Masters' programmes

^{Image shows TeamEPCC, who competed in the ISC24 Student Cluster Competition in Hamburg, Germany. Team members and mentors were drawn from our MSc programmes, internship scheme, and teaching team.}

High Performance Computing (HPC) is the use of powerful processors, networks and parallel supercomputers to tackle problems that are very computationally- or data-intensive. The same HPC techniques can be used to program the world’s largest supercomputers containing hundreds of thousands of processors or to exploit the full potential of a multi-core laptop.

The MSc in High Performance Computing will provide you with a thorough grounding in HPC technologies and their practical application. It will appeal if you have a keen interest in programming, computer science and would like to learn about HPC and parallel programming.

• On-campus: apply now 
• Online: apply now

Data science is a field of computer science which is concerned with the manipulation, processing and analysis of data to extract knowledge. This area is undergoing a revolution in which HPC is a key driver. HPC provides the power underpinning the management and analysis of big data; the increasingly large, complex and challenging data sets that are now generated across many areas of science and business.

The MSc in High Performance Computing with Data Science will provide you with a thorough grounding in HPC technologies together with a practical understanding of the key ideas and techniques of data science and the HPC tools that underpin them.

The primary emphasis of this programme is High Performance Computing but it also includes a significant Data Science element. Students must take at least 20 credits worth of Data Science courses and the dissertation project will focus on a Data Science-related topic. 

The line between HPC and Data Science is becoming increasingly blurred and this programme is intended to ensure a thorough practical grounding in Data Science and how Data Science relates to HPC, as well as covering core HPC material. 

If your primary interest is Data Science and you are more interested, for example, in the theory behind Machine Learning algorithms than you are in practical HPC, then you might instead be interested in the MSc in Data Science offered by the School of Informatics. Students on EPCC's MSc programme can also take up to 30 of their 120 taught credits from courses offered by other schools, such as those offered by Informatics.

• Apply Now: On-campus
• Apply Now: Online

The MSc Imaging, Vision and High Performance Computing is a newly developed programme of study for graduates with science, engineering, or computing backgrounds.

This degree will place you at the cutting-edge of science and technology, with skills in computational imaging algorithms and computer vision, as well as in high performance computing (HPC) hardware and software technologies. It is a programme of study which, for the first time, brings together the world-leading expertise of Heriot-Watt University in Signal and Image Processing with the University of Edinburgh's globally respected capability HPC.

You will graduate simultaneously from both the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University.

• Apply Now: On-campus

Our MSc programmes have a strong practical focus, with most courses including lectures supported by practical tutorials. Throughout your studies you will have access to a wide range of leading-edge HPC and Data platforms and technologies.

All our MSc programmes require the completion of 180 credits in total: 120 credits of taught courses followed by a dissertation worth 60 credits.

The compulsory courses give a broad-based coverage of the fundamentals of computer science, HPC, parallel computing and data science. For our MSc in HPC and HPC with Data Science there are a range of optional courses that give students the opportunity to focus on specialist areas such as computational science.

Find out more about EPCC courses.

Our MSc in Imaging, Vision, and High Performance Computing combines the specialist areas of Imaging and Vision, from Heriot-Watt University, with EPCC's deep expertise of high performance computing.

Full-time students take a total of 120 credits' worth of taught courses over two semesters, including 70 credits of compulsory courses and 50 credits of optional courses. Most students take 60 credits of courses in each semester.

Most courses are worth 10 credits each. They are assessed through a combination of coursework and examination.

On-campus part-time students attend the same course as full time students, but their courses are usually spread out over two years (four taught semesters) followed by a dissertation.

Our MSc in Imaging, Vision, and High Performance Computing is currently only available as a full-time programme.

Online part-time intermittent programmes run slightly differently.

Courses will be delivered entirely online and students enrol in (and pay for) courses by the course, instead of by the programme. The dissertation can be considered to be a 60 credit course. Credits from completed courses can be accumulated over a number of years (up to 6 years for the MSc, up to 4 years for the PGDip and up to 2 years for the PGCert). MSc students must pass a prescribed number of credits before progressing to the dissertation phase.

Courses which make up the programme are shown in the Degree Programme Table (DPT), which lays out the requirements for individual courses.

• High Performance Computing (MSc) (Full-time)
• High Performance Computing (MSc) (Online Learning) (3-6 Years)
• High Performance Computing with Data Science (MSc) (Full-time)

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact us.