Perspectives of Computer Science

Perspectives of Computer Science

Lectures: The lecture is a first orientation towards different research areas in Computer Science and related fields, covered by local world-class experts (our own professors and PIs!). Every week, you will meet different professors and other group leaders from Saarland Informatics Campus to introduce their field of research.

Organisation: Prof. Dr. Tomohiro Nagashima (Technology-Enhanced Learning: https://tomonag.org/) nagashima[at]cs.uni-saarland.de

Time: Every Monday, starting 20.10.2025, at 14:15 - 15:45

Location: Lecture hall 1 in E2.5 (math lecture hall building)
You are encouraged to come to the lecture in-person/real-time. Lectures will not be live-streamed online. However, lectures will be recorded (at least some of them) and available for viewing until the end of the week (Friday).

Prerequisites: none; the lecture is for beginning students in computer science.

Passing the course:

• This is a mandatory but ungraded course for 2 ECTS credits.
• After every lecture, there will be an online quiz that must be taken by each student. A certain number of correct answers (60%) must be given in the quizzes to pass the course (Students whose study plan counts this course with only 1 ECTS credit need to get half of that, i.e. 30%).
• How quizzes will be administered will be announced in the organizational session.
• Quizzes consist of approximately 10 multiple-choice questions.
• Quizzes are open till Friday after the lecture, 23:59. 

Important registration information:

• You must register for this course on this website (CMS) in order to access the recorded lectures and other material.
• You must register for the exam of this course separately in HIS/POS (LSF) until 28.11.2025; otherwise you cannot get credit. No exceptions; no late registrations (VERY hard deadline). If you forget the HIS/POS registration, you will be put out of the course on November 29!
• Note: Some group of students, including exchange students and junior students, cannot register in LSF / HISPOS. They have to register directly with us by the deadline and must provide proof of their status, e.g. via their enrolment certificate by email. Late registration is also not possible.

Questions?  

• Please read the FAQ below first, then email us.

Schedule

Date	Presenter: Topic
20.10.2025	Prof. Dr. Tomo Nagashima: Introduction and organziation
27.10.2025	Prof. Dr. Anna Feit "From Fat Fingers to Smart Keyboards: Understanding Human–Computer Interaction from Typing Research"
03.11.2025	TBD
10.11.2025	Prof. Dr. Jilles Vreeken "The Lecture of Why"
17.11.2025	TBD
24.11.2025	Prof. Dr. Andrea Volkamer "Data Driven Drug Design: Structural Bioinformatics and Cheminformatics Approaches"
01.12.2025	TBD
08.12.2025	Prof. Dr. Vera Demberg "Automatic understanding of pragmatic inferences in the age of LLMs"
15.12.2025	Prof. Dr-Ing. Thorsten Herfet "Signals from Space: Decoding Weather Satellite Images"
(holidays)	---
05.01.2026	TBD
12.01.2026	Prof. Dr. Benjamin Kaminski: "Ancient and Modern (Quantitative) Verification"
19.01.2026	TBD
26.01.2026	TBD
02.02.2026	--- (spare slot in case something has to reschedule! otherwise no class :)

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• How do I register in LSF / HISPOS ?

  • For those who are able to register via LSF/HISPOS

    • Registration has to be completed till 28.11.2025 !
      Please choose exam number 10036 in "Prüfungsstrukturbaum" -> "Informatik" -> "Bachelor" -> "Lecture Series on Topics in Computer Science".

  • For those who are not able to register via LSF/HISPOS (e.g., exchange students, junior students)

    • They have to register directly with us by the deadline and must provide proof of their status (enrolment certificate) by email.

 

Earlier versions of "Perspektiven der Informatik"

• WS 2024/25 (CMS)
• WS 2023/24 (CMS)
• WS 2022/23 (CMS)
• WS 2021/22
• WS 2019/20
• WS 2011/12