called dimension argument. To learn the technique we discuss several examples in combinatorics, geometry, and computer science. Besides this technique, the course aims at showing the mathematical elegance of certain proofs and the simplicity of the statements.
ObjectiveBecoming familiar with the method and being able to apply it to problems similar to those encountered during the course.
ContentThis course is (essentially) about one single technique called the "linear algebra bound" (also known as "dimension argument"). We shall see several examples in combinatorics, geometry, and computer science and learn the technique throughout these examples. Towards the end of the course, we shall see the power of this method in proving rather amazing results (e.g., a circuit complexity lower bound, explicit constructions of Ramsey graphs, and a famous conjecture in geometry disproved). The course also aims at illustrating the main ideas behind the proofs and how the various problems are in fact connected to each other.
Lecture notesLecture notes of each single lecture will be made available (shortly after the lecture itself).
LiteratureMost of the material of the course is covered by the following book:

1. Linear algebra methods in combinatorics, by L. Babai and P. Frankl, Department of Computer Science, University of Chicago, preliminary version, 1992.

Some parts are also taken from

2. Extremal Combinatorics (with Applications in Computer Science), by Stasys Jukna, Springer-Verlag 2001.
263-4312-00LAdvanced Data Structures Information W5 credits2V + 2UP. Uznanski
AbstractData structures play a central role in modern computer science and are essential building blocks in obtaining efficient algorithms. The course covers major results and research directions in data structures, that (mostly) have not yet made it into standard computer science curriculum.
ObjectiveLearning modern models of computation. Applying new algorithmic techniques to the construction of efficient data structures. Understanding techniques used in both lower- and upper- bound proofs on said data structures.
ContentThis course will survey important developments in data structures that have not (yet) worked their way into the standard computer science curriculum.
Though we will cover state of the art techniques, the presentation is relatively self-contained, and only assumes a basic undergraduate data structures course (e.g., knowledge of binary search trees).

The course material includes (but is not exhausted by):
- computation models and memory models
- string indexing (suffix trees, suffix arrays)
- search trees
- static tree processing (Lowest Common Ancestor queries, Level Ancestry queries)
- range queries on arrays (queries for minimal element in a given range)
- integers-only data structures: how to sort integers in linear time, faster predecessor structures (van Emde Boas trees)
- hashing
- dynamic graphs connectivity
Prerequisites / NoticeThis is a highly theoretical course. You should be comfortable with:
- algorithms and data structures
- probability

Completing Algorithms, Probability, and Computing course (252-0209-00L) is a good indicator.
263-4600-00LFormal Methods for Information Security Information W4 credits2V + 1UR. Sasse, C. Sprenger
AbstractThe course focuses on formal methods for the modelling and analysis of security protocols for critical systems, ranging from authentication protocols for network security to electronic voting protocols and online banking.
ObjectiveThe students will learn the key ideas and theoretical foundations of formal modelling and analysis of security protocols. The students will complement their theoretical knowledge by solving practical exercises, completing a small project, and using state-of-the-art tools.
ContentThe course treats formal methods mainly for the modelling and analysis of security protocols. Cryptographic protocols (such as SSL/TLS, SSH, Kerberos, SAML single-sign on, and IPSec) form the basis for secure communication and business processes. Numerous attacks on published protocols show that the design of cryptographic protocols is extremely error-prone. A rigorous analysis of these protocols is therefore indispensable, and manual analysis is insufficient. The lectures cover the theoretical basis for the (tool-supported) formal modeling and analysis of such protocols. Specifically, we discuss their operational semantics, the formalization of security properties, and techniques and algorithms for their verification.

In addition to the classical security properties for confidentiality and authentication, we will study strong secrecy and privacy properties. We will discuss electronic voting protocols, and RFID protocols (a staple of the Internet of Things), where these properties are central. The accompanying tutorials provide an opportunity to apply the theory and tools to concrete protocols. Moreover, we will discuss methods to abstract and refine security protocols and the link between symbolic protocol models and cryptographic models.

Furthermore, we will also present a security notion for general systems based on non-interference as well as language-based information flow security where non-interference is enforced via a type system.
272-0300-00LAlgorithmics for Hard Problems Information
Does not take place this semester.
This course d o e s n o t include the Mentored Work Specialised Courses with an Educational Focus in Computer Science A.
W4 credits2V + 1UJ. Hromkovic
AbstractThis course unit looks into algorithmic approaches to the solving of hard problems. The seminar is accompanied by a comprehensive reflection upon the significance of the approaches presented for computer science tuition at high schools.
ObjectiveTo systematically acquire an overview of the methods for solving hard problems.
ContentFirst, the concept of hardness of computation is introduced (repeated for the computer science students). Then some methods for solving hard problems are treated in a systematic way. For each algorithm design method, it is discussed what guarantees it can give and how we pay for the improved efficiency.
Lecture notesUnterlagen und Folien werden zur Verfügung gestellt.
LiteratureJ. Hromkovic: Algorithmics for Hard Problems, Springer 2004.

