Course programmes for exchange students
Incoming students participating in an exchange programme with one of our partner universities may choose to attend any of our modules for credit points. However, most of the modules are conducted in German by default. Please contact our International Office or the respective lecturer in advance to ensure the module will actually be conducted in English.
Subject focus
Most modules have a subject focus on either business or engineering and computer science. Exchange students may combine modules of either focus as they wish, regardless of the study programme at their home university. Acknowledgement of modules completed at FH Wedel is in the sole responsibility of their home university. If you are not sure whether you have sufficient previous experience to follow a module, do not hesitate to contact the respective lecturer in advance. If no lecturer is specified, our International Office will help you.
Terms
Many modules are only offered in either the summer or the winter semester. Please inquire the exact dates at our International office, since they may vary slightly from term to term. Most of the exams for exchange students may be scheduled on an individual basis.
The winter semester lasts from October to March. Modules usually start in the second week of October and end in mid-January. The exam period lasts to the middle of February.
The summer semester lasts from April to September. Modules usually start in the second week of April and end in the first week of July. After a three-week holiday break, the exam period takes place in August/early September.
Language courses
These language courses are available for Erasmus students of all subject focuses.
Term: winter/summer
Level: bachelor/master
Workload: 5 ECTS
Person in charge: n.n.
If you have questions please contact Nicole Haß from the International Office.
Language courses are offered from the beginning of October to mid January (winter semester) and from the beginning of April to mid July (summer semester). They are intended exclusively for Erasmus+ exchange students. IT Engineering master students are not allowed to participate in this course! The VHS Wedel school offers German courses for IT Engineering master students. Please contact the school to ask about the conditions. Your contact there is Mrs. Bolsinger.
Term: summer
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS
Person in charge:Byron Evans
This English course is exclusively for all students enrolled in the Bachelor programme industrial engineering and incomings taking part in the Erasmus programme.
Term: winter
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS
CEF level: B2-C1
Person in charge:Byron Evans
This course is exclusively for all students enrolled in the Bachelor programme business administration and Incomings, taking part in the Erasmus programme. The business part covers a wide variety of business-related topics – e. g. e-commerce, marketing, project planning, business trends – in the context of the English language as used in the international business world. Students are expected to actively use their language skills in regular presentations, discussions, meetings, and brainstorming sessions.
The commercial part lets students practise their language skills in concrete business situations, focusing strongly on written skills. Topics include business e-mails/letters, business documents, telephoning, negotiating, report writing, and job applications. This module is taught in seminar format and ends with a written examination.
Business-focused modules
Basic knowledge in mathematics, statistics and economics is required in all courses listed below. Therefore, first-year students may not be admitted to the courses.
Term: winter
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS
Person in charge: Prof. Thorsten Giersch
The business simulation game gives a realistic model of a company in a competitive setting. Students of up to four participants form a group and manage a virtual company and compete against other companies on the market. Strategic and operational decisions have to be made and implemented. These decisions involve all areas of management from production to marketing. The overall aim of each group is to survive till the end of the game and to maximize shareholder value. Each group has to present their company’s strategy at the beginning of the semester, re-evaluate their strategy after playing two simulation rounds, and to give a group presentation on the performance of the company and success of the strategy followed. While most work is done as group work, there will also be a written exam on topics that are related to the simulation game. In this course there is no numerical grading, only “pass” or “fail” exist.
Term: winter
Level: master/bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS
Person in charge:Prof. Thorsten Giersch
This lecture covers central parts of international trade theory and policy, and also basic aspects of international monetary theory and policy. Besides this, there is also a chapter on the international firm included, which treats some more management-oriented aspects of international trade. The final grade will be based on a written exam and an assignment.
Term: winter
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS
Person in charge:Prof. Thorsten Giersch
This module deals with economic aspects of the internationalization of services. Topics range from macroeconomic and policy questions to aspects of managing international services, both from a strategic and operative perspective. As part of the module students form small groups and work out and present a case study of a service company that acts international. The final grade will be based on a written exam and an assignment.
Term: summer/winter
Level: bachelor/master
Workload: 5 ECTS
Person in charge:Prof. Thorsten Giersch
Seminar topics vary each semester and stem from all areas of business. Students are required to do their own research on a specific topic assigned to them prior to the semester, to write a seminar paper, and to present their findings in class. International students may choose whether to write and present their paper in English or German.
