DEAI – Erasmus Mundus joint master: Data Engineering and Artificial Intelligence

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Applications Now Open

2025/10/21

The DEAI program is now accepting applications. Submit yours through our application portal.

Joint Master Degree in Data Engineering and Artificial Intelligence funded by the European Commission

2025/09/19

We are very excited to announce that the new Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programme in Data Engineering and Artificial Intelligence…

Data drives the world, and in recent years, we have witnessed how data has become the primary engine of the Artificial Intelligence revolution. The huge impact of data-driven initiatives in the current economy cannot be questioned, and the European Data Market Study 2024–2026 confirms that data is rapidly becoming the lifeblood of the global economy. Despite the growing impact of AI, the number of skilled data engineers capable of handling complex data-driven AI projects remains very limited.

DEAI is world-class excellence programme in the fields of Data Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, with a strong focus on research and innovation. It aims to become a global leader in the development of knowledge, talent, and leadership to address the productivity gap in complex, large-scale data-driven AI projects.

The programme favours the integration of students into a network of specialists and researchers in data engineering and artificial intelligence. The curriculum is jointly delivered by Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Spain, Technische Universität Wien (TUW) in Austria, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL) in France and Università degli Studi di Padova (UniPD) in Italy. Scholars from academic partners around the world and partners from leading industries, private R&D companies, service companies, public research institutes, and public authorities will contribute to the programme by training students, providing computers, software, course material, job placement or internship perspectives, as well as financial support.

This consortium will prepare the graduates not only to answer today’s professional challenges through a strong connection with the needs coming from the industry, but also to pursue their studies into doctoral programs, through strong connections with the researchers’ and innovators’ views.

The master is divided into four semesters of 30 ECTS each. In the first two semesters, students acquire at ULB and UPC fundamentals on data management, data analytics and artificial intelligence. The ULB semester introduces to basic concepts and aims at homogenizing the inherent heterogeneous students’ background, while UPC semester builds on top of that and deepens on fundamental concepts. Then, students participate in the Summer School organised by one of the main or associated partners, introducing them to emerging perspectives in these domains. They can also participate in the Summer of Code, organised in a distributed way by all the partners, which introduces innovation and real-world large-scale training. Students choose for the third semester a specialisation at one of the three other main partners, namely, Knowledge-Driven Data Management and Intelligence at TUW, Business, Economics, and Financial Data Science at UniPd, and Data and Intelligence for Heterogeneous Systems at UCB. Finally, in the fourth semester, students carry out the master’s thesis at any of the main or associated partners. Given the variety of associated partners, through their Master’s Thesis, students can choose among a wide range of future career perspectives, from start-up creation, through consultancy and R&D in industry, to academic research and continuation in a doctoral programme.

The tuition language is English. The programme targets students with a Bachelor of Science (or a level equivalent to 180 ETCS) with a major in Computer Science, as well as an English proficiency corresponding to level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.