MSE Master of Science in Engineering

The Swiss engineering master's degree

Each module contains 3 ECTS. You choose a total of 10 modules/30 ECTS in the following module categories: 

  • 12-15 ECTS in technical scientific modules (TSM)
    TSM modules teach profile-specific specialist skills and supplement the decentralised specialisation modules.
  • 9-12 ECTS in fundamental theoretical principles modules (FTP)
    FTP modules deal with theoretical fundamentals such as higher mathematics, physics, information theory, chemistry, etc. They will teach more detailed, abstract scientific knowledge and help you to bridge the gap between abstraction and application that is so important for innovation.
  • 6-9 ECTS in context modules (CM)
    CM modules will impart additional skills in areas such as technology management, business administration, communication, project management, patent law, contract law, etc.

In the module description (download pdf) you find the entire language information per module divided into the following categories:

  • instruction
  • documentation
  • examination 
Advanced User Interfaces (TSM_UseInf)

Graphical User Interfaces have long become standard UIs for computers, and mobile devices have not only adopted these GUIs but augmented them with multi-touch screens, speech in- and output, gesture, handwriting recognition, and several additional sensors. This has fostered innovative ways of user interaction with the information available on these devices that were only been seen in professional environments so far. In the professional environment, the trend has further developed into more and more immersive systems where the user dives more or less entirely into a virtual world to interact with the vast amount of available information efficiently. In these scenarios, true hand tracking is gaining significant momentum vs. glove-based tracking systems.

This module gives a solid introduction to the fundamental concepts and techniques of both advanced user interfaces with different input and output channels and interaction modalities, as well as immersive systems with haptic interaction. Insight into developing these advanced user interfaces and immersive systems with hand-tracking interaction will be given through hands-on exercises.

Prerequisites

  • Basic principles of human cognition and human-machine interaction
  • Basic knowledge of graphical user interfaces.

Learning Objectives

Students attending this module

  • have complemented their knowledge about the user-centered UI design process and its major activities
  • are familiar with a wide range of non-standard and advanced user interfaces and can discriminate and explain their characteristics, strengths and limitations
  • possess a sound knowledge of the principles and (potential) application areas of non-standard user interfaces such as voice, gesture-based or haptic user interfaces as well as immersive systems and technologies
  • know the required components and underlying technologies for these advanced user interfaces and are able to evaluate and design simple applications
  • have extended their knowledge of user-centred design and usability to environments and applications using non-standard user interfaces and can evaluate their suitability for specific tasks or projects

Contents of Module

  • The User-Centered Design Process (15%)
    • Fundamentals of Human-Computer Interaction (Recapitulation/Convergence)
    • UI Requirements Elicitation & Analysis: Stakeholders, Users, Business, Tasks and Context
    • UI Design & Evaluation: Principles, Patterns, Guidelines, and Techniques
    • Aligning with the Software Engineering process
  • Recognition Based User Interfaces (50%)
    • Fundamentals of recognition-based UIs (Hidden-Markov Models, Deep Neural Networks)
    • Conversational User Interfaces
  • Immersive Systems (35%)
    • Fundamentals of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) systems.
    • Technology for VR applications (human depth perception, 3D stereoscopic and volumetric displays, tracking and motion capturing technologies, locomotion interfaces)
    • PC-based VR system vs. stand-alone VR systems based on Android and iOS, cross-platform development
    • Use of game engines like "Unity" and "Unreal Engine"
    • Sonification

Teaching and Learning Methods

  • Ex cathedra
  • Self study of literature / publications
  • Practical exercises

Download full module description

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