Focus your studies

Customize your degree with an emphasis in software engineering or cybersecurity.

Concentrations in CS are only available for ground campus students. If a student opts to do a concentration in either software engineering (SE) or cybersecurity, they usually do so in their junior year.  Students will need to contact their advisor to add the concentration and to discuss the requirements. Students will then be placed into a new plan code that corresponds with the chosen concentration. The concentration will appear on the transcript once the graduation requirements are met.

Concentration in software engineering

Students enrolled in the computer science BS with a concentration in software engineering will learn development of distributed software, service-oriented applications, modeling notations, software architectures and other tools and skills necessary to work as a software engineer or software task leader on both large and small projects. Students will gain a solid foundation for pursuing graduate study and performing research and development in emerging areas such as model-based design, enterprise software engineering, service-oriented architecture, simulation-based software development and visual modeling system-of-systems engineering. See catalog description.

SE concentration requirements

A minimum of 15 credits with a “C” or higher in the required and elective courses are required.

Required Courses (12 credit hours)

  1. CSE 445: Distributed Software Development (3) – offered every Fall and Spring term
  2. CSE 460: Software Analysis and Design (3) – offered every Fall and Spring term
  3. CSE 446: Software Integration and Engineering (3)* – offered Spring term only
  4. CSE 464: Software Quality Assurance and Testing (3)* – offered Fall term only

Elective Courses (3 credit hours)

 

Students must choose one of the following five courses:

  1. CSE 463: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction (3) – offered Spring term only
  2. CSE 466: Computer Systems Security (3) – offered Fall term only
  3. CSE 467: Data and Information Security (3) -offered Spring term only
  4. CSE 468: Computer Network Security (3) – offered Fall term only

In addition, students are encouraged to complete a project in software engineering in their CSE 485/486 capstone courses

Concentration in cybersecurity

The goal of this concentration is to provide students the knowledge, skills and the advanced development capability in science and engineering for cybersecurity, including computer and network security, software security, data and information security, applied cryptography and computer forensics. Students will have a competitive advantage to pursue graduate study in related research areas or to secure employment. There are also a number of competitive scholarships available with this program.

See https://ctf.asu.edu/ for details.

See catalog description.

Cybersecurity concentration requirements (catalog years 2019 and earlier)
A minimum of 15 credits with a “C” or higher in information assurance and related areas are required.

Required Courses

Students must take the following 12 credits of coursework:

CSE 465 or CSE 365 as of Fall 2018 (3)  – REQUIRED

All three cybersecurity courses:

  1. CSE 466: Computer Systems Security (3) – offered in Fall term
  2. CSE 468: Computer Network Security (3) – offered in Fall term
  3. CSE 469: Computer and Network Forensics (3) – offered in Spring term

Elective Courses

Students must also choose one of the following three courses:

  1. CSE 460: Software Analysis and Design (3) – offered every Fall and Spring term
  2. CSE 463: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction (3) – offered Spring term only
  3. CSE 467: Data and Information Security (3) – offered in Spring term
  4. CSE 471: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (3) -offered every Fall and Spring term

In addition, students are encouraged to complete a project in cybersecurity in their CSE 485/486 capstone courses.

Cybersecurity concentration requirements (catalog years 2020 and later)
A minimum of 15 credits with a “C” or higher in information assurance and related areas are required.

Required Courses (3 hours)

CSE 365: Information Assurance (3)  – offered every term

Cybersecurity Focus Courses (6 hours; must take 2 courses from list):

  1. CSE 466: Computer Systems Security (3) – offered in Fall term
  2. CSE 468: Computer Network Security (3) – offered in Fall term
  3. CSE 469: Computer and Network Forensics (3) – offered in Spring term
  4. CSE 494: Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity (3) -offerings vary

Cybersecurity Elective Courses (6 hours; must take 2 courses from list; cannot be the same courses used for “Focus Courses”):

  1. CSE 445: Distributed Software Development (3) – offered every term
  2. CSE 460: Software Analysis and Design (3) – offered every term
  3. CSE 463: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction (3) – offered every term
  4. CSE 464: Software Quality Assurance and Testing (3) – offered every term
  5. CSE 467: Data and Information Security (3) – offered in Spring term
  6. CSE 468: Computer Network Security  (3) – offered in Fall term
  7. CSE 469: Computer and Network Forensics (3) – offered in Spring term
  8. CSE 471: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence  (3) – offered every term
  9. CSE 494: Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security (3) -offerings vary

In addition, students are encouraged to complete a project in cybersecurity in their CSE 485/486 capstone courses.