Software Engineering Major (B.Sc.) (63 credits)
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Degree: Bachelor of Science
Program credit weight: 63
Program Description
This program provides a broad introduction to the principles of computer science and covers in depth the design and development of software systems.
Students may complete this program with a maximum of 63 credits or a minimum of 60 credits if they are exempt from taking COMP 202 Foundations of Programming..
Degree Requirements — B.Sc.
This program is offered as part of a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree.
To graduate, students must satisfy both their program requirements and their degree requirements.
- The program requirements (i.e., the specific courses that make up this program) are listed under the Course Tab (above).
- The degree requirements—including the mandatory Foundation program, appropriate degree structure, and any additional components—are outlined on the Degree Requirements page.
Students are responsible for ensuring that this program fits within the overall structure of their degree and that all degree requirements are met. Consult the Degree Planning Guide on the SOUSA website for additional guidance.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (36-39 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 202 | Foundations of Programming. 1 | 3 |
Foundations of Programming. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Introduction to computer programming in a high level language: variables, expressions, primitive types, methods, conditionals, loops. Introduction to algorithms, data structures (arrays, strings), modular software design, libraries, file input/output, debugging, exception handling. Selected topics. | ||
| COMP 206 | Introduction to Software Systems. | 3 |
Introduction to Software Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Comprehensive overview of programming in C, use of system calls and libraries, debugging and testing of code; use of developmental tools like make, version control systems. | ||
| COMP 250 | Introduction to Computer Science. | 3 |
Introduction to Computer Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Mathematical tools (binary numbers, induction,recurrence relations, asymptotic complexity,establishing correctness of programs). Datastructures (arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists,trees, binary trees, binary search trees, heaps,hash tables). Recursive and non-recursivealgorithms (searching and sorting, tree andgraph traversal). Abstract data types. Objectoriented programming in Java (classes andobjects, interfaces, inheritance). Selected topics. | ||
| COMP 251 | Algorithms and Data Structures. | 3 |
Algorithms and Data Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Data Structures: priority queues, balanced binary search trees, hash tables, graphs. Algorithms: topological sort, connected components, shortest paths, minimum spanning trees, bipartite matching, network flows. Algorithm design: greedy, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, randomization. Mathematicaltools: proofs of asymptotic complexity and program correctness, Master theorem. | ||
| COMP 273 | Introduction to Computer Systems. | 3 |
Introduction to Computer Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Number representations, combinational and sequential digital circuits, MIPS instructions and architecture datapath and control, caches, virtual memory, interrupts and exceptions, pipelining. | ||
| COMP 302 | Programming Languages and Paradigms. | 3 |
Programming Languages and Paradigms. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Programming language design issues and programming paradigms. Binding and scoping, parameter passing, lambda abstraction, data abstraction, type checking. Functional and logic programming. | ||
| COMP 303 | Software Design. | 3 |
Software Design. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Principles, mechanisms, techniques, and tools for object-oriented software design and its implementation, including encapsulation, design patterns, and unit testing. | ||
| COMP 310 | Operating Systems. | 3 |
Operating Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Control and scheduling of large information processing systems. Operating system software - resource allocation, dispatching, processors, access methods, job control languages, main storage management. Batch processing, multiprogramming, multiprocessing, time sharing. | ||
| COMP 361D1 | Software Engineering Project. | 3 |
Software Engineering Project. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Software development process in practice: requirement elicitation and analysis, software design, implementation, integration, test planning, and maintenance. Application of the core concepts and techniques through the realization of a large software system. | ||
| COMP 361D2 | Software Engineering Project. | 3 |
Software Engineering Project. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See COMP 361D1 for course description. | ||
| ECSE 429 | Software Validation. | 3 |
Software Validation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Correct and complete implementation of software requirements. Verification and validation lifecycle. Requirements analysis, model based analysis, and design analysis. Unit and system testing, performance, risk management, software reuse. Ubiquitous computing. | ||
| MATH 223 | Linear Algebra. | 3 |
Linear Algebra. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Review of matrix algebra, determinants and systems of linear equations. Vector spaces, linear operators and their matrix representations, orthogonality. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors, diagonalization of Hermitian matrices. Applications. | ||
| MATH 240 | Discrete Structures. | 3 |
Discrete Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to discrete mathematics and applications. Logical reasoning and methods of proof. Elementary number theory and cryptography: prime numbers, modular equations, RSA encryption. Combinatorics: basic enumeration, combinatorial methods, recurrence equations. Graph theory: trees, cycles, planar graphs. | ||
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Students who have sufficient knowledge in a programming language do not need to take COMP 202 Foundations of Programming..
