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.
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