Area
natural Sciences
Sub-Discipline
Computing and Information Sciences
Austral University of Chile
- City: Valdivia,
- Commune: Valdivia,
- Region: Los Ríos Region
goals
The program aims to train a highly skilled graduate in computer science research*, especially in Algorithms and High Performance Computing and Data Science, with the skills to solve applied engineering problems from a rigorous scientific approach, integrating interdisciplinary teams, in collaboration with national and international research and development groups, and in connection with the environment.
The program provides appropriate training both for pursuing doctoral studies and for planning and developing advanced professional activities in scientific and technological development in computer science.
(*) The disciplinary scope of the program is established in computer science as a science that studies the computational protocols of description and transformation of information, and as a new methodological opportunity to address complex scientific questions in various scientific disciplines.
Applicant Profile
Admission to the institution's postgraduate programs must comply with the country's current laws. Following this institutional guideline, Article 19 of the UACh General Regulations for Master's Programs (Annex 3.1) establishes, as a cross-cutting requirement for admission to the university's master's programs, possession of a bachelor's degree or a professional title whose level and content are equivalent to those required for obtaining a bachelor's degree. The Regulations also stipulate that, in the case of foreign applicants (non-Spanish speakers), it is a requirement to demonstrate adequate proficiency in Spanish.
Based on these general stipulations, those interested in enrolling in the Master's Program in Computer Science must meet admission requirements. Following a program self-regulation process, the admission requirements were slightly updated starting in 2020:
1. Hold a Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional title, both in the area of computer science, computing or another area, provided that in the latter case you have experience related to computer science and subject to the approval of the Program Committee.
2. Demonstrate adequate proficiency in the Spanish language (in the case of foreign students).
3 Attach a letter of intent that explains the student's personal project in relation to the characteristics of the program.
It is recommended that the letter of intent also specify if there is prior contact with professors and lines of research of the program, and how the candidate will dedicate the necessary time given that it is a time-consuming Master's program.
4 Attach a Curriculum Vitae and undergraduate transcript.
5 Attach a letter of recommendation from a professor in the program.
6. Conduct an interview with members of the Program Committee and standard competency assessment tests if required.
The MIN admission requirements and the document submission mechanism are reported: a) on the program's website on the Faculty's site; b) in the dissemination instruments of the Graduate School of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences in its various media (printed brochures, inserts, posters, others); and c) on the "Online Application Platform" implemented by the Postgraduate Studies Directorate. .
Applications are formalized and activated through the Admission Application, submitted via the Online Application Platform. The application process is complete once the Admission Application is submitted through this platform along with all the documents specified in the requirements. The applications are reviewed by the Program Committee according to the defined selection criteria.
Graduate profile
Upon completion of this Master's program, the graduate will be able to:
a) Develop research in computer science, in collaboration with different disciplines and integrating skills to work in a practical way.
b) Use a rigorous scientific methodology, particularly in the areas of Algorithms and High-Performance Computing and Data Science.
c) Communicate scientific results orally and in writing in an academic scientific context, as well as in a context of innovation and connection with the environment.
Lines of investigation
The program is based on the union of the two lines of research developed at the Institute of Informatics: 1) Algorithms and High-Performance Computing, 2) Data, Models, and Human-Computer Interaction. For the sake of brevity and clarity, we commonly use the terms High-Performance Computing and Data Science to refer to these two lines.
“Algorithms and High-Performance Computing”:
This line of research stems from the need to design new algorithms or optimize existing ones to solve complex scientific or industrial problems that require considerable computing resources, either due to the problem's inherent complexity or the amount of data to be processed. Within this field, algorithms are designed and analyzed with the aim of optimizing the use of computing resources, memory, and the time required to execute a task. Academics participating in this area explore algorithms and systems based on parallel or distributed computing, GPU-based computing, and data compression algorithms.
“Data, Models and Human-Computer Interaction”:
This research line originates from the opportunity to collect and analyze available digital data to model information and use it in new types of human-computer interactions. Within this highly interdisciplinary line, computational protocols based on algorithms and techniques for analyzing structured and unstructured data are defined, explored, and validated. Academics participating in this line develop computational protocols in the context of new interactions with astronomy (astroinformatics), education (learning analytics), the social sciences (computational social science), urban planning (urban computing), and health (health informatics).
These two lines of research enrich each other around the challenges of scalability in exploring large volumes of data. The first area provides algorithmic solutions to the second, and the second area brings new problems and real-world use cases to the first.
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