R. Niedermeier: Invitation to Fixed-Parameter Algorithms, 2006.

M. Cygan et al.: Parameterized Algorithms, 2015.

F. Fomin, D. Kratsch: Exact Exponential Algorithms, 2010.
272-0301-00LMethods for Design of Random Systems Information
This course d o e s n o t include the Mentored Work Specialised Courses with an Educational Focus in Computer Science B.
W4 credits2V + 1UH.‑J. Böckenhauer, D. Komm, R. Kralovic
AbstractThe students should get a deep understanding of the notion of randomness and its usefulness. Using basic elements probability theory and number theory the students will discover randomness as a source of efficiency in algorithmic. The goal is to teach the paradigms of design of randomized algorithms.
ObjectiveTo understand the computational power of randomness and to learn the basic
methods for designing randomized algorithms
Lecture notesJ. Hromkovic: Randomisierte Algorithmen, Teubner 2004.

J.Hromkovic: Design and Analysis of Randomized Algorithms. Springer 2006.

J.Hromkovic: Algorithmics for Hard Problems, Springer 2004.
LiteratureJ. Hromkovic: Randomisierte Algorithmen, Teubner 2004.

J.Hromkovic: Design and Analysis of Randomized Algorithms. Springer 2006.

J.Hromkovic: Algorithmics for Hard Problems, Springer 2004.
272-0302-00LApproximation and Online Algorithms Information W4 credits2V + 1UH.‑J. Böckenhauer, D. Komm
AbstractThis lecture deals with approximative algorithms for hard optimization problems and algorithmic approaches for solving online problems as well as the limits of these approaches.
ObjectiveGet a systematic overview of different methods for designing approximative algorithms for hard optimization problems and online problems. Get to know methods for showing the limitations of these approaches.
ContentApproximation algorithms are one of the most succesful techniques to attack hard optimization problems. Here, we study the so-called approximation ratio, i.e., the ratio of the cost of the computed approximating solution and an optimal one (which is not computable efficiently).
For an online problem, the whole instance is not known in advance, but it arrives pieceweise and for every such piece a corresponding part of the definite output must be given. The quality of an algorithm for such an online problem is measured by the competitive ratio, i.e., the ratio of the cost of the computed solution and the cost of an optimal solution that could be given if the whole input was known in advance.

The contents of this lecture are
- the classification of optimization problems by the reachable approximation ratio,
- systematic methods to design approximation algorithms (e.g., greedy strategies, dynamic programming, linear programming relaxation),
- methods to show non-approximability,
- classic online problem like paging or scheduling problems and corresponding algorithms,
- randomized online algorithms,
- the design and analysis principles for online algorithms, and
- limits of the competitive ratio and the advice complexity as a way to do a deeper analysis of the complexity of online problems.
LiteratureThe lecture is based on the following books:

J. Hromkovic: Algorithmics for Hard Problems, Springer, 2004

D. Komm: An Introduction to Online Computation: Determinism, Randomization, Advice, Springer, 2016

Additional literature:

A. Borodin, R. El-Yaniv: Online Computation and Competitive Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1998
401-3052-05LGraph Theory Information W5 credits2V + 1UB. Sudakov
AbstractBasic notions, trees, spanning trees, Caley's formula, vertex and edge connectivity, blocks, 2-connectivity, Mader's theorem, Menger's theorem, Eulerian graphs, Hamilton cycles, Dirac's theorem, matchings, theorems of Hall, König and Tutte, planar graphs, Euler's formula, basic non-planar graphs, graph colorings, greedy colorings, Brooks' theorem, 5-colorings of planar graphs
ObjectiveThe students will get an overview over the most fundamental questions concerning graph theory. We expect them to understand the proof techniques and to use them autonomously on related problems.
Lecture notesLecture will be only at the blackboard.
LiteratureWest, D.: "Introduction to Graph Theory"
Diestel, R.: "Graph Theory"

