Specializations

Certain technical electives available to software engineering students have been organized into specific areas that reflect strong or emerging industry interest. This allows you to focus most of your technical electives in key areas of study.

**Courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ELEC XXX and CENG XXX) were merged under a new name (ECE XXX) in May 2018.**

How do I get a specialization?

The courses within each specialization are divided into two groups: the first group contains courses that are key to the area, and the second group contains supplementary “breadth” courses. To earn a specialization, you must take and pass a minimum of three courses (4.5 units) as follows:

  • Three or more courses must be from Group 1; OR
  • Two or more courses must be from Group 1, and one or more courses must be from Group 2.

What if I want to take a course that isn't listed on this page?

The Faculty of Engineering offers a variety of additional courses that are not listed below but may qualify as technical electives in a given specialization, including topics courses, directed studies, and technical projects. If you feel a course is appropriate for your targeted specialization, please contact the BSEng advisor before registering for the class as permission is required from the Program Director.

Where is my specialization noted?

Specialization areas are not noted on your transcript. However, once you finish your degree, you can request a certificate from the Software Engineering Academic Advisor to show that you completed the requirements for the specialization area. Specialization certificates are prepared and distributed when convocation is held.

The deadline for certificate requests is 30 days prior to convocation.

Specialization areas

Data mining and analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine learning

Group 1

Group 2

Cyber-physical and smart systems

Group 1

Group 2

Cybersecurity and privacy

Group 1

Group 2

  • CSC 463 - Wireless and Mobile Networks
  • CSC 466 - Overlay and Peer-to-Peer Networking
  • CSC 467 - Switching, Network Traffic and Quality of Service
  • ECE 463/CENG 461 - Design and Analysis of Computer Networks

Performance and scalability

Group 1

  • CSC 462 - Distributed Computing
  • CSC 464 - Concurrency
  • ECE 457/CENG 453 - Parallel and Cluster Computing
  • SENG 462 - Distributed Systems and the Internet - No Longer Offered
  • SENG 468 - Software System Scalability
  • SENG 475 - Advanced Programming Techniques for Robust Efficient Computing

Group 2

  • CSC 454 - Fault Tolerant Computing

Interaction design and data visualization

Group 1

Group 2

  • There are no courses in this group at this time. However, topics courses, directed studies, and technical projects might qualify for this group. Please contact the BSEng advisor for preapproval.

Visual computing (vision/graphics)

Group 1

Group 2

Disclaimer

Not all elective courses are offered every year, and some courses may require additional prerequisites outside of the software engineering core. Check the UVic Calendar for current course schedules and prerequisites. If you need help planning your electives, make an appointment to see the BSEng advisor.

Software engineering specializations and the courses that qualify may be changed without notice.

Last updated March 12, 2021

CSC411 added to Interaction Design and Data Visualization specialization