Seminars with business focus are offered by all our business lecturers. While a lot of seminar topics are defined in advance and distributed among the students, many of our lecturers will also define an individual topic with you. If you are interested in taking part in a seminar, you should contact Prof. Giersch and ask for a topic before your arrival at FH Wedel.
Term: summer/winter
Level: bachelor/master
Workload: up to 10 ECTS
Person in charge:Prof. Thorsten Giersch
Case studies deal with real enterprises and their market environment. Your task is to find relevant data and apply typical management instruments in order to analyse a given case. Topics can relate to service management, marketing and media management, accounting and auditing, production- and supply-chain-management, or any other area of interest. Findings and recommendations have to be presented in a written report (about 30 pages long). A case study can also be done as a group work. All of our business lecturers issue and supervise case studies.
Term: summer
Level: bachelor
Workload: 3 ECTS
Person in charge:Prof. Thorsten Giersch
“Service Markets and Strategies” deals with the following topics:
- structure-conduct-performance paradigm
- basic structure and forms of industry analysis
- services and strategies
- writing and presenting your own report on a chosen service industry (group work)
The final grade will be based on a written exam.
“Service Markets and Strategies” is part of the module “Markets, Strategies and Resources”. The other part of this module covers basic topics of “Human Resource Management” (2 ECTS). This second part is only offered in German.
Term: summer
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS
Person in charge:Prof. Jan-Paul Lüdtke
This module is focused on product mix policy at multi-channel-retailers. Students will get acquainted with options on how to structure and optimize a product range in terms of depth and width. Furthermore, the module covers concepts such as efficient consumer response (ECR) and basics in supply chain management. The final grade will be based on a written exam and an assignment.
Term: summer
Level: master
Workload: 2,5 ECTS
Person in charge:Prof. Thorsten Giersch
“Industrial Organization” is an area within applied microeconomics. Market structure, market conduct and market performance are the focal points of the analysis, while advanced models of imperfect markets form the starting point of the analysis. The use of game theoretical approaches to model the interaction of companies oligopolistic markets play an increasing role in strategy management. The module ensures that students become familiar with these approaches and can assess their application in practice. In the last part of the lecture we also take a closer look on the institutional framework of market competition. Here students have to give an oral presentation of a recent Competition Law case (cartel cases, abuse of market power etc.).
Chapter overview:
- Foundations
- Monopoly
- Game Theory and Oligopolistic Markets
- Competition Law and Anti-competitive Strategies
The final grade will be based on a written exam and an assignment.
The lecture on “Industrial Organization” is part of the module “Applied Microeconomics”. The other part of this module covers basic topics of “Decions Theory” (2,5 ECTS). This second part is only offered in German.
Modules in engineering and computer-science
Modules are available for both levels, bachelor and master. All master level modules are eligible for advanced bachelor students. Final exams will be adapted to their previous experience.
- Our professors responsible for computer science: Prof. Beuster,Prof. Säring, Prof. Bohn,Prof. Hoffmann, Prof. Häuslein, Prof. Iwanowski and Prof. Schmidt.
- Our professors responsible for computer engineering: Prof. Burmeister and Prof. Sawitzki.
- Our professors responsible for engineering: Prof. Anders,Prof. Bargel, Prof. Burmeister,Prof. Serban and Prof. Schmitt.
Term: summer/winter
Level: bachelor
Workload: 12-30 ECTS credits
The bachelor thesis itself amounts to 12 ECTS credits. It has to be completed in conjunction with a 12-week preparatory practical phase (17 ECTS credits) and will be finished with a final presentation and examination (1 ECTS credit). The total workload of 30 ECTS credits implies that students complete this module exclusively in one semester.
Goal of thesis and the preceding practical phase is to enable the student to employ the theoretical knowledge they acquired in lectures to real world problems encountered in the professional work environment. Based on science students solve a real world problem, posed by one of our cooperation partners oder by members of our faculty.
Students learn to take responsibility, to structure their work, to anticipate and overcome obstacles, and to develop new solutions. Finally the students provide documentation of their work, adequate in form and content.
Although purely technical or purely economical thesis topics are admissible, thesis topics will ideally be located at the techno-economical junction.
If you are interested in writing your bachelor thesis at FH Wedel, you should consider the fields of our engineering professors listed above, and contact the one most suitable for you directly.
Term: summer/winter
Level: bachelor/master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits (deviations for international students possible)
The bachelor-level engineering project has students develop a product from scratch and ends with the assembly and test of the final product. Groups will be comprised of about ten students, both German and international, therefore sufficient German language skills are required. Depending on capacity a project in English for a small group of two or three students may be possible. The project will take place in our manufacturing engineering lab, which is supervised by Prof. Dr. Bargel.