Further literature links will be provided in the lecture.
Prerequisites / NoticeNOTICE: This course unit was previously offered as 252-1408-00L Graphs and Algorithms.
401-3903-11LGeometric Integer ProgrammingW6 credits2V + 1UR. Weismantel
AbstractInteger programming is the task of minimizing a linear function over all the integer points in a polyhedron. This lecture introduces the key concepts of an algorithmic theory for solving such problems.
ObjectiveThe purpose of the lecture is to provide a geometric treatment of the theory of integer optimization.
ContentKey topics are:
- lattice theory and the polynomial time solvability of integer optimization problems in fixed dimension,
- the theory of integral generating sets and its connection to totally dual integral systems,
- finite cutting plane algorithms based on lattices and integral generating sets.
Lecture notesnot available, blackboard presentation
LiteratureBertsimas, Weismantel: Optimization over Integers, Dynamic Ideas 2005.
Schrijver: Theory of linear and integer programming, Wiley, 1986.
Prerequisites / Notice"Mathematical Optimization" (401-3901-00L)
401-4904-00LCombinatorial Optimization Information W6 credits2V + 1UR. Zenklusen
AbstractCombinatorial Optimization deals with efficiently finding a provably strong solution among a finite set of options. This course discusses key combinatorial structures and techniques to design efficient algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems. We put a strong emphasis on polyhedral methods, which proved to be a powerful and unifying tool throughout combinatorial optimization.
ObjectiveThe goal of this lecture is to get a thorough understanding of various modern combinatorial optimization techniques with an emphasis on polyhedral approaches. Students will learn a general toolbox to tackle a wide range of combinatorial optimization problems.
ContentKey topics include:
- Polyhedral descriptions;
- Combinatorial uncrossing;
- Ellipsoid method;
- Equivalence between separation and optimization;
- Design of efficient approximation algorithms for hard problems.
Lecture notesLecture notes will be available online.
Literature- Bernhard Korte, Jens Vygen: Combinatorial Optimization. 5th edition, Springer, 2012.
- Alexander Schrijver: Combinatorial Optimization: Polyhedra and Efficiency, Springer, 2003. This work has 3 volumes.
Prerequisites / NoticePrior exposure to Linear Programming can greatly help the understanding of the material. We therefore recommend that students interested in Combinatorial Optimization get familiarized with Linear Programming before taking this lecture.
227-1034-00LComputational Vision (University of Zurich) Information
No enrolment to this course at ETH Zurich. Book the corresponding module directly at UZH.
UZH Module Code: INI402

Mind the enrolment deadlines at UZH:
Link
W6 credits2V + 1UD. Kiper, K. A. Martin
AbstractThis course focuses on neural computations that underlie visual perception. We study how visual signals are processed in the retina, LGN and visual cortex. We study the morpholgy and functional architecture of cortical circuits responsible for pattern, motion, color, and three-dimensional vision.
ObjectiveThis course considers the operation of circuits in the process of neural computations. The evolution of neural systems will be considered to demonstrate how neural structures and mechanisms are optimised for energy capture, transduction, transmission and representation of information. Canonical brain circuits will be described as models for the analysis of sensory information. The concept of receptive fields will be introduced and their role in coding spatial and temporal information will be considered. The constraints of the bandwidth of neural channels and the mechanisms of normalization by neural circuits will be discussed.
The visual system will form the basis of case studies in the computation of form, depth, and motion. The role of multiple channels and collective computations for object recognition will
be considered. Coordinate transformations of space and time by cortical and subcortical mechanisms will be analysed. The means by which sensory and motor systems are integrated to allow for adaptive behaviour will be considered.
ContentThis course considers the operation of circuits in the process of neural computations. The evolution of neural systems will be considered to demonstrate how neural structures and mechanisms are optimised for energy capture, transduction, transmission and representation of information. Canonical brain circuits will be described as models for the analysis of sensory information. The concept of receptive fields will be introduced and their role in coding spatial and temporal information will be considered. The constraints of the bandwidth of neural channels and the mechanisms of normalization by neural circuits will be discussed.
The visual system will form the basis of case studies in the computation of form, depth, and motion. The role of multiple channels and collective computations for object recognition will
be considered. Coordinate transformations of space and time by cortical and subcortical mechanisms will be analysed. The means by which sensory and motor systems are integrated to allow for adaptive behaviour will be considered.
LiteratureBooks: (recommended references, not required)
1. An Introduction to Natural Computation, D. Ballard (Bradford Books, MIT Press) 1997.
2. The Handbook of Brain Theorie and Neural Networks, M. Arbib (editor), (MIT Press) 1995.
Seminar in General Studies
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-3002-00LAlgorithms for Database Systems Information
Limited number of participants.
W2 credits2SP. Widmayer, P. Uznanski
AbstractQuery processing, optimization, stream-based systems, distributed and parallel databases, non-standard databases.
ObjectiveDevelop an understanding of selected problems of current interest in the area of algorithms for database systems.
252-3100-00LComputer Supported Cooperative Work Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 12.

