Master Year 1 Foundations of Computer Science

Everyone regularly experiences computer programs being inefficient or crashing. In order to avoid that, it is necessary to properly define and study what it means for a machine to compute something. This 2-years master program covers some of the theoretical approaches to computer science addressing this, often based on mathematical tools, with a view towards applications. The topics of the courses include

• theory of computation: computability, logic, semantics, combinatorics,
• models of computation: automata, concurrent and distributed programming, quantum programming, hybrid systems,
• safety of programs: verification, static analysis,
• efficiency of programs: algorithms, complexity, compilation,
• security of programs: cryptography, coding.

The master is research-oriented, with a focus on foundations: it aims at introducing students to contemporary theoretical computer science and most students do a PhD after the master, although it also leads to many possible careers in industry.

This master corresponds to the Parisian Master of Research in Computer Science (MPRI), which is run jointly by the following institutions: Université de Paris (coordinator), ENS Ulm, ENS Paris-Saclay, École polytechnique, and Telecom Paris. The first year takes place mostly at École polytechnique, while the second year takes place mostly at Université de Paris.

Objectives

This two-year program allows students to:

• Acquire fundamental knowledge in theoretical computer science
• Be introduced to current research in computer science
• Gain practical experience through research internships