Escpecially at the beginning of academic studies the FSI might be helpful as in the first terms lots of things are new, confusing or even inscrutable. Therefore we try to help to make an optimal start possible. This applies for Bachelor first-terms as well as for new international students who often already come to Erlangen in september. They might not only need help at university but also e.g. at matriculation or opening a bank account.
Furthermore we are responsible for some other things, for instance we collect old exams everyone can use for preperation what is appreciated by many students.
In addition once a week during lecture period we invite all students to a coffee hour in our room and from time to time we organize barbecues or go to a bar or restaurant. Together with other FSIs or the elected TechFak-Fachschaft we also arrange greater events like the summer celebration or the first term party. We try to improve communication between the students whith mailing lists for each year.
You can also ask us everything that has to do with CE – especially as there is no explicit department that is responsible for the whole of CE but different supervisors depending on the TAF. Those, however, only do know their part of CE and are no experts for the context. In contrast to that we do know the study course from own experience and do have members of almost every TAF. Therefore we can probably help you with your problems and if not we can at least tell you who you will have to talk to.
We do also represent CE in a couple of panels and committees. There we can activly take part in the development of our subject and can advocate the students interests. Our opinions there are appreciated by the professors as we do see the connections often better than they do.
As CE is quite a small degree course we try to attract new students by advertising and make an effort to make CE more common with industry.