Dear prospective students,
on this page we would like to inform you about the computer science preliminary course, which is aimed at prospective students of all computer science degree programmes. Participation is voluntary and of course free of charge.

Why should I attend a computer science pre-course?
This preliminary course is intended to make it easier for those of you who have not yet been able to deal with the subject area of computer science in depth at school or during your training. On the other hand, the topics covered in the preliminary course should already be well known to students who have just taken the basic or advanced computer science course in their A-levels.

The preliminary course gives you the opportunity to get a taste of a first course at Paderborn University and, more importantly, to get to know your future fellow students. As computer science is much easier to understand in study groups than alone, this is invaluable!

When does the computer science pre-course take place and how does it work?
The computer science preliminary course lasts four weeks, starting on 3 September 2024 and ending on 26 September 2024, with sessions taking place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm. The preliminary course is thus integrated into the preliminary maths course for computer scientists, which offers free days on Tuesdays and Thursdays to work on exercises.

As in the previous year, the 2024 preliminary course will again take place in presence and hybrid as an online session. You can indicate in the registration form whether you prefer an online event.

In the face-to-face pre-course, you will need a PC as a working device. We will therefore ask you on the registration form whether you will be attending with your own laptop or whether we need to reserve a workstation for you in the university's PC pool. The learning environment of the pre-course runs in a browser, so your operating system should not play a role. Tablets have not proved suitable in the past.

If you decide to take part in an online session, you will need a stable internet connection and a computer or laptop with which you can take part in the online events and access the online material. The online course also depends on your active participation, so please equip your computer with a microphone and camera! This is probably your first chance to meet other students and to show your face in return.

What is covered in the computer science pre-course?
With the preliminary course, we particularly want to reach those first-year students who have decided to study one of the computer science degree programmes, even though they did not take computer science as a subject at school in secondary school.

The focus of the course is on teaching a programming language, but other topics from the sixth form, such as data structures and algorithms and finite automata, are also covered in this context. There will be short input phases throughout the course. You will then work intensively on (programming) exercises. You will be offered support during the exercise part.
Because this type of event requires a lot of supervision, we have to limit ourselves to around 80 participants. We therefore prioritise registrations from prospective students without programming knowledge and only allow other interested students to join the course if there is free capacity.

Where can I register?
Simply use this registration form.
If you have any further questions, please contact me by e-mail.
I look forward to your participation in the computer science pre-course in September!

Best regards
Dietrich Gerstenberger

Paderborn University
Institute of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science Didactics
Head of Computer Science Learning Centre

E-mail: dietrich.gerstenberger[at]uni-paderborn[dot]de