Advanced Signal Processing and Communications Engineering

In fu­ture, society will face signifi­cant chal­lenges consid­ering energy supply and ageing popula­tions while digitali­sation will contin­ue to progress into all areas of life. Devel­oping a society based on knowledge and innova­tion is essential to achiev­ing eco­nomic compet­itive­ness and sustain­able devel­opment. The purpose of ASC is to make a decisive contri­bution towards this objec­tive by provid­ing in­dividu­alized training to par­ticularly out­stand­ing stu­dents.

The Elite Graduate Program at a glance

DegreeMaster of Science
Duration of studyFour semesters
Place of studyErlangen
Admission requirementsBachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, communications engineering, computer science or closely related disciplines
Language of instructionEnglish
Application deadline March 15th / July 15th
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Begin of studiesWinter semester
HeadProf. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Gerstacker
CoordinatorLena Borke-Weber
Contact the coordinator
Further informationWebsite Advanced Signal Processing and Communications Engineering

Shaping digital transition

The ASC Elite Gradu­ate Pro­gram ensures that gradu­ates have an ad­vanced level of personal devel­opment, in-depth knowledge of com­munica­tion and multi­media tech­nology, are able to em­ploy well-struc­tured academ­ic work meth­ods and have the core skills that will ensure they can be con­sidered as the ‘bright­est minds’ and ‘high poten­tials’ who merit ap­point­ment to execu­tive posts in business and science. ASC gradu­ates will advance techno­logical progress as dis­semina­tors in leader­ship posi­tions with manage­rial re­sponsi­bility in business and science and contrib­ute sus­tainably towards societal prosper­ity. Fur­ther­more, the qualifi­cation provid­ed by the ASC Elite Gradu­ate Pro­gram consti­tutes an out­stand­ing starting point for ac­quiring a subse­quent doctor­ate in the shortest time possi­ble.

Cyber physical systems will play a central role in the worlds of business and everyday life. Their task will be to log, evaluate and communicate information collected from the environment, in particular multimedia content. Data needs to be protected against interference and eaves­dropping to enable the transfer and distribution of even greater amounts of information. Massive multi-antenna technology and the latest progress in wireless communication are used for this purpose and subject to extensive research. Data evaluation will be fully automated by means of advanced machine learning algorithms. Students participating in the ASC Elite Graduate Program play an active role in all these future-orientated fields of research.

Individual Mentoring

Intensive and person­alized supervi­sion is consid­ered decisive to the success of high poten­tial stu­dents and this is there­fore an intrinsic part of the de­gree pro­gram.Each ASC student is as­signed an indi­vidual mentor from the ASC teaching body as personal contact partner for the entire duration of the degree program to en­sure the greatest quality possible of edu­cation and train­ing. All courses are giv­en by interna­tionally recog­nized tenured faculty, includ­ing five IEEE Fellows and recipi­ents of numer­ous oth­er na­tional and interna­tional awards. Stu­dents will be enabled to pre­sent their research results at inter­nation­ally recog­nized sympo­siums.


Digital engi­neers in Germa­ny will exert a decisive influ­ence on the on­going rapid pace of techno­logical progress and the high rate of innova­tion in infor­mation and com­munica­tions tech­nology and its applica­tions, in particu­lar with regard to the emerg­ing fifth genera­tion (5G) of mobile com­munica­tions systems and the Internet of Things.

Porträtfoto: Prof. Dr. Ralf Müller

In this research-oriented degree program, the focus is on individualized student support. In close cooperation with professors core competencies in the areas of information technology and machine learning are acquired.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Müller

Snippets of the program

Practicing for higher goals

At the ASC Forum, students can practice how best to present their research at international conferences.

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Winners Teena tom Dieck and Marc Hölle with the three Jury members Prof. Ralf Müller (FAU-IDC), Prof. Georg Fischer (FAU-LTE) and Prof. Wolfgang Gerstacker (FAU-IDC)

ASC Kick-Off. Let’s get it started!

The kick-off seminar of the elite Master's programme ASC enables the new students to get in touch with each other and with their future professors.

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Students talking to Professors at the ASC Speeddating 2023.

Snippets of the research

Biological Intelligence

Annika Briegleb investigated data analysis methods for neuroscientific data sets as part of a research project at the University of Yale, USA.

Molecular Communication

Jan-Lucas Deinhard investigates possibilities of applying modern methods from machine learning to problems in the field of molecular communication.

Prediction of Odour (PrOdour) – Data Exploration

Would it be possible to make conclusions about the smell of a substance from the structural formula of the molecule?