Complementary Courses (24 credits)
9 credits selected from Groups A and B, with at least 3 credits selected from each:
15 credits selected from Groups C and D, with at least 9 credits selected from Group C, and at least 3 credits selected from Group D.
Group A
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MATH 222 | Calculus 3. | 3 |
Calculus 3. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Taylor series, Taylor's theorem in one and several variables. Review of vector geometry. Partial differentiation, directional derivative. Extreme of functions of 2 or 3 variables. Parametric curves and arc length. Polar and spherical coordinates. Multiple integrals. | ||
| MATH 323 | Probability. | 3 |
Probability. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Sample space, events, conditional probability, independence of events, Bayes' Theorem. Basic combinatorial probability, random variables, discrete and continuous univariate and multivariate distributions. Independence of random variables. Inequalities, weak law of large numbers, central limit theorem. | ||
| MATH 324 | Statistics. | 3 |
Statistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Sampling distributions, point and interval estimation, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, contingency tables, nonparametric inference, regression, Bayesian inference. | ||
Group B
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 330 | Theory of Computation. | 3 |
Theory of Computation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Finite automata, regular languages, context-free languages, push-down automata, models of computation, computability theory, undecidability, reduction techniques. | ||
| COMP 360 | Algorithm Design. | 3 |
Algorithm Design. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced algorithm design and analysis. Linear programming, complexity and NP-completeness, advanced algorithmic techniques. | ||
Group C: Software Engineering Specialization
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 409 | Concurrent Programming. 1 | 3 |
Concurrent Programming. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Characteristics and utility of concurrent programs; formal methods for specification, verification and development of concurrent programs; communications, synchronization, resource allocation and management, coherency and integrity. | ||
| COMP 523 | Language-based Security. | 3 |
Language-based Security. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. State-of-the-art language-based techniques for enforcing security policies in distributed computing environments. Static techniques (such as type- and proof-checking technology), verification of security policies and applications such as proof-carrying code, certifying compilers, and proof-carrying authentication. | ||
| COMP 525 | Formal Verification. | 3 |
Formal Verification. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Propositional logic - syntax and semantics, temporal logic, other modal logics, model checking, symbolic model checking, binary decision diagrams, other approaches to formal verification. | ||
| COMP 529 | Software Architecture. | 4 |
Software Architecture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Development, analysis, and maintenance of software architectures, with special focus on modular decomposition and reverse engineering. | ||
| COMP 533 | Model-Driven Software Development. | 3 |
Model-Driven Software Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Model-driven software development; requirements engineering based on use cases and scenarios; object-oriented modelling using UML and OCL to establish complete and precise analysis and design documents; mapping to Java. Introduction to meta-modelling and model transformations, use of modelling tools. | ||
| COMP 555 | Information Privacy. | 4 |
Information Privacy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Conceptual foundations of information privacy: security and cryptography, privacy by design, privacy threats. Technical controls for supporting privacy: authorization, authentication, access control, malware and intrusion detection. Application-specific privacy concerns of databases, web and mobile applications, cloud storage. | ||
| ECSE 326 | Software Requirements Engineering. | 3 |
Software Requirements Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Techniques for eliciting requirements; languages and models for specification of requirements; analysis and validation techniques, including feature-based, goal-based, and scenario-based analysis; quality requirements; requirements traceability and management; handling evolution of requirements; requirements documentation standards; requirements in the context of system engineering; integration of requirements engineering into software engineering processes. | ||
| ECSE 420 | Parallel Computing. 1 | 3 |
Parallel Computing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Modern parallel computing architectures for shared memory, message passing and data parallel programming models. The design of cache coherent shared memory multiprocessors. Programming techniques for multithreaded, message passing and distributed systems. Use of modern programming languages and parallel programming libraries. | ||
| ECSE 424 | Human-Computer Interaction. | 3 |
Human-Computer Interaction. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course highlights human-computer interaction strategies from an engineering perspective. Topics include user interfaces, novel paradigms in human-computer interaction, affordances, ecological interface design, ubiquitous computing and computer-supported cooperative work. Attention will be paid to issues of safety, usability, and performance. | ||
| ECSE 437 | Software Delivery. | 3 |
Software Delivery. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Design, development, and implementation of code integration processes, release pipelines, and deployment strategies. | ||
| ECSE 539 | Advanced Software Language Engineering. | 4 |
Advanced Software Language Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Practical and theoretical knowledge for developing software languages and models; foundations for model-based software development; topics include principles of model-driven engineering; concern-driven development; intentional, structural, and behavioral models as well as configuration models; constraints; language engineering; domain-specific languages; metamodelling; model transformations; models of computation; model analyses; and modeling tools. | ||
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Students may select either COMP 409 Concurrent Programming. or ECSE 420 Parallel Computing., but not both.
Group D: Applications
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 350 | Numerical Computing. | 3 |
Numerical Computing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Computer representation of numbers, IEEE Standard for Floating Point Representation, computer arithmetic and rounding errors. Numerical stability. Matrix computations and software systems. Polynomial interpolation. Least-squares approximation. Iterative methods for solving a nonlinear equation. Discretization methods for integration and differential equations. | ||
| COMP 417 | Introduction Robotics and Intelligent Systems. | 3 |
Introduction Robotics and Intelligent Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course considers issues relevant to the design of robotic and of intelligent systems. How can robots move and interact. Robotic hardware systems. Kinematics and inverse kinematics. Sensors, sensor data interpretation and sensor fusion. Path planning. Configuration spaces. Position estimation. Intelligent systems. Spatial mapping. Multi-agent systems. Applications. | ||
| COMP 421 | Database Systems. | 3 |
Database Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Database Design: conceptual design of databases (e.g., entity-relationship model), relational data model, functional dependencies. Database Manipulation: relational algebra, SQL, database application programming, triggers, access control. Database Implementation: transactions, concurrency control, recovery, query execution and query optimization. | ||
| COMP 424 | Artificial Intelligence. | 3 |
Artificial Intelligence. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to search methods. Knowledge representation using logic and probability. Planning and decision making under uncertainty. Introduction to machine learning. | ||
| COMP 512 | Distributed Systems. | 4 |
Distributed Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Models and Architectures. Application-oriented communication paradigms (e.g. remote method invocation, group communication). Naming services. Synchronization (e.g. mutual exclusion, concurrency control). Fault-tolerance (e.g. process and replication, agreement protocols). Distributed file systems. Security. Examples of distributed systems (e.g. Web, CORBA). Advanced Topics. | ||
| COMP 520 | Compiler Design. | 4 |
Compiler Design. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The structure of a compiler. Lexical analysis. Parsing techniques. Syntax directed translation. Run-time implementation of various programming language constructs. Introduction to code generation for an idealized machine. Students will implement parts of a compiler. | ||
| COMP 521 | Modern Computer Games. | 4 |
Modern Computer Games. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Genre and history of games, basic game design, storytelling and narrative analysis, game engines, design of virtual worlds, real-time 2D graphics, game physics and physical simulation, pathfinding and game AI, content generation, 3D game concerns, multiplayer and distributed games, social issues. | ||
| COMP 535 | Computer Networks 1. | 4 |
Computer Networks 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Fundamental design principles, elements, and protocols of computer networks, focusing on the current Internet. Topics include: layered architecture, direct link networks, switching and forwarding, bridge routing, congestion control, end-to-end protocols application of DNS, HTTP, P2P, fair queuing, performance modeling and analysis. | ||
| COMP 551 | Applied Machine Learning. | 4 |
Applied Machine Learning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Selected topics in machine learning and data mining, including clustering, neural networks, support vector machines, decision trees. Methods include feature selection and dimensionality reduction, error estimation and empirical validation, algorithm design and parallelization, and handling of large data sets. Emphasis on good methods and practices for deployment of real systems. | ||
| COMP 557 | Fundamentals of Computer Graphics. | 4 |
Fundamentals of Computer Graphics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Fundamental mathematical, algorithmic and representational issues in computer graphics: overview of graphics pipeline, homogeneous coordinates, projective transformations, line-drawing and rasterization, hidden surface removal, surface modelling (quadrics, bicubics, meshes), rendering (lighting, reflectance models, ray tracing, texture mapping), compositing colour perception, and other selected topics. | ||
| COMP 558 | Fundamentals of Computer Vision. | 4 |
Fundamentals of Computer Vision. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Image filtering, edge detection, image features and histograms, image segmentation, image motion and tracking, projective geometry, camera calibration, homographies, epipolar geometry and stereo, point clouds and 3D registration. Applications in computer graphics and robotics. | ||
| COMP 585 | Intelligent Software Systems . | 4 |
Intelligent Software Systems . Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Practical aspects of building software systems with machine learning components: requirements, design, delivery, quality assessment, and collaboration. Consideration of a user-centered mindset in development; integration of design and development considerations relevant to artificial intelligence, such as security, privacy, and fairness. | ||