Mathematical Foundations of Computing Science

This Master's specialisation will focus on understanding the fundamental mathematical concepts of computation and information in order to explore the potentials of computer science.

The theory of computation arose from concerns about the foundations of mathematics, and was developed in the work of Gödel, Church, Turing, Kleene and others. The actual building of computing machinery later was strongly influenced by this theoretical work. Computer science quickly grew into an independent field of study, but the relations with mathematics are still strong. Connections range from the use of mathematics to model the foundations all the way to the use of computers to help solve mathematical problems with a discrete component.

The Master's specialisation places itself squarely in this exciting interdisciplinary area of deep theoretical developments. For this reason, the mathematics courses in this curriculum concentrate on algebra, general topology, logic, number theory and combinatorics. The computer science courses concentrate on formal methods, type theory, category theory, coalgebra and theorem proving.

Not only is this Master's an excellent stepping-stone for students with ambitions in research, many of our graduates also work as systems builders, ICT specialists or ICT managers in the private sector or within government.