Electives

The plan of study for the Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering includes five distinct categories of elective course work--science electives, general education electives, humanities electives, technical electives, and application electives.

Elective Categories

A thoughtful selection of courses will allow you to tailor your plan of study to meet your individual educational interests and professional objectives. This document describes the elective categories and the requirements that must be satisfied by your choice of courses within each category. Also included are brief descriptions of the various approved application sequences and course selections representative of these sequences. If you are uncertain about what would be a good choice of electives for you, faculty advisors can give you more help with your selections.

Science Electives

Students are required to complete at least 6 credit hours from the physical sciences (Science Elective I and Science Elective II)

Science Elective I Courses:

BIOL 2100: Cell Biology & Genetics with Lab 
BIOL 2200: Organismal and Evolutionary Biology with Lab 
CHEM 1420: Introductory College Chemistry II 
PHYS 2620: Modern Physics 
MSE 2090: Intro. to the Sci. and Engr. of Materials 
Any APMA course 2000 or higher not already required by a student’s major and does not duplicate material from another APMA course
EVSC 2800: Fundamentals of Geology 
EVSC 3200: Fundamentals of Ecology 
EVSC 3300: Atmosphere & Weather

Suitable courses for Science Elective II are 2000, 3000, and 4000 level science or mathematics courses approved for science majors. If appropriate, science electives can be selected which enhance certain application sequences (such as Environmental and Water-Resource Systems). A complete list of appropriate Science Elective II courses is available here.

The following are approved for SE students.

Only the following classes are acceptable Science II electives:

APMA 2102 Discrete Mathematics I

APMA 3140 Applied Partial Differential Equations

APMA 5070 Numerical Methods

APMA 6020 Continuum Mechanics with Applications

APMA 6548 Intro Chaos Bifurcations Stab

APMA 7548 Chaotic Dynamics & Nonlinear Analysis

Only the following classes are acceptable Science II electives:

ASTR 2110 General Astronomy

ASTR 2120 General Astronomy

ASTR 3130 Observational Astronomy

ASTR 3140 Introduction to Observational Radio Astronomy

ASTR 3880 Planetary Astronomy

ASTR 4810 Introduction to Astrophysics

Any 5000 level or higher classes are acceptable Science II electives

All 2000 level and above classes are acceptable Science II electives

All 2000 level and above classes are acceptable Science II electives.

Only the following classes are acceptable Science II electives:

CS 2120 Discrete Mathematics and Theory 1

CS 3120 Discrete Mathematics and Theory 2

Only the following classes are acceptable Science II electives:

ECE 2066 Science of Information

All 2000 level and above classes are acceptable Science II electives with the exception of the following:

EVSC 2030 Politics, Science, and Values: An Introduction to Environmental Policy

EVSC 3020 GIS Methods

EVSC 4030 Environmental Policymaking in the United States

EVSC 4040 GIS and Arc/Info

EVSC 4070 Advanced GIS

EVSC 5030 Applied Statistics for Environmental Scientist

EVSC 5110 Systems Analysis in Environmental Sciences

Only the following classes are acceptable Science II electives:

MSE 2010 Materials That Shape Our Civilization

MSE 2090 Introduction to the Science and Engineering of Materials

All 2000 level and above classes are acceptable Science II electives with the exception of the following:

MATH 2310 Calculus III

MATH 3100 Introduction to Mathematical Probability

MATH 3120 Introduction to Mathematical Statistics

MATH 3250 Ordinary Differential Equations

MATH 3351 Elementary Linear Algebra

MATH 5010 The History of Calculus

MATH 5030 The History of Mathematics

All 2000 level and above classes are acceptable Science II electives with the exception of the following:

PHYS 2010 Principles of Physics I

PHYS 2020 Principles of Physics II

PHYS 2310 Classical and Modern Physics I

PHYS 2320 Classical and Modern Physics II

PSYC 2200 A Survey of the Neural Basis of Behavior

HSS (Humanities and Social Science) Electives

At least 9 hours of HSS electives are required. Suitable courses are listed on the Office of Undergraduate Program ELECTIVE INFORMATION page.

STS Elective

A 3-hour elective from Science, Technology, and Society is required. Suitable courses are STS 2xxx or 3xxx level courses.

Technical Electives

Two 3-hour technical electives are required. Technical electives are defined as stated below. For any other courses to count as a technical elective, a student needs to petition the Systems Engineering Undergraduate Studies Committee.

Most courses taught within the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at the 2xxx-level or higher count as technical electives.  Any SEAS course that can count as a Science I or II elective CANNOT be used as a technical elective.

More specifically:

  • All BME, CE, CHE, MAE, and SYS courses count as technical electives.
  • All ECE, MSE, and CS courses count as technical electives EXCEPT ECE 2066, MSE 2010, MSE 2090, CS 2102, CS 2120, CS 3102 and CS 3120.
  • ENGR 4010, ENGR 4020, and SYS/STS 2620 are the only ENGR and STS courses that count as technical electives.
  • NASC 3100 and 3200 count as technical electives.
  • No APMA courses count as technical electives.
  • For any other courses to count as a technical elective, a student needs to petition the Systems Engineering Studies Committee.

Application Electives

At least 9 hours must qualify as application electives, taken from within a related area of concentration. Further information about concentrations can be found on the APPLICATION SEQUENCES page.

Courses Satisfying More Than One Elective Category

Note that a single elective course may well qualify in more than one of the elective categories. For example, ECON courses are generally acceptable as general education electives and as part of application sequence in Economic Systems. While you cannot count a single course as fulfilling more than one elective requirement simultaneously, you can use this circumstance to develop concentration in certain applications areas.

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only.  The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found here.

Contact Information

Department of Systems and Information Engineering

Email sie-programs@virginia.edu
Phone (434) 924-7464

Robert Riggs

Assistant Professor, Academic General Faculty, Teaching Track Director of Undergraduate Programs in Systems Engineering Systems ME and VEO Advisor
My research interest include integer programming and combinatorial optimization, healthcare systems engineering, Six Sigma and process improvement, applying lean enterprise to healthcare and manufacturing applications, optimization of disassembly and remanufacturing systems.
Google Scholar ResearchGate
Email rr3bd@virginia.edu

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