Takes place for the last time.
W2 credits2SM. Norrie
AbstractComputer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is the study of how people work together using computer technology. It is a multi-disciplinary research field dealing with the social, theoretical, practical and technical aspects of collaboration and how the use of technology can affect groups, organisations and communities. The diversity of the CSCW field is reflected in the range of topics covered.
ObjectiveComputer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is the study of how people work together using computer technology. It is a multi-disciplinary research field dealing with the social, theoretical, practical and technical aspects of collaboration and how the use of technology can affect groups, organisations, communities and societies. The CSCW community is interested in how people use everyday tools such as email, the web and chat systems as well as specialist groupware applications that support groups of people engaged in shared tasks such as software development or product design. A better understanding of how people communicate and work together can in turn lead to a better understanding of the problems of current technologies and systems and influence the design of new technologies and tools.
252-3600-02LSmart Systems Seminar Information W2 credits2SO. Hilliges, S. Coros, F. Mattern
AbstractSeminar on various topics from the broader areas of Ubiquitous Computing, Human Computer Interaction, Robotics and Digital Fabrication.
ObjectiveLearn about various current topics from the broader areas of Ubiquitous Computing, Human Computer Interaction, Robotics and Digital Fabrication.
Prerequisites / NoticeThere will be an orientation event several weeks before the start of the semester (possibly at the end of the preceding semester) where also first topics will be assigned to students. Please check Link for further information.
252-4102-00LSeminar on Randomized Algorithms and Probabilistic MethodsW2 credits2SA. Steger
AbstractThe aim of the seminar is to study papers which bring the students to the forefront of today's research topics. This semester we will study selected papers of the conference Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA18).
ObjectiveRead papers from the forefront of today's research; learn how to give a scientific talk.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe seminar is open for both students from mathematics and students from computer science. As prerequisite we require that you passed the course Randomized Algorithms and Probabilistic Methods (or equivalent, if you come from abroad).
252-4202-00LSeminar in Theoretical Computer Science Information W2 credits2SE. Welzl, B. Gärtner, M. Hoffmann, J. Lengler, A. Steger, B. Sudakov
AbstractPresentation of recent publications in theoretical computer science, including results by diploma, masters and doctoral candidates.
ObjectiveTo get an overview of current research in the areas covered by the involved research groups. To present results from the literature.
263-4203-00LGeometry: Combinatorics and Algorithms Information W2 credits2SM. Hoffmann, E. Welzl, L. F. Barba Flores, P. Valtr
AbstractThis seminar complements the course Geometry: Combinatorics & Algorithms. Students of the seminar will present original research papers, some classic and some of them very recent.
ObjectiveEach student is expected to read, understand, and elaborate on a selected research paper. To this end, (s)he should give a 45-min. presentation about the paper. The process includes

* getting an overview of the related literature;
* understanding and working out the background/motivation:
why and where are the questions addressed relevant?
* understanding the contents of the paper in all details;
* selecting parts suitable for the presentation;
* presenting the selected parts in such a way that an audience
with some basic background in geometry and graph theory can easily understand and appreciate it.
ContentThis seminar is held once a year and complements the course Geometry: Combinatorics & Algorithms. Students of the seminar will present original research papers, some classic and some of them very recent. The seminar is a good preparation for a master, diploma, or semester thesis in the area.
Prerequisites / NoticePrerequisite: Successful participation in the course "Geometry: Combinatorics & Algorithms" (takes place every HS) is required.
252-4302-00LSeminar Algorithmic Game Theory Information
Limited number of participants.
W2 credits2SP. Widmayer, P. Penna
AbstractIn the seminar we will get familiar with the current original research in the area of algorithmic game theory by reading and presenting selected research papers in that area.
ObjectiveDevelop an understanding of selected problems of current interest in the area of algorithmic game theory, and a practice of a scientific presentation.
ContentStudy and understanding of selected topics of current interest in algorithmic game theory such as: Complexity Results (class PPAD, PLS, NP), Sponsored Search, Approximation Algorithms via Algorithmic Game Theory, Price of Anarchy, New paradigms of computation (e.g., envy-fee, truthful), Mechanism Design.
LiteratureSelected research articles.
Prerequisites / NoticeYou must have passed our "Algorithmic Game Theory" class (or have acquired equivalent knowledge, in exceptional cases).
252-4800-00LInformation & Physics Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 120.
Previously called Quantum Information and Cryptography

