Technical University Berlin

In contemporary building design, sustainability has emerged as a fundamental element. With the growing urgency of climate change and limited resources, the imperative to create buildings that prioritize minimal environmental impact and maximize human comfort has also intensified. Sustainable building can make a crucial contribution in this regard. But what defines a sustainable building and how can a building be designed in a sustainable way? The course provides both theoretical and practical learning materials to address this question. Participants will acquire general knowledge and skills in the fields of sustainable building and building performance simulations. They will be able to gain a deeper understanding of the interactions between various factors when designing or conducting evidence-based analyses of a building's sustainability. Key topics will include: principles of sustainable buildings, future trends, chances, and aims of sustainability by buildings, functional and aesthetical quality of buildings, systems for environment friendly energy supply, thermal comfort and indoor air quality, fundamentals of building performance simulations, and simulative analysis of buildings. The first two weeks cover the theoretical segment and the subsequent two weeks consist of collaborative work on small-scale projects with supervision from lecturers. Furthermore, there will be three excursions in Berlin, where attendees will experience real-life examples of sustainable buildings and plants.

In this course we will explore the relationships between people, nature and space as well as the production and use of open space (e.g., changing interpretation and usage patterns in relation to the city and open space or the change in living, work and leisure) against the background of social development. Particular emphasis is placed on gender as an analytical category for spatial concepts and spatial actions as well the consideration of the interaction between theory and practice. That also includes current trends in spatial development.
 

The goal of this course is to enable students to apply the main instruments of impact assessment and mitigation in practical planning situations based on fundamental knowledge provided in the bachelor's degree program; to gain expertise about the contents and planning processes of instruments such as the German Impact Mitigation Regulation, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), EU Habitat Regulations Assessment (HRA) and Protected Species Assessment, as well as U.S.-American Wetland Mitigation and Endangered Species Mitigation; to recognize environmental and social needs and plan accordingly, and to identify interfaces with natural and social sciences; to apply planning instruments both in domestic as well international arenas; to judge the different instruments in their effectiveness and know how to generate appropriate research when needed and to identify and formulate research approaches for the further development of planning instruments, and; to identify and analyze aspects of gender mainstreaming in planning processes.

The students learn the implementation and practical application of new (under development) web technologies, particularly in the areas of online media (e.g. web TV, streaming, content protection, social media), telecommunications (e.g. web RTC) , as well as Internet of Things.

In the course, students practice descriptive evaluations as well as inferential statistical analyses with R: In addition to the most common univariate methods, non-parametric and selected multivariate methods are also taken into account. Further focuses are on the diverse options for creating diagrams and data management. After completing the course, participants can carry out standard exploratory and inferential statistical procedures with R, create flexible diagrams and have gained an overview of the diverse possible uses of the additional packages for special problems.

This course covers the following topics: sets and mappings, complete induction; number representations, real numbers, complex numbers; number sequences, convergence, infinite series, power series, limits and continuity of functions; elementary rational and transcendental functions; differentiation, extreme values, mean value theorem and consequences; higher derivatives, Taylor polynomial and series; applications of differentiation; definite and indefinite integral, integration of rational and complex functions, improper integrals, Fourier series; matrices, linear systems of equations, Gauss algorithm; vectors and vector spaces; linear mappings; dimension and linear independence; matrix algebra; vector geometry; determinants, eigenvalues; linear differential equations.
 

Students gain an overview of the fundamental technologies of the World Wide Web (WWW) and their applications. They study the functionality of the WWW as an overlay network of the Internet and examine the underlying communication infrastructure and protocols. Students also study the different generations of the WWW and the current as well as the future development. They learn to semantically structure, design and link web content, to create dynamic web sites, and to program server-side applications and how to connect them with the front-end via interfaces. Course content includes foundations (the main parts of the WWW and its evolution over the past decades), web pages (the structure and design of web content with HTML and CSS), web applications (an overview of JavaScript, the DOM and AJAX ), architecture and communication (the foundations of the OSI model with the consideration of the IP, TCP and UDP protocol as well as the explanation of the REST architectural style), server-side applications (creation of back-end applications with Node.js), selected APIs and frameworks.

In this course we will explore a wide range of alternative logical systems for modelling different phenomena. We will look at the semantics and proof theory for modal logics (the logic of possibility and necessity), intuitionistic logic (the logic of constructive mathematics), “gappy” logics (where some truth values are underdetermined), the logic of paradox (where paradoxes can be true without the logic being trivial), deontic logic (the logic of actions and obligations), and dynamic epistemic logic (logics for tracking our knowledge in a changing epistemic environment). For each we will look at the philosophical motivations and payoffs that the logic has, as well as strengths and weaknesses of the formalisation.

This course for foreign students is designed to improve students’ language skills and vocabulary. Areas of focus include grammar, conversation, writing exercises, and listening and reading exercises. In addition, excursions are planned to introduce students to German culture. Students work with cultural and historical topics on an academic level and broaden their intercultural knowledge. They are introduced to independent learning methods and familiarize themselves with typical learning situations at German universities. In this class at the A1 level according to the CEFR, students learn basic vocabulary and grammatical structures as well as corresponding competencies in university-specific situations. The class takes intercultural and methodological aspects of foreign language learning into consideration, and students are introduced to German culture and society. The A1 level is split into two courses, the A1.1 course covers the first half of the level and the A1.2 course covers the second half of the level.

After completing this module, the participants have gained practical experience in designing, implementing, and testing of applications for the internet of services within a small team and therefore gained significant knowledge and insights within the areas of mobile devices, communication and services, location-based services, cloud computing and digital communities. Furthermore, the participants have gained important knowledge of how to organize and realize IT projects, including controlling, reporting, planning, and communicating with external partners.