The Master of Software Engineering degree requires 36 credits—18 core credits, 12 elective credits, and 6 capstone credits.

  • Wide variety of electives lets you customize the program to meet your career interests.
  • Courses are available in different formats (fully in-person, hybrid, or fully online) to accommodate different schedules and preferences, and provide flexibility for your learning experience. Enrolling in online courses is largely limited to summer semesters, and students must check with their academic advisors for eligibility to enroll in online classes.
  • Immersive capstone project allows you to experience the complete software development lifecycle, engineering a fully functional product.

Required Software Engineering Courses and Capstone

SWENG 881 – Software Testing
(Previously SWENG 581)

SWENG 886 – Requirements Engineering
(Previously SWENG 586)

SWENG 887 – Software Systems Architecture
(Previously SWENG 587)

SWENG 837 – Software System Design
(Previously SWENG 537)

SWENG 861 – Software Construction

SWENG/SYSEN 805 – Technical Project Management
(Previously SYSEN 505)

SWENG 894 – Advanced Software Engineering
To be taken after completing all core requirement courses. The capstone course is only offered in fall semesters.

Students must successfully complete the RECR (Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research) requirement of the Penn State degree in order to graduate.

Software Engineering Elective Courses

Choose four courses (12 credits) from the following:

A-I 500 – Quantitative Methods

A-I 570 – Deep Learning
(Prerequisite: A-I 500) (Previously DAAN 570)

A-I 574 – Natural Language Processing
(Prerequisites: A-I 500 and A-I/DAAN 570)

A-I 572 – Reinforcement Learning
(Previously DAAN 572)

A-I 801 – Foundations of Artificial Intelligence
(Prerequisite: A-I 500/equivalent)

A-I 879 – Machine Vision

DAAN 545 – Data Mining
(INSC 521 is NOT a prerequisite.) (Previously SWENG 545)

DAAN 825 – Large-Scale Database and Warehouse

DAAN 862 – Analytics Programming in Python
(Prerequisite: A-I 500)

DAAN 871 – Data Visualization for Analytics

DAAN 881 – Data-Driven Decision Making
(Prerequisite: A-I 500)

IE 575 – Foundations of Predictive Analytics
(Prerequisite: A-I 500)

INSC 521 – Database Design Concepts

INSC 526 – Business Process Management and Integration

INSC 561 – Web Security and Privacy

INSC 846 – Network & Predictive Analytics for Socio-Technical Systems

SWENG 888 – Mobile Computing and Applications

SYSEN 507 – Systems Thinking

SYSEN 536 – Decision and Risk Analysis in Engineering

SYSEN 850 – Creativity and Problem Solving I
(Offered online only)

SYSEN 555 – Invention and Creative Design
(SYSEN 850 recommended prior to SYSEN 555)

Course Offerings

Penn State’s Schedule of Courses lists course availability. Although the course numbers, times, and availability on the University registrar’s schedule of courses are correct, your educational record may require the listed prerequisites (or not).

If you have any questions, please contact the Engineering Division at [email protected].