Um das vorhandene Angebot optimal auszunutzen, behält sich das D-INFK vor, Belegungen von Studierenden zu löschen, die sich in mehreren Veranstaltungen dieser Kategorie eingeschrieben haben, bereits die erforderlichen Leistungen in dieser Kategorie erbracht haben oder aus anderen organisatorischen Gründen nicht auf die Belegung der Veranstaltung angewiesen sind.
W2 credits4SS. Wolf
AbstractIn this advanced seminar, various topics are treated in the intersection of quantum physics, information theory, and cryptography.
Objectivesee above
252-5251-00LComputational Science
Takes place for the last time.
W2 credits2SP. Arbenz, P. Chatzidoukas
AbstractClass participants study and make a 40 minute presentation (in English) on fundamental papers of Computational Science. A preliminary discussion of the talk (structure, content, methodology) with the responsible professor is required. The talk has to be given in a way that the other seminar participants can understand it and learn from it. Participation throughout the semester is mandatory.
ObjectiveStudying and presenting fundamental works of Computational Science. Learning how to make a scientific presentation.
ContentClass participants study and make a 40 minute presentation (in English) on fundamental papers of Computational Science. A preliminary discussion of the talk (structure, content, methodology) with the responsible professor is required. The talk has to be given in a way that the other seminar participants can understand it and learn from it. Participation throughout the semester is mandatory.
Lecture notesnone
LiteraturePapers will be distributed in the first seminar in the first week of the semester
252-5704-00LAdvanced Methods in Computer Graphics Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 24.
W2 credits2SM. Gross
AbstractThis seminar covers advanced topics in computer graphics with a focus on the latest research results. Topics include modeling, rendering, visualization,
animation, physical simulation, computational photography, and others.
ObjectiveThe goal is to obtain an in-depth understanding of actual problems and
research topics in the field of computer graphics as well as improve
presentation and critical analysis skills.
263-2100-00LResearch Topics in Software Engineering Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 22.
W2 credits2ST. Gross
AbstractThis seminar introduces students to the latest research trends that help to improve various aspects of software quality.

Topics cover the following areas of research: Compilers, domain-specific languages, concurrency, formal methods, performance optimization, program analysis, program generation, program synthesis, testing, tools, verification
ObjectiveAt the end of the course, the students should be:

- familiar with a broad range of key research results in the area as well as their applications.

- know how to read and assess high quality research papers

- be able to highlight practical examples/applications, limitations of existing work, and outline potential improvements.
ContentThe course will be structured as a sequence of presentations of high-quality research papers, spanning both theory and practice. These papers will have typically appeared in top conferences spanning several areas such as POPL, PLDI, OOPSLA, OSDI, ASPLOS, SOSP, AAAI, ICML and others.
LiteratureThe publications to be presented will be announced on the seminar home page at least one week before the first session.
Prerequisites / NoticePapers will be distributed during the first lecture.
263-2926-00LDeep Learning for Big Code Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 24.
W2 credits2SM. Vechev
AbstractThe seminar covers some of the latest and most exciting developments (industrial and research) in the field of Deep Learning for Code, including new methods and latest systems, as well as open challenges and opportunities.
ObjectiveThe objective of the seminar is to:

- Introduce students to the field of Deep Learning for Big Code.

- Learn how machine learning models can be used to solve practical challenges in software engineering and programming beyond traditional methods.

- Highlight the latest research and work opportunities in industry and academia available on this topic.
ContentThe last 5 years have seen increased interest in applying advanced machine learning techniques such as deep learning to new kind of data: program code. As the size of open source code increases dramatically (over 980 billion lines of code written by humans), so comes the opportunity for new kind of deep probabilistic methods and commercial systems that leverage this data to revolutionize software creation and address hard problems not previously possible. Examples include: machines writing code, program de-obfuscation for security, code search, and many more.

Interestingly, this new type of data, unlike natural language and images, introduces technical challenges not typically encountered when working with standard datasets (e.g., images, videos, natural language), for instance, finding the right representation over which deep learning operates. This in turn has the potential to drive new kinds of machine learning models with broad applicability.

Because of this, there has been substantial interest over the last few years in both industry (e.g., companies such as Facebook starting, various start-ups in the space such as Link), academia (e.g., Link) and government agencies (e.g., DARPA) on using machine learning to automate various programming tasks.

In this seminar, we will cover some of the latest and most exciting developments in the field of Deep Learning for Code, including new methods and latest systems, as well as open challenges and opportunities.

The seminar is carried out as a set of presentations chosen from a list of available papers. The grade is determined as a function of the presentation, handling questions and answers, and participation.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe seminar is carried out as a set of presentations chosen from a list of available papers. The grade is determined as a function of the presentation, handling questions and answers, and participation.

