Study Guide

Elective courses are offered in both the Winter and Spring Semesters with the main characteristic that these courses do not belong to specific academic years. This differentiation, compared to compulsory courses, which are assigned to specific academic years, provides significant flexibility in the process of choosing these courses. In this category, courses offered by other Departments are also included. Students have the opportunity to select from the available courses according to their personal preferences and priorities, following the relevant regulations. As a result, the same elective course can be attended by students from different academic years.

Students have the right to enroll and attend courses from other departments that are relevant to the field of Computer and Information Engineering and its applications. Selecting suitable courses and organizing the corresponding semesters of study is the main concern of the student. However, since the Department aims to provide its graduates with a comprehensive background in the core areas of Computer Science and Technology, certain simple and flexible rules have been adopted for the selection of compulsory elective courses, as outlined below:

1. The student is obliged to be examined in all declared compulsory elective courses.
2. Furthermore, if a student receives a passing grade in a compulsory elective course in a particular semester, it cannot be transferred to another semester.
3. If a student does not receive a passing grade in a compulsory elective course, they can either drop the course, change it, or declare and attend it again. In the latter case, they can declare it in a different semester.

Based on the above, the revised curriculum is fully implemented, following the decisions of the Assembly (session numbers: 8/24-6-2005, 16/3-7-2007, and 14/9-7-2008).

The Diploma Thesis (D.E) is prepared by the students of the Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics, during the last year of their studies. It is of great importance as its successful completion is an essential and formal condition for obtaining the Computer & Information Technology Engineer diploma. The preparation of the DE lasts at least one semester (from the official assignment of the subject to its examination). Through D.E. students have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in cutting-edge technologies and contemporary topics in Computer Science & Technology. D.E. it should be a complete study, which must necessarily include a similar implementation and/or original design, regarding the thematic area, which the student has undertaken each time. The quality of the results of the D.E. characterizes not only the student who completed it, but is also an integral part of the supervision and the educational process of the Department. The supervisor may also be a professor of another Department, of the University of Patras, since the subject of the D.E. and the scientific expertise of the supervisor is related to the fields of knowledge of Computer & Informatics Engineering. The assignment is judged and approved upon the student’s request at the Department’s Assembly, which will be accompanied by a certificate of acceptance of the supervision by the respective faculty member. A) Assignment Process: The announcement of the subjects of the D.E., on behalf of all the faculty members, takes place at the beginning of each academic year. Each supervisor must announce at least eight (8) theses topics at the beginning of the academic year. In the course of time, it can update the list of suggested topics every time. The declaration of each subject should be made using the corresponding subject declaration form D.E. The issues of D.E. are announced to the students, through the corresponding application of the Department’s website, but also by any suitable means, e.g. online class, announcements etc. Each student can declare, in order of priority, up to five (5) subjects from those that have been announced, for supervision. Then the 1st cycle of assignments is implemented, on behalf of the Professors and acceptance of the assignment on behalf of each student. The 2nd cycle is carried out based on the statements of the students and the assignments of the 1st cycle. If there are students who have not been assigned work, then a third cycle will follow with the decision of the Assembly. If deemed necessary, the above assignment process will be repeated in the middle of the academic year (in March). At the final stage, the Assembly of the Department validates the procedure. The determination of the exact dates of all the above phases is determined by the Assembly of the Department, each time. Remarks – Limitations: The student who is in the 5th year of studies or older, can undertake D.E. only if, at the time of the assignment, he owes a number of courses, less than or equal to twelve (12), given that the assignment takes place, after the completion of the results of the September examination period. A student who has completed 5 years of study can undertake a Diploma Thesis only if, at the time of assignment, he owes a number of courses ≤ 20. When the preparation of the D.E. is not successfully completed within two calendar years, (from the official date of assignment of the subject), the supervisor may interrupt the assignment, upon his corresponding request, to the Department Assembly. In this case, the assignment process will be followed again for the student. B) Evaluation Process and Presentation The D.E. they should be submitted in time, so that there is the possibility of their substantial evaluation and they will be graded, after a public presentation and examination, by the examination committee. The examination committee consists of the supervisor and one more co-examiner, drawn from the faculty members of the Department of Computer & Informatics Engineering. The composition of the examination committee is defined by the supervisor. The Assembly of the Department may also set up a joint examination committee per academic year, for each Sector of the Department, after its decision. The public presentation and examination of the D.E. it should be announced on the website of the Department and by any other appropriate means, at least one week after its public presentation and examination.

The public presentation and examination by the examination committee, with at least two of its members present, based on a set of criteria that will include:

Quality of D.E. and degree of fulfillment of its objectives (60%), as they were determined during the declaration of its subject.

Time period for its preparation (15%).

This criterion is graded as excellent only when D.E. has been prepared in a period of less than 1.5 years (unless there are reasons of force majeure or if it has been extended in agreement with the teacher).

Quality and completeness of the text of the work and its other deliverables (15%).

Overall image of the presentation (10%). The structure of the text of the D.E., as well as its external appearance, will be based on the model provided by the Department. The student, after the successful evaluation., deposits an electronic copy of the work in the NIMERTES repository http://nemertes.lis.upatras.gr of the University of Patras, the presentation and the code that may have been developed.

The Assembly of the Department may establish a special day, at the end of each semester, during which the public presentation and examination of theses will take place, which may be accompanied by presentations in the form of posters, in addition to the public presentation and examination.

Students at the beginning of the semester, and within deadlines announced by the Faculty’s Dean’s Office, must declare to the Online Secretariat https://progress.upatras.gr, the courses they will attend and be examined and register for the new semester. In the event that the student does not declare the courses in which he/she wishes to be examined, HE/SHE DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE EXAMS TENSIONS OF THE SEMESTER. The ECTS declaration limit is 60 ECTS per semester. This means in practice, that there is a limit of entries only for the current 3rd & 4th year students. Students attending the Old Undergraduate Studies Program (admission year before 2014), should consult the Transitional Provisions: http://www.ceid.upatras.gr/el/undergraduate/studies/transitional. Students choose corresponding programs at the online address www.eudoxus.gr and are obliged to carry out both of the above procedures, since the selection of programs does not entail a declaration of courses or vice versa.

Students declare the textbook of their choice for each compulsory or compulsory elective course of the study program in the “Eudoxos” database.

The students of A.E.I. they are entitled to a free supply and choice of a number of textbooks, equal to the total number of compulsory and compulsory elective courses required to obtain the diploma.

If students choose more elective courses than are required to receive the diploma, the right to free supply and choice of textbooks does not extend to the additional courses chosen and examined by the students, even if these are counted towards receiving

of the diploma. Choosing a second textbook for the same course is not allowed even if the students did not choose any of the suggested textbooks of another or other compulsory or elective courses of the study program.

Students, even in case of failure or change of the recommended textbooks for a particular course, cannot choose a second textbook for the same course.

For some of the mandatory optional courses of General Education 1 and General Education 2 categories there is a maximum number of students who are allowed to attend them per semester.

The attendance of the course and the performance is judged by the fulfillment of the student’s obligations in the said course. Obligations are determined by the course instructor and may include: delivery of exercises, laboratory exercises, oral exams, progress exams, final exams, etc. The exact method of evaluation is determined by the course instructor who also undertakes the obligation to prepare the method of examination of the students. Each course is examined at the end of the semester, in which it was also taught in the September examination period. The exact time and place of the examinations as well as the corresponding program are announced by the Department Secretariat. The student who does not fulfill the requirements for success for a compulsory course in the second examination period must attend the course in question from the beginning or, if it is compulsory by choice, he may replace it with another also compulsory by choice. Course scores are scaled from zero (0) to ten (10), including the use of the fractional part. A grade of five (5) is the basis for success. 

The courses in which the student has been examined and received a passable grade and/or has received recognition and/or exemption are shown in the table below. Each course code is unique. The course category is indicated by one or more of the following symbols: Y (Compulsory), HY (Compulsory Elective), GP (General Education), DE (Diploma Thesis), PA (Practical Exercise). The Semester is indicated by a number indicating the semester to which the course belongs. Credit Units are the ECTS units corresponding to the course. Examination period refers to the period successfully examined in the course. Transferable grades correspond to a scale of 5 to 10 and are given in whole or half unit increments. The ECTS ranking for the Compulsory Courses is based on a sample of at least 200 students who took the exams in the current academic year. For the remaining courses, it is based on a sample of at least 100 students of the current academic year. If the current number of students is not sufficient, comparative statistics are used which refer to the performance of students up to five (5) previous years. If there are no sufficient comparative data, this position remains empty (Y.A. Φ5/89656/Β3, Official Gazette 1466/2007/Β, art. 4). Diploma thesis and internship are considered individual assignments and are not assigned to the ECTS scale based on the previous ones. In the same way, recognized courses are not matched, unless there is a match from the home institution. The degree is calculated as the weighted average (GPA) of the courses and the thesis. The weighting factors in the SMO are related to the teaching units (TE) of each course. The credits of each course other than the Diploma Thesis are calculated based on its ECTS and according to the relationship “The credits of each course are defined as the value of the course’s ECTS minus 1”. (Note: the relationship is not symmetrical, i.e. the number of ECTS of a course cannot be calculated from its ECTS.) The weighting factors are calculated as follows: Credits ≥5 3 or 4 1 or 2 Bachelor’s thesis Weight 2 1.5 1 10 The ECTS ranking for the Diploma is based on the sample of graduates of the last five (5) years, which exceeds 600 graduates.

Following the decision of the Assembly meeting 151/9-4-2019 (based on the Senate decision no. 104/1.12.2016), it is possible to re-examine students who are within the normal duration of studies of five (5) years, in three (3) courses per academic year, i.e. a maximum of fifteen (15) courses during their normal studies, in order to improve their score. In order to carry out the process of improving the grade (regrading), the student must follow the following procedure: The student submits a written application to the Department Secretariat mentioning the course in which he/she wishes to improve his/her (previous) grade. Re-examination is allowed during the re-examination in September and concerns three (3) courses of the winter and/or spring semester of the same academic year only. After the completion of the process described above, the student will be enrolled in the repeat exams of the course for which he/she has requested regrading and his/her name will appear in the corresponding grade in the repeat exam in September. After the regrading, the better of the two (2) grades will be calculated in the final grade as well as in the average of the student.