Taught courses

Our MSc programmes have a strong practical focus, with most courses including lectures supported by practical tutorials.

The compulsory courses give a broad-based coverage of the fundamentals of computer science, HPC, parallel computing and data science, while the optional courses give students the opportunity to focus on specialist areas relevant to computational science.

Full-time students take a total of 120 credits' worth of taught courses over two semesters, including 70 credits of compulsory courses and 50 credits of optional courses. Most students take 60 credits of courses in each semester.

Most courses are worth 10 credits each. They are assessed through a combination of coursework and examination.

Compulsory courses for both MSc programmes

• Message-Passing Programming (Semester 1)
• Programming Skills (Semester 1)
• Threaded Programming (Semester 1)
• Software Development (Semester 2)
• Project Preparation (Semester 2)
• Dissertation component (Summer).

Compulsory courses for the MSc in HPC (optional for the MSc in HPC with Data Science)

• HPC Architectures (Semester 1)

Compulsory courses for the MSc in HPC with Data Science (optional for the MSc in HPC)

• Fundamentals of Data Management (Semester 1)
• Data Analytics with High Performance Computing (Semester 2)

Optional courses for both MSc programmes

• Numerical Algorithms for High Performance Computing (Semester 1)
• Design and Analysis of Parallel Algorithms (Semester 1)
• Extreme Computing (Semester 1)*
• Advanced Message-passing Programming (Semester 2)
• Advanced Parallel Techniques (Semester 2)
• Parallel Design Patterns (Semester 2)
• Performance Programming (Semester 2)
• A 10-credit wildcard option from Level 11 courses in other Schools within the College of Science and Engineering*

Optional courses for MSc in High Performance Computing with Data Science

• A selection of up to 30 credits (20 credits if wildcard option used) from a curated list of Level 11 Data Science courses in School of Informatics. See "HPC with Data Science Optional Data Science Courses" under "Group A" on the Degree Programme Table*.

* - denotes courses not offered by EPCC. We cannot guarantee that such courses will be available in every session depending on resourcing arrangements within other Schools