The seminar is ideally suited for M.Sc. students in Computer Science.
263-2930-00LBlockchain Security Seminar Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 26.
W2 credits2SM. Vechev, D. Drachsler Cohen, P. Tsankov
AbstractThis seminar introduces students to the latest research trends in the field of blockchains.
ObjectiveThe objectives of this seminar are twofold: (1) learning about the blockchain platform, a prominent technology receiving a lot of attention in computer Science and economy and (2) learning to convey and present complex and technical concepts in simple terms, and in particular identifying the core idea underlying the technicalities.
ContentThis seminar introduces students to the latest research trends in the field of blockchains. The seminar covers the basics of blockchain technology, including motivation for decentralized currency, establishing trust between multiple parties using consensus algorithms, and smart contracts as a means to establish decentralized computation. It also covers security issues arising in blockchains and smart contracts as well as automated techniques for detecting vulnerabilities using programming language techniques.
263-3830-00LSoftware Defined Networking: The Data Centre Perspective Information W2 credits2ST. Roscoe, D. Wagenknecht-Dimitrova
AbstractSoftware Defined Networks (SDN) is a change supported not only by research but also industry and redifens how traditional network management and configuration is been done.
ObjectiveThrough review and discussion of literature on an exciting new trend in networking, the students get the opportunity to get familiar with one of the most promising new developments in data centre connectivity, while at the same time they can develop soft skills related to the evaluation and presentation of professional content.
ContentSoftware Defined Networks (SDN) is a change supported not only by research but also industry and redifens how traditional network management and configuration is been done. Although much has been already investigated and there are already functional SDN-enabled switches there are many open questions ahead of the adoption of SDN inside and outside the data centre (traditional or cloud-based). With a series of seminars we will reflect on the challenges, adoption strategies and future trends of SDN to create an understanding how SDN is affecting the network operators' industry.
LiteratureThe seminar is based on recent publications by academia and industry. Links to the publications are placed on the Seminar page and can be downloaded from any location with access to the ETH campus network.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe seminar bases on active and interactive participation of the students.
263-3840-00LHardware Architectures for Machine Learning Information W2 credits2SG. Alonso, T. Hoefler, O. Mutlu, C. Zhang
AbstractThe seminar covers recent results in the increasingly important field of hardware acceleration for data science and machine learning, both in dedicated machines or in data centers.
ObjectiveThe seminar aims at students interested in the system aspects of machine learning, who are willing to bridge the gap across traditional disciplines: machine learning, databases, systems, and computer architecture.
ContentThe seminar is intended to cover recent results in the increasingly important field of hardware acceleration for data science and machine learning, both in dedicated machines or in data centers.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe seminar should be of special interest to students intending to complete a master's thesis or a doctoral dissertation in related topics.
263-4845-00LDistributed Stream Processing: Systems and Algorithms Information
Does not take place this semester.
W2 credits2S
AbstractIn this seminar, we will study the design and architecture of modern distributed streaming systems as well as fundamental algorithms for analyzing data streams. We will also consider current research topics and open issues in the area of distributed stream processing.
ObjectiveThe seminar will focus on high-impact research contributions addressing open issues in the design and implementation of modern distributed stream processors. In particular, the students will read, review, present, and discuss a series of research and industrial papers.
ContentModern distributed stream processing technology enables continuous, fast, and reliable analysis of large-scale unbounded datasets. Stream processing has recently become highly popular across industry and academia due to its capabilities to both improve established data processing tasks and to facilitate novel applications with real-time requirements.

The students will read, review, present, and discuss a series of research and industrial papers covering the following topics:

- Fault-tolerance and processing guarantees
- State management
- Windowing semantics and optimizations
- Basic data stream mining algorithms (e.g. sampling, counting, filtering)
- Query languages and libraries for stream processing (e.g. Complex Event Processing, online machine learning)
263-5904-00LDeep Learning for Computer Vision: Seminal Work Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 24.
W2 credits2ST. Sattler, L. M. Koch
AbstractThis seminar covers seminal papers on the topic of deep learning for computer vision. The students will present and discuss the papers and gain an understanding of the most influential research in this area - both past and present.
ObjectiveThe objectives of this seminar are two-fold. Firstly, the aim is to provide a solid understanding of key contributions to the field of deep learning for vision (including a historical perspective as well as recent work). Secondly, the students will learn to critically read and analyse original research papers and judge their impact, as well as how to give a scientific presentation and lead a discussion on their topic.
ContentThe seminar will start with introductory lectures to provide (1) a compact overview of challenges and relevant machine learning and deep learning research, and (2) a tutorial on critical analysis and presentation of research papers. Each student then chooses one paper from the provided collection to present during the remainder of the seminar. The students will be supported in the preparation of their presentation by the seminar assistants.
Lecture notesThe selection of research papers will be presented at the beginning of the semester.
LiteratureThe course "Machine Learning" is recommended.
227-0126-00LAdvanced Topics in Networked Embedded Systems Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 12.
W2 credits1SL. Thiele, J. Beutel, Z. Zhou
AbstractThe seminar will cover advanced topics in networked embedded systems. A particular focus are cyber-physical systems and sensor networks in various application domains.
ObjectiveThe goal is to get a deeper understanding on leading edge technologies in the discipline, on classes of applications, and on current as well as future research directions.
ContentThe seminar enables Master students, PhDs and Postdocs to learn about latest breakthroughs in wireless sensor networks, networked embedded systems and devices, and energy-harvesting in several application domains, including environmental monitoring, tracking, smart buildings and control. Participants are requested to actively participate in the organization and preparation of the seminar.
227-0559-00LSeminar in Distributed Computing Information W2 credits2SR. Wattenhofer
AbstractIn this seminar participating students present and discuss recent research papers in the area of distributed computing. The seminar consists of algorithmic as well as systems papers in distributed computing theory, peer-to-peer computing, ad hoc and sensor networking, or multi-core computing.
ObjectiveIn the last two decades, we have experienced an unprecedented growth in the area of distributed systems and networks; distributed computing now encompasses many of the activities occurring in today's computer and communications world. This course introduces the basics of distributed computing, highlighting common themes and techniques. We study the fundamental issues underlying the design of distributed systems: communication, coordination, synchronization, uncertainty. We explore essential algorithmic ideas and lower bound techniques.

