Large-scale Data Engineering (Winter 2025/26)


Conducting research in the areas of data engineering, data management, and machine learning systems requires the ability to deal with scientific literature in these areas as well as to design, implement, and evaluate prototypes. To facilitate these skills, the DAMS Lab group (FG Big Data Engineering) at TU Berlin offers a seminar and a project on Large-scale Data Engineering as a combined module (12 ECTS), which can be taken by bachelor and master students. Taking both seminar and project is the ideal preparation for a bachelor/master thesis with our group. Alternatively, only bachelor students may take the seminar as a separate module (3 ECTS) and the project as a separate module (9 ECTS).

Modules and assigned degree programs
  • Large-scale Data Engineering (module #41086, 12 ECTS): seminar and project
    • Bachelor's and master's programs: B.Sc. Computer Science (Informatik), B.Sc. Computer Engineering (Technische Informatik), B.Sc. Information Systems Management (Wirtschaftsinformatik), M.Sc. Computer Science (Informatik), M.Sc. Computer Engineering, M.Sc. Information Systems Management (Wirtschaftsinformatik), M.Sc. Electrical Engineering (Elektrotechnik)
    • Registration via a poll in the ISIS course. Deadline: Oct 02, 23:59.
    • Notification of admission (admitted or waiting list): Oct 03.
  • Seminar Large-scale Data Engineering (module #41095, 3 ECTS): seminar only
    • Bachelor's programs: B.Sc. Computer Science (Informatik), B.Sc. Computer Engineering (Technische Informatik), B.Sc. Information Systems Management (Wirtschaftsinformatik), B.Sc. Media Technology (Medientechnik)
    • Registration organized centrally by Faculty IV via an ISIS meta course. Deadline: Oct 1, 12:00.
    • Notification of admission: centrally by Faculty IV on Oct 06.
  • Project Large-scale Data Engineering (module #41183, 9 ECTS): project only
    • Bachelor's programs: B.Sc. Computer Science (Informatik), B.Sc. Computer Engineering (Technische Informatik), B.Sc. Information Systems Management (Wirtschaftsinformatik)
    • Registration via a poll in the ISIS course. Deadline: Oct 02, 23:59.
    • Notification of admission (admitted or waiting list): Oct 03.
    • This module cannot be taken as a programming practical (Programmierpraktikum) anymore. Suggested alternative: Programmierpraktikum Datensysteme.

News

See announcements in the ISIS course.

Seminar

Time: Mondays 14:00 – 16:00
Place: MAR 0.015/MAR 0.009 and zoom

In the beginning of the semester, students hear introductory lectures on reading scientific papers, finding related work, writing high-quality scientific papers, and giving a high-quality scientific presentation. Each student selects a topic, reads and understands the given paper, searches for related work, and writes a short summary of the assigned paper. In the end of the semester, each student gives a slide presentation in front of the class.

Topics

This semester's umbrella topic: tba

List of topics: tba

Submission & deadlines
  • Topic selection: After the first introductory lecture via a poll in the ISIS course.
    Deadline: tba.
    Notification of assigned topics: tba.
  • Submission of the summary paper (PDF) by upload in the ISIS course.
    Deadline: Jan 12, 23:59.
  • Submission of the presentation slides (PDF) by upload in the ISIS course.
    Deadline: The day before the presentation, 23:59.
    Last-minute changes after the submission are permitted.
Preliminary Schedule
Introductory lectures
Slides will be made available prior to the individual lectures.
  • Oct 13, MAR 0.015: 01 Structure of Scientific Papers [pdf, pptx]
  • Oct 20, MAR 0.015: 02 Scientific Reading and Writing [pdf, pptx]
  • Oct 27, MAR 0.015: 03 Experiments, Reproducibility, and Presentations [pdf, pptx]
Self-organized seminar work
  • Nov 03 – Jan 19, room tba and zoom: Optional consultation hours to discuss any questions
Student presentations
  • Jan 26, MAR 0.009, 14:00 – 18:00: Final presentations #1
  • Feb 02, MAR 0.009, 14:00 – 18:00: Final presentations #2

Project

Time: Mondays 16:00 – 18:00
Place: MAR 0.015/MAR 0.009 and zoom

In the beginning of the semester, students/teams select a project topic from a provided list. Then, they design and implement a high-quality prototype and prove the value of their contribution through extensive tests, experiments, and documentation. The project ends with a presentation and defense of the results in front of the class.

Topics

The topics of the project are independent of the seminar. We will offer tasks in a wide range of components of data management and machine learning systems. Each individual project will be conducted in the context of one of the two systems developed by our group (and other collaborators) as part of our research:

  • DAPHNE: An open and extensible system infrastructure for integrated data analysis pipelines (mainly written in C++)
  • Apache SystemDS: An open-source ML system for the end-to-end data science lifecycle (mainly written in Java)

Thereby, students get the chance to make meaningful contributions to free open-source projects. The projects can be done either individually or in teams of up to three students (with the expected amount of work proportional to the team size).

List of topics: tba

Submission & deadlines
  • Topic selection: After the kick-off meeting via a poll in the ISIS course. Deadline: tba.
    Notification of assigned topics and teams: tba.
  • Submission of the initial prototype (source code, tests) as a pull request on the GitHub repository of either DAPHNE or SystemDS (or, exceptionally via email to patrick.damme(æ)tu-berlin.de and the respective project mentor).
    Deadline: Jan 18, 23:59.
  • Submission of the final prototype (source code, tests, docs, experiments) as a pull request on the GitHub repository of either DAPHNE or SystemDS (or, exceptionally via email to patrick.damme(æ)tu-berlin.de and the respective project mentor).
    Deadline: Feb 16, 23:59.
  • Submission of the presentation slides (PDF) by upload in the ISIS course.
    Deadline: The day before the presentation, 23:59.
    Last-minute changes after the submission are permitted.
Preliminary Schedule
Introductory lectures
Slides will be made available prior to the individual lectures.
  • Oct 13, MAR 0.015: Kick-off Meeting [pdf, pptx]
  • Oct 27, MAR 0.015: Recommendation to attend the seminar at 14:00
Self-organized project work
  • tba – Feb 16: Recommended consultations with the project mentor to discuss the initial design, implementation, tests, documentation, experiments, and any questions
Student presentations
  • Jan 19, MAR 0.009, 16:00 – 18:00: Intermediate presentations
  • Feb 23, MAR 0.009, 14:00 – 18:00: Final presentations

Organization

People
  • Dr.-Ing. Patrick Damme, patrick.damme(æ)tu-berlin.de
    Lecturer, seminar mentor, project mentor, general contact person
  • Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Boehm; Carlos E. Muniz Cuza, M.Sc.; Philipp Ortner, M.Sc.; Ramon Schöndorf, M.Sc.; Grigorii Turchenko, M.Sc.
    Project mentors
Language
  • Both seminar and project are given exclusively in English, but questions or other communication in German is fine as well.