Master of Science in Computer Engineering

The Master of Science in Computer Engineering curriculum encompasses 45.0 or 48.0 (with the Graduate Co-op option) approved credit hours, chosen in accordance with the following requirements and a plan of study arranged with the departmental graduate advisor in consultation with the student’s research advisor, if applicable. Before the end of the first quarter in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, for a full-time student, or by the end of the first year for a part-time student, said plan of study must be filed and approved with the departmental graduate advisor.

A total of at least 30.0 credit hours must be taken from among the graduate course offerings of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. These credits must be taken at Drexel University. No transfer credit may be used to fulfill these requirements, regardless of content equivalency.

These departmental credit hours are as follows:

  • 18.0 credits of Computer Engineering Courses (ECEC)
  • 6.0 credits if Electrical Engineering Courses (ECEE, ECEP, ECES, ECET)
  • 6.0 credits of General Electrical and Computer Engineering Courses (ECEC, ECEE, ECEP, ECES, ECET)

The required 18 credits of coursework in Computer Engineering must also meet the following criteria:

Core Courses
The Computer Engineering core courses consist of two courses:

  • ECEC 621: High-Performance Computer Architecture
  • ECEC 631: Principles of Computer Networking

Sequence Courses
Besides the two core courses, students must also complete a three course Computer Engineering (ECEC) sequence. This requirement may be fulfilled by taking the remaining two courses of one of the two sequences started as part of the core course requirement or by completing an entirely separate three course sequence in Computer Engineering.

Computer engineering courses (ECEC) 18.0
Electrical engineering courses (ECEE, ECEP, ECES, ECET) 6.0
General Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECEC, ECEE, ECEP, ECES, ECET) courses 6.0
Additional requirements* 15.0

*With the remaining required 15.0 credit hours, students may take graduate coursework, subject to the approval of the departmental graduate advisor, in electrical and computer engineering, mathematics, physics or other engineering disciplines.

Although not required, students are encouraged to complete a Master’s Thesis as part of the MS studies. hose students who choose the thesis option may count up to 9.0 research/thesis credits as part of their required credit hour requirements.

Graduate Co-Op Program
Students may choose to participate in the Graduate Co-Op Program, where 6.0 credit hours can be earned for a six month co-operative education experience in industry, working on curriculum related projects. The total number of required credit hours is increased to 48 for those students who choose to pursue the Graduate Co-Op option. This change represents an increase in non-departmental required credit hours to a total of 18.0 credit hours, 6.0 of which are earned from the co-operative education experience.

Please note that ECEC 500 (Fundamentals of Computer Hardware) and ECEC 600 (Fundamentals of Computer Networks) do not count toward the credit requirements to complete the MS in Electrical Engineering degree program.

For more information on curricular requirements, visit the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s web site.