In this seminar, students present the latest work in this domain.

Seminar language: English
ContentDifferent each year. For details see: Link
Lecture notesSlides of presentations will be made available.
LiteraturePapers.
The actual paper selection can be found on Link.
851-0740-00LBig Data, Law, and Policy Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 35

Students will be informed by 4.3.2018 at the latest
W3 credits2SS. Bechtold, T. Roscoe, E. Vayena
AbstractThis course introduces students to societal perspectives on the big data revolution. Discussing important contributions from machine learning and data science, the course explores their legal, economic, ethical, and political implications in the past, present, and future.
ObjectiveThis course is intended both for students of machine learning and data science who want to reflect on the societal implications of their field, and for students from other disciplines who want to explore the societal impact of data sciences. The course will first discuss some of the methodological foundations of machine learning, followed by a discussion of research papers and real-world applications where big data and societal values may clash. Potential topics include the implications of big data for privacy, liability, insurance, health systems, voting, and democratic institutions, as well as the use of predictive algorithms for price discrimination and the criminal justice system. Guest speakers, weekly readings and reaction papers ensure a lively debate among participants from various backgrounds.
Computer Science Elective Courses
The Elective Computer Science Courses can be selected from all Master level courses offered by D-INFK.
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0820-00LCase Studies from Practice Information W4 credits2V + 1UM. Brandis
AbstractThe course is designed to provide students with an understanding of "real-life" computer science challenges in business settings and teach them how to address these.
ObjectiveBy using case studies that are based on actual IT projects, students will learn how to deal with complex, not straightforward problems. It will help them to apply their theoretical Computer Science background in practice and will teach them fundamental principles of IT management and challenges with IT in practice.
A particular focus is to make the often imprecise and fuzzy problems in practice accessible to factual analysis and reasoning, and to challenge "common wisdom" and hearsay.
ContentThe course consists of multiple lectures on methods to systematically analyze problems in a business setting and communicate about them as well as IT management and IT economics, presented by the lecturer, and a number of case studies provided by guest lecturers from either IT companies or IT departments of a diverse range of companies. Students will obtain insights into both established and startup companies, small and big, and different industries.
Presenting companies have included avaloq, Accenture, AdNovum, Bank Julius Bär, Credit Suisse, Deloitte, HP, Hotelcard, IBM Research, McKinsey & Company, Open Web Technology, SAP Research, Selfnation, SIX Group, Teralytics, 28msec, Zühlke and dormakaba, and Marc Brandis Strategic Consulting. The participating companies in spring 2017 will be announced at course start.
263-0600-00LResearch in Computer Science Restricted registration - show details
Only for Computer Science MSc.
W5 credits11AProfessors
AbstractIndependent project work under the supervision of a Computer Science Professor.
ObjectiveProject done under supervision of a professor in the Department of Computer Science.
Prerequisites / NoticeOnly students who fulfill one of the following requirements are allowed to begin a research project:
a) 1 lab (interfocus course) and 1 core focus course
b) 2 core focus courses
c) 2 labs (interfocus courses)

A task description must be submitted to the Student Administration Office at the beginning of the work.
401-3632-00LComputational StatisticsW10 credits3V + 2UM. H. Maathuis
AbstractComputational Statistics deals with modern statistical methods of data analysis (aka "data science") for prediction and inference. The course provides an overview of existing methods. The course is hands-on, and methods are applied using the statistical programming language R.
ObjectiveIn this class, the student obtains an overview of modern statistical methods for data analysis, including their algorithmic aspects and theoretical properties. The methods are applied using the statistical programming language R.
ContentSee the class website
Prerequisites / NoticeAt least one semester of (basic) probability and statistics.

