Software Engineering (MSSE)

Description

The Master of Science in Software Engineering program at University of Detroit Mercy is a 30 credit-hour program designed to:

  • Produce graduates that are ready to work in industry, government, health, and education. The graduates will have both practical and theoretical educational experience in software engineering;
  • Provide software engineering educational experience that is rich in state-of-the-art laboratories, industry-related projects, and practical design skills that highlight teamwork, computer-based problem solving, communication skills, and ethical values needed for software engineers;
  • Prepare students to pursue a doctorate degree in software engineering through a motivating, extensive and state-of-the-art educational experience.

Program Vision
Our vision is the lifelong success of students as professionals and leaders in software engineering in a global and interdisciplinary context with commitment to faith, ethical practice, and professional development.

Program Mission
Our mission is to provide educational excellence in software engineering to meet urban and industrial challenges, and prepare graduates that are intellectually, professionally, spiritually, ethically and socially developed to pursue a graduate degree in software engineering, or a career in industry, education, health and government. To this extent, the program will focus on team-based projects and practical lab assignments, and disseminate the knowledge needed to allow students to efficiently define, plan, develop and implement high quality, reliable, and secure software systems under realistic constraints.

Program Objectives

  1. Develop the ability to plan, formulate, apply, analyze, develop, and evaluate appropriate solutions to solve software engineering problems, and assess the quality and security of software engineering processes and techniques.
  2. Instill among students the ability to understand, analyze, and assess the value of software engineering codes of ethics, and demonstrate the ability to effectively communicate ideas and outcomes, both orally and in writing, in a logical manner.
  3. Improve students’ ability to work productively and effectively in teams including interdisciplinary teams, and demonstrate effective leadership skills.
  4. Prepare students for doctoral programs in software engineering by instilling the ability to carry out and evaluate theoretical and practical research in software engineering.

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    Program Learning Outcomes

    Graduates of this program will be able to:

    1. Engineer complex software requirements, design software components using various design techniques in addition to component reuse, develop effective test plans, test cases, and procedures, and maintain software.
    2. Plan, implement and monitor software engineering projects.
    3. Apply effective oral and written communications in a software engineering project setting, and abide by the software engineering code of ethics and professional conduct.
    4. Lead and motivate software engineering teams including multidisciplinary teams.
    5. Apply software engineering to various application areas such as distributed and parallel systems, data mining, bioinformatics, and intelligent systems.
    6. Assess the security and quality of all software engineering processes using various metrics.
    7. Survey, collect, and analyze papers to conduct research in a software engineering field of interest. 
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    Admission Requirements

    In order to be admitted to the program, the applicant

    • Must hold a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) with a minimum GPA 3.0. (GPA of 2.7 or higher may be accepted with the addition of a few prerequisite courses.)
    • Must have taken courses in a modern programming language, such as C++ or Java, Data Structures and Algorithms, Machine Organization, Calculus and Discrete Mathematics.
    • Students will make up for deficiencies in undergraduate preparation by taking some prerequisite courses.
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    Master of Science in Software Engineering Degree Requirements (30 credits)

    The program requires 30 credits.  At least half (15 credits minimum) must be selected from graduate-level only options.

    Required Courses - 15 credits  (nine credits offered at the graduate-level only)

    • CSSE 5150 Software Engineering (3 credits) 
    • CSSE 5500 Software Quality Engineering (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5520 Architectures for Software Systems (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5550 Software Requirements Engineering (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5570 Software Systems Project Management (3 credits)  

    Thesis Option (six credits) or Non-Thesis Option (three credits)

    The Graduate Design Project (CSSE 5930 *, three credits) OR Software Engineering Thesis (CSSE 5950 *, six credits) must be taken during the last semester(s) of study. These courses require students to carry out a project in a field of software engineering or submit a thesis in selective areas of software engineering.

    Technical Electives

    (Thesis Option: select nine credits; Non-Thesis Option: select twelve credits)

    Elective courses for the MSSE degree may be selected from any CSSE/ELEE 5000-level courses. Other courses may be selected from ENGR, ENT, MTH, or MENG with advisor approval.


    • CSSