Software is at the heart of nearly every aspect of modern life, from finance and healthcare to government and telecommunications. As software systems expand, their complexity also increases. Consequently, despite significant investments in development, the end products do not always meet user expectations or ensure reliability. Therefore, this specialisation equips you with the skills to develop high-quality software. In addition, you will learn research-based methods, techniques, and tools for modeling, building, analyzing, and verifying software systems.

Specialisation's Objective

The primary goal of this specialisation in software foundation and technology is to explore how we can efficiently build high-quality software. For example, how can we safeguard against unintended bugs or malicious attacks? Furthermore, how can we ensure and prove the correctness of software? To address these challenges, our diverse team of researchers and lecturers covers areas ranging from logical foundations to practical technologies and tools. Moreover, we actively involve students in research projects, including:

• The logical foundations and formal semantics of programs
• Techniques to specify and verify software requirements
• Efficient program analysis tools to boost productivity
• The design of automated reasoning algorithms and tools
• The development of safer and more efficient programming languages and compilers
• Concurrency theory for analyzing parallel and distributed systems
• Software security to protect systems and information flow

Why specialise in Software Foundation and Technology? 

Software underpins modern society and shapes both our professional and personal lives. Indeed, the functioning of governments, companies, and scientific missions often depends on reliable software. Therefore, we combine strong research with real-world applications. For instance, we collaborate with companies on:

• Blockchain technology and smart contracts, for instance at Concordium
• 24/7 availability of cloud infrastructure, for instance at AWS
• Security guarantees for hypervisors, with Google
• Software analysis for >1 billion lines of code at Uber
• Dependency analysis for JavaScript programs in the wild
• Developing new programming languages, in particular Flix, Troupe, and Dart with Google
• Proving safety of (autonomous) control systems, for instance railway systems, with DB Netz
• Quantum software optimization and compilation, for instance with Kvantify 

What Makes Aarhus University Stand Out for Your Education?

1. Among the top in the world: 2nd in Cryptography, 5th in Programming Languages, 17th in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and 42nd in Algorithms and Complexity.
2. Computer Science department at Aarhus University is known for its world-class research. The university collaborates with leading tech companies and research institutions.
3. Aarhus is a vibrant, student-friendly city with a high standard of living, great cultural life, and a strong international community.
4. Excellent career opportunities for graduates from the department of Computer Science.
   • During your studies: Each year, Aarhus University hosts Katrinebjerg Karrieredag (Kdag) at the Department of Computer Science, providing students a unique opportunity to connect with top companies and secure their dream job in the tech industry, as our specialisations are highly sought after across industries, from corporate and government sectors to academic research. Other than this, student job service for international students via Tech Hub Aarhus – many student relevant jobs in companies like Danske Bank, Salling Group etc.
   • After you graduate:
     PhD studies: After the first year of the MSc programme you can apply for admission to the department's PhD programme in computer science. All positions are fully-funded.
     Industry: Huge demand for CS graduates in the Aarhus region. There are many software companies or general companies with large IT departments in Aarhus and in Denmark, e.g. Google, Lego