Career & Alumni

Alumni Sharing


The videos below are available at Youku (Simplified Chinese Subtitle) and YouTube (English Subtitle).


What Have You Gained from the Programme?


Daily Lives in Hong Kong

OTH Regensburg Study Experience Sharing



Hi everyone, I’m Zihan Zhu, a 2020 graduate of MSc in Advanced Information Systems (former name of MSc in Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence). I joined the HKBU-OTH Double MSc Programme and went to OTH Regensburg, Germany in September 2020 to start my second master's degree in computer science. It’s definitely an unforgettable experience and I would like to share the wonderful time in different aspects with you all.


Why choose OTH, Regensburg?

Regensburg is a medium-sized city in Germany that strikes a balance between bustle and tranquility. You can go to the beautiful Danube River and stone bridges to relax, or to the old commercial streets, bars and museums to feel the cultural enthusiasm.

In OTH, the school remains in good order and there is adequate security. The teaching facilities and labs are great, and the teachers are very nice and welcoming. At the beginning of each semester, just like the add-drop period in HKBU, students have one to two weeks to try out the courses and can decide to change them.

The mechanical and electronic industry is well developed here, and the school offers plenty of internship opportunities, which are easier to match if you have a good command of German.


What courses to take?

Here I would like to share some courses that I have taken.

  • IT Controlling, which teaches solutions for business IT.
  • Scientific Seminar (WIS): It mimics an academic conference and allows students to learn and complete a literature review and present it.
  • Distributed Computing: functional programming, distributed computing, working with distributed data.
  • Modeling and Verification: advanced modeling notations (such as, e.g., EPCs, Petri nets, communicating automata, transition systems etc.), model checkers to verify properties
  • Secure Programming
  • Project Practice (HSP): form teams to complete small to medium sized projects, or work with labs or companies. This is my favorite class because it provides a wealth of resources to choose from for projects and is a great way to practice your skills.

We have many group work opportunities in the classroom, and during the epidemic this was achieved through Zoom. There are also special classes and allow students to form teams to complete small to medium sized projects. I could sharpen my teamwork and programming skills through working with my classmates and acquiring project management knowledge in the lessons.


What to do in my spare time?

In my free time, I like exploring the local food and scenery. I also love visiting museums. There are a lot of museums in Germany, my all-time favourite is the history and art museums.

I am living in a student apartment now. Therefore,I can always meet up with many exchange students from all over the world and we share our own cultural customs. We usually hang out together and join different events such as hiking and birthday parties. We also travel to different countries in the European Union.


What challenges may arise?

I have been living here for a year and a half. Normally, I have developed a good habit of reviewing and consolidating my knowledge on time, so I have not encountered any difficulties in my studies so far. I use English in my lessons, but I self-learn German in my free time, so I may face some challenges in using German for daily communications, but I believe there is always a process of adaptation when learning a new language.


For you who plan to go in future

Some of you may be keen to join the programme and therefore I would like to help by summarising a few tips below for your reference.

Firstly, It is necessary to learn some basic German ahead of time to facilitate searching for an internship and communicating with others in daily life.

In addition, you need to make sure that you have a foundation related to the professional courses you want to study, for example, secure programming requires a basic knowledge of Linux, C and cryptography, otherwise you will need to spend a lot of time catching up.

In my opinion, studying abroad is a test. At first, you will feel excited because of the new environment and new friends. After that, you will encounter various difficulties, such as language barrier, cultural differences and study pressure. However, when you overcome these difficulties, you will feel this place is doubly nice as it helps you grow, and I think taking the double MSc programme is a life-enriching experience.


If you are interested to know more about COMP global connection opportunities, please visit https://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk/outreach/. Don’t miss the chance to broaden your horizons!

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