Programming experience is helpful but not required.
Elective Courses
Students can individually chose from the entire Master course offerings from ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, the University of Zurich and - but only with the consent of the Director of Studies - from all other Swiss universities.

For further details please see Art. 31 of the Regulations 2009 for the Master Program in Computer Science.
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
151-3217-00LCoaching Student Teams (Basic Training)W1 credit1GR. P. Haas, B. Volk
AbstractAim is enhancement of knowledge and competency regarding coaching skills. Participants should be active coaches of a student team. Topics: Overview of the roles and mind set of a coach as, introduction into coaching methodology, mutual learning and reflecting of participants coaching expertise and situations.
Objective- Basic knowledge about role and mindset of a coach
- Basic Knowledge and reflection about classical coaching situations
- Inspiration and mutual learning from real coaching sessions (mutual peer observation)
ContentBasic knowledge about role and mindset of a coach
- Introduction into coaching: definition & models
- Introduction into the coaching process and team building phases
- Role of coaches between examinator, tutor and ""friend""
First steps building up personal coaching competencies, e.g. active listening, asking questions, giving feedback
- Competencies in theoretical models
- Coaching competencies: exercises and reflection
Some Reflection and exchange of experiences about personal coaching situations
- Exchange of experiences in the lecture group
- Mutual peer observations
Lecture notesSlides, script and other documents will be distributed electronically
(access only for participants registered to this course)
LiteraturePlease refer to lecture script.
Prerequisites / NoticeParticipants (Students, PhD Students, Postdocs) should be active coaches of a student project team or coaches of individual students.
151-3220-00LCoaching Student Teams (Advances Course 2)W1 credit1GR. P. Haas, I. Goller, M. Lehner, B. Volk
AbstractAim is enhancement of knowledge and competency regarding coaching skills. Participants should be active coaches of a student team. Core is self refection of one's own work as a coach and the effect of it teams and students supported.
Objective- Advanced knowledge about role and mindset of a coach
- Reflection of one's own behavior as a coach
- Development of personal coaching skills
- Selective extension of Knowledge and know-how about coaching methods as needed.
ContentAdvanced insights about coaching methods and situations
- Knowledge about basic coaching methods for student teams
- Know-how about usage of methods in the coaching process
- Facilitating decisions
- Using and applying coaches opinions and knowledge
- Facilitating conflict situations
Reflection and exchange of experiences about personal coaching situations
- Exchange of experiences in the lecture group
- Reflection about classical coaching situations (includes assignements between lectures)
- Reflection and exchange of experiences about personal coaching situations (Individual coaching session)
- Inspiration and mutual learning from real coaching sessions (Mutual peer observation)
- Refection of a coaching intervention (Case study)
Lecture notesSlides, script and other documents will be distributed electronically
(access only for participants registered to this course).
LiteraturePlease refer to lecture script.
Prerequisites / Notice- Participants (Students, PhD Students, Postdocs) should be active coaches of a student project team.
- Completion of the basic training is required or taking it in parallel.
Internship
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0700-00LInternship Information Restricted registration - show details
Only for Computer Science MSc.
W0 creditsexternal organisers
AbstractInternship in a computer science company, which is admitted by the CS Department at ETH. Minimum 10 weeks fulltime employment.
ObjectiveThe main objective of the 10-week internship is to expose students to the industrial work environment. During this period, students have the opportunity to be involved in on-going projects at the host institution.
Prerequisites / NoticeA task description must be presented for approval, before the start of the internship. After completion of the internship, a work certificate must be presented.
GESS Science in Perspective
» Recommended Science in Perspective (Type B) for D-INFK
» see Science in Perspective: Language Courses ETH/UZH
» see Science in Perspective: Type A: Enhancement of Reflection Capability
Master's Thesis
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
263-0800-00LMaster's Thesis Information Restricted registration - show details
Only students who fulfill the following criteria are allowed to begin with their master thesis:
a. successful completion of the bachelor programme;
b. fulfilling any additional requirements necessary to gain admission to the master programme;
c. "Inter focus courses" (12 credits) completed;
d. "Focus courses" (26 credits) completed.
O30 credits64DProfessors
AbstractIndependent project work supervised by a Computer Science professor. Duration 6 months.
ObjectiveTo work independently and to produce a scientifically structured work under the supervision of a Computer Science Professor.