The past week there has been quite a lot to do, and I’ve not had so much free time. Choosing courses was more difficult than I anticipated, and I had to make some difficult decisions.

First off, it was the course in Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie (Probability theory) that was supposed to be about the “foundations of probability theory”, which led me to believe that I was going to learn probability theory from scratch. Well… no. It was a course where the lecturer assumed good knowledge about the subject; “foundations” meant that the subject was going to be repeated, now very formally. Without measure theory and without any knowledge of probability theory, I quit the course.

Secondly there was a course that I since long had planned to undertake, namely Functional Analysis. But I soon discovered that though the course had the same name as a similar course taught back home in Linköping, they differed a lot. The ETH course assumed good knowledge of real analysis, measure theory and Lebesgue integration, none of which are prerequisites to the course in Linköping. I really gave it a try, and after spending many hours reading the excellent book Real Analysis (Kolmogorov, Fomin) I could actually understand the lectures. The blow came during the first exercise session, and my heart sunk when I discovered that I was unable to even try to solve the first “warm-up” quiz. I quit the course, but only after clinging on for three weeks.

Both these courses were huge, 10 ECTS credits each. They left an enormous gap in the schedule, and so I had to find something else to do. Since I don’t study according to a local programme such as the Bachelor in Physics, I had to find courses that didn’t collide, matched my current knowledge and made sense for my degree. Not the easiest task, and I have spent many, many hours in the Vorlesungsverzeichnis, browsing and browsing. It was only this week that I finished, just before the deadline. The courses I have chosen are as follows: (I have included the docent’s names, so that any prospective ETH students can take notice for their exchange year)

Algebra I (D. Cimasoni). 6 ECTS. Abstract algebra, the theory of groups and rings. A very formal course, the lectures and quizzes are focused on proofs and theorems. So far I am impressed by the thorough presentation, and the lectures are very impressive but demanding. The quizzes are what take up most of my time during the weeks. This course is aimed ad Physics and Math undergraduate students.

Signal- und Systemtheorie I (H. Bölcskei). 4 ECTS. Signal and system theory I. An introduction to signal processing, systems, Fourier and Laplace transforms and convolution theory. The math here is pretty relaxed and easy, so far the course has been a breeze. The quizzes are easy but extensive, and take some time to solve. This course is aimed at the Bachelor students in Electrical Engineering.

Regelungstechnik I (L. Guzella) 4 ECTS. Control Theory I. An introduction to Single-Input, Single-Output automatic control. Guzzella is one of the best lecturers I’ve ever had. Control theory could not be better explained than the way it’s done in this course, and every lecture has ended in spontaneous applause… Not so math-intensive (as you could expect for a course aimed at the Mecanical Engineers )

Advanced Parallel Computing for Scientific Applications (P. Arbenz) 6 ECTS. A course where we learn to program multicore and multiprocessor systems using OpenMP. Requires good knowledge of C/C++. I am very happy I found this course as it fit perfectly into my timetable and is a subject that interests me while it at the same time has many applications in science. The absolutely best part is that we work on the Brutus cluster, a supercomputer belonging to the ETH. This is certainly a course at the advanced level, as most people attending are already pursuing their Ph. D:s.

Theorie der Wärme (G. Blatter) 5 ECTS. Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics. I know very little about this course as I just started attending it. Aimed at the Physics undergraduates.

As you can see I only take one course in physics during this semester even though I am enrolled in the Physics department. This is really not optimal, but most Physics courses that I want to take require an course in modern physics, and that course is only given the next semester.

One tip for students interested in doing exchange studies at ETH is to do a lot of course research in advance. That includes e-mailing the docents about what knowledge will be assumed during the course. Generally, this is not available in the course catalog, and having this knowledge saves a lot of time when school starts. Also take good notice of the lecture hours and make sure that the courses you want to take don’t collide! Collisions means missed lecture hours, and because of the very fast progress during the lectures will mean lost knowledge and failed exams.

So far I am very impressed by the courses here at ETH Zürich, and I can recommend Zürich for any German-speaking Yi student  that likes math and wants a challenge. It is not for the faint of heart; I have had to spend many hours at my desk doing quizzes, but hard work quickly turns into gained knowledge.  There are plenty of interesting courses to choose from, I myself chose courses in algebra and programming to fill out my timetable but there will probably be courses that match your interests.

A very specific advice for second-year Yi students is to try to take both the introductory probability theory and transformation theory during the spring semester. At ETH, a matching probability theory course only takes place in the spring semester, and because of this it might be difficult to fit a statistics course in the third year.

Sorry for not writing here so often; my whole days are filled with activities and I don’t really prioritize blogging over school. Please make sure to leave a comment below if you have read this, comments is the reward that makes blogging worthwile. Thanks!