Optional Concentrations
Each student may select software engineering electives that fulfill one or more optional concentrations. A student may choose to complete up to two concentrations. Students will receive a letter that documents their chosen concentration and the courses they took in the topic. The scope of a concentration is 3 full-semester, 12-unit courses.
The available set of concentrations and the exact courses that can be selected for each may change over time in response to changes in the software industry and available coursework. Students may nominate courses to be added to a given concentration; the MSE curriculum committee will evaluate these nominations.
The initial concentrations and the required courses will be:
Concentrations
Leadership
Take all of the following courses:
- 17-633 Advanced Software Architecture
- 17-653 Software Engineering Management
- 17-619 Product Management I
- 17-629 Product Management II
In addition to the courses above, the Studio experience will be customized for Leadership track students to give them experience in a leadership role and feedback on their leadership skills
Note: admission to the Leadership track requires 2 years of prior industry experience.
Scalable Systems
Take 3 of the following courses. At least one must be a 17-XXX course.
- 17-647 Scalable Systems Design
- 15-619 Cloud Computing
- 15-640 Distributed Systems
- 17-636 DevOps
- 15-445 Database Systems
- 17-637 Web Application Development
Cyber-Physical Systems
Take the following courses.
- 17-638 Engineering Embedded Systems
- 17-648 Sensor-based Systems
- 17-722 Human-AI Interaction Using Sensing Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Take 3 courses from the following list. At least one must be a 17-XXX course.
- 17-645 Machine Learning in Production
- 17-630 Context Engineering
- 17-616 AI Tools for Software Development
- An elective course in core AI (program approval required)