The master-level project has students conduct some practical research, design, or laboratory work, usually in small groups of two or three students. The project will take place in our microsystems technology lab (supervised by Prof. Dr. Anders), our manufacturing engineering lab (supervised by Prof. Dr. Bargel), our chemical engineering lab (supervised by Prof. Dr. Schmitt), or will be carried out in cooperation with companies.
The objectives of both project levels are teaching the students to apply engineering techniques to solve research or industrial problems, and practicing project- and teamwork. Students will take responsibility for their project and work on their own, supervised by a faculty member. The results are summarized in a final report and presented to the other project temas and supervisors.
The websites for both the bachelor-level project and the master-level project contain further information in German language. For information in English language, please contact one of the above-mentioned project supervisors.
Term: summer/winter
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Cordula Eichhorn
This module is a pure lab course in which students are given several programming assignments. If you want to get this module acknowledged as an exchange student, you have to pass at least 7 out of 9 assignments.
The module prerequires that you have taken a programming lab course at your home university. You have to be proficient in at least one programming language and know basic data types, functions, and algorithmic structures, such as loops and branches. The module uses Java as programming language. Previous Java experience is not required. The module propels students to the level required for the more advanced programming modules, which make FH Wedel graduates famous with surrounding companies.
Over the course of the module a couple of tutorials, aimed at enabling participants to pass the assignments, are availabe.
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.
Term: summer/winter
Level: bachelor/master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits (deviations for international students possible)
In this module students are required to conduct their own research on a specific topic assigned to them prior to the semester, to elaborate and present a seminar talk, and to summarize their finding in a seminar paper.
Exchange students may write and present their papers in English or German. Some professors require all the talks to be given in English if at least one exchange student attends.
The topics vary and come from all areas of computer science and computer engineering. These topics are offered by our professors for computer science and computer engineering listed above. For seminar topics with a focus on natural science or technical science, please contact our professors for engineering, also listed above.
While most of the seminar topics are defined in advance and distributed among students, many of our lecturers will also define an individual topic with you, if you so choose.
Term: winter
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Iwanowski
This module teaches the students general principles of artificial intelligence, such as knowledge-based systems, searching strategies, and swarm intelligence. Several pplications are presented, e.g. technical diagnosis, navigation problems, problems of scheduling and logistics, public information, computer games intelligence, etc. Students will receive an introduction on how AI techniques help in these fields. Depending on the individual interests of the participating students, some issues may be covered in greater detail than others, as has been done for swarm intelligence and model-based diagnosis in the past. A practical assignment is also possible.
Students learn ideas and methods for their graduation theses in various application domains. As the prerequisites for this moduke, however, are only good programming skills and knowledge of first year mathematics, students may enroll in this module as early as their second year.
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.
Term: winter
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Burmeister
This module is dedicated to the analysis of control problems and the design of controllers. It focuses on the classical controller design, i.e. PID control. In a practical introduction to simulation software some MATLAB exercises will be part of the module.
Exchange students may take this practical introduction as a module separate from the control theory lecture, for 2 ECTS credits. The simulation software part is also acknowledged as part of a 5 ECTS software development module in combination with practical programming exercises (in either C or Java).
Term: winter
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Iwanowski
This module teches students the main mathematical background needed by computer scientists. It starts at a very elementary level and includes a general introduction into mathematical concepts such as logics, set theory, and proofs. Within the field of Discrete Mathematics the module focus is on number theory (mainly prime numbers), algebraic structures, combinatorics, and graph theory (networks).
This module is suited for students with a limited mathematical background who want to enhance their mathematical knowledge.
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.
Term: winter
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Hoffmann
This module teaches the principles of distributed systems, their communications and typical services in detail. It discusses different paradigms of constructing distributed systems (WEB-Services with SOAP and REST, actor systems, distributed objects) along with relevant algorithms for synchronization, replication, and election. Lectures are complemented by practical exercises in both Java and Erlang.
Exchange bachelor students may participate in this module. Their final exam will be tailored to their previous knowledge.
This module is not recommended for students without knowledge in software design and object-oriented programming techniques. Entry-level bachelor modules in corresponding subjects should provide sufficient knowledge.
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.
Term: winter
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Beuster
This module elaborates on several AI techniques. Students will also gain deep insight into formal logics and proofs.
Exchange bachelor students may participate in this module. Their final exam will be tailored to their previous knowledge.
Term: winter
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Sawitzki
Reconfigurable Computing is commonly understood as the discipline dealing with design, implementation, and programming of computer systems using programmable hardware (FPGA, CPLD etc.). The module discusses physical device architectures and system-level structures as well as programming models and design flows of reconfigurable systems. The final exam consist of a lab exercise which must be solved before the end of the semester and will be discussed during a short oral exam at the end of the module.
This module is not recommended for students without knowledge in computer architecture, digital design, and basic programming techniques. Entry-level bachelor modules in corresponding subjects should provide sufficient knowledge.
Exchange bachelor students may participate in this module. Their final exam will be tailored to their previous knowledge.
Term: winter
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Beuster
In this module students learn that IT security is not only about developing technical solutions. IT security is a continuous process that requires management. After completing this module the students will know the relevant standards and certification schemes for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). The students will be able to develop and evaluate security policies for all kinds of companies and institutions.
Exchange bachelor students may participate in this module. Their final exam will be tailored to their previous knowledge.
Term: summer
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Beuster
This module covers technical, administrative, and legal aspects of IT Security. Students learn how to identify threats in an interconnected world and how to counter them. Besides an in-depth analysis of the technical side of IT products and services from a security point of view, the module also covers systematic approaches to enhance the security of IT systems, e.g. certification schemes.
The module's passing requirements include the successful completion of a 90 minutes written examination.
Term: summer
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Sawitzki
This module presents basic concepts and techniques of concurrent programming on a single CPU machine under real-time conditions. IPC mechanisms and programming models as well as corresponding data structures and scheduling techniques are discussed in detail.
Two ECTS credits are awarded for passing the final exam, and another 2 ECTS credits are awarded for completing a lab exercise.
Term: summer
Level: bachelor
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Burmeister
In this module students learn about the mathematical representation of signals and systems in the time and frequency domain. Most concepts will be taught with an application of audio signal processing in mind, showing the details behind spectral analysis and various filter techniques. After having learned about continuous time signals and systems the last lectures will be dedicated to discrete time systems, with applications from digital audio and image processing.
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.
Term: summer
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Iwanowski
This module presents advanced algorithms and shows how to prove their correctness and efficiency. The applications come from general searching and sorting, database operations, graph algorithms, pattern matching, and algorithmic geometry.
Exchange bachelor students may participate in this module. Their final exam will be tailored to their previous knowledge.
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.
Term: summer
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Beuster
This workshop combines lectures in cryptography with hands-on exercises. The students learn both the history and the mathematical foundations of cryptography and cryptanalysis. Based onthis they learn to assess the strengths and weaknesses of both historical and contemporary ciphers and cryptographic protocols. Classroom lectures are complemented by practical exercises, where students gain hands-on experience in cryptography and cryptanalysis.
The module's passing requirements include the successful completion of a 90 minutes written examination.
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.
Term: summer
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Serban
This module is divided into two parts.
Part 1: Fiber reinforced plastics and hybrids
In this part of the module students will gain
- knowledge of FRPs and lightweight materials' properties
- knowledge of manufacturing and assembly technologies for FRP and hybrid parts
- basic knowledge of manufacturing engineering and design principles of FRP parts
- basic skills in assessing manufacturing processes from a technical and economical position
Part 2: Laser Engineering
This part of the module investigates the inner physical workings of a laser medium. Students will study the components of a typical laser system and their function, as well as different types of laser operation (cw, pulsed). After completing the basics of laser physics students will study different laser types along with their properties and typical applications.
Prerequisites: basic chemistry and materials science as well as electromagnetism and atomics physics
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.
Term: summer
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Beuster
In this module students learn how to design and implement secure IT systems, and they learn to evaluate the security of existing systems. After completing the module the students know the state-of-the-art in secure software, network security, and physical security.
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.
Term: summer
Level: master
Workload: 5 ECTS credits
Module director: Prof. Dr. Serban
In this module students will learn about physical concepts underlying optical engineering, such as ray and wave optics, diffraction, and polarization. They will desing simple lens systems and develop strategies to prevent or correct the primary (Seidel) optical aberrations. Furthermore students will investigate the physical principles and limitations underlying the function of optical fibers and review the most important applications.
Prerequisites: basic mathematics (analysis) and optics
Since this module is part of the IT Engineering master's programme preparation programme, it will always be conducted in English.