Program of Study

All students in the MSSE program take a core curriculum that spans the scope of disciplinary areas relevant to the degree, thereby providing a common foundation for all students in the program. Students also select an area of concentration, or track, which allows them to take a cohesive, more specialized set of courses supporting their individual career interests. Three tracks are available: Information Science and Technology, Computer Science, and Engineering. Students in all tracks are encouraged to participate in Drexel's Career Integrated education (CIE) program. The MSSE degree can be completed in two years of full-time or three years of part-time study.

Admission Requirements

In addition to satisfying the general admission requirements of the University, all applicants to the program will be required to satisfy the following entrance requirements:

• The applicant must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution of higher education with an appropriate undergraduate major. Appropriate undergraduate major. Appropriate undergraduate major include, but are not limited to, computer science, engineering, information systems, management science, and mathematics. Applicants might also have master's degrees in similar fields.
  
• The applicant must have an acceptable score on the Graduate Record Exam. An applicant's undergraduate and/or graduate record may justify waiver of this requirement.
  
• Prospective students should possess the following knowledge and/or experience:
  
  • Advanced capability to program in a block-structured programming language such as Pascal, C, or Ada or an object-oriented language such as C++ or Smalltalk.
    
  • An undergraduate course in data structures and algorithms.
    
  • An undergraduate course in discrete mathematics. A grade of 'B' or better is required in these courses.
    
• Evidence of an understanding of the development of the industrial-strength software applications. This requirement may be met by having at least two years experience working directly with software system development, or (with permission of an advisor) extensive software-intensive course work. Students may also be required to have or develop proficiency in particular technologies, operating environments, or programing languages.
  

After consultation with an academic advisor, students found to be deficient in one or more of the above areas will be required to take up to three foundation courses (these will not count towards the degree) to prepare them for admission to the MSSE program. These foundation courses, to be determined by the advisor, will provide students with the requisite knowledge and skill necessary to begin the master's program.

Degree Requirements

The MSEE degree requirements vary depending on the tracks. Every student takes the required six core courses (20 credits). The remaining courses are from the track courses.

The Core

Core Courses cover topics that are essential for the practicing software engineer. Each of the three colleges offers two specifically designed courses. All MSSE students take the following six required core courses.

CS 680

Software Design (offered by the Computer Science Department)

CS 576

Dependable Software Systems (offered by the Computer Science department)

ECE-C500

Fundamentals of Computer Hardware (offered by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department)

ECE-C631

Computer Network Design I (offered by the Electrical and Computer Engineering department)

INFO 627

Requirements of Engineering and Management (offered by the College of Information, Science, and Technology)

INFO 638

Software Project Management (offered by the College of Information, Science, and Technology)

Students in the engineering track will pursue techniques to model engineering problems and offer software solutions. The courses in this track will emphasize problems facing electrical, mechanical, environmental, chemical, and other engineering industries. Systems modeling and simulation techniques will be used to solve these problems.

Students in the engineering track take a total of 25 or more credits of track courses. These courses will include three courses from the Computer Engineering area as required courses. The other courses will be from the subspecialty (concentration) areas as indicated below. A total of 45 approved graduate credits will be required for the MSSE which includes the 20 credits of core courses. Students opting for the CIE option will be required to complete 48 approved credits including six CIE credits besides the 20 credits of core courses.

Required Courses

ECE-C511, 512, 513 Computer Hardware, I, II, III

CONCENTRATION AREA COURSES

• Electrical and Computer Engineering Concentration
  
• Testing of Computer Hardware I, II and Fault Tolerant Computing
  
• Applied Computer Architecture I, II, III
  
• Computer Aided Design and Graphics I, II, III or any other ECE Graduate Course at levels 600 and above
  
  

Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Concentration

• Microcomputer-based Control of Dynamic Systems I, II
  
• Reliability of Mechanical Systems I, II, III
  
• Finite Element Methods I, II, III
  
• Discrete Time Control and Estimation I, II
  
• Introduction to CAM
  
  

Materials Engineering Concentration

• Process Systems Engineering
  
• Process Optimization
  
• Advanced Process Design
  
  

Civil and Architectural Engineering Concentration

• Analysis of Structures
  
• Advanced Mechanics of Materials
  
• Structural Analysis I, II, III
  
• Behavioral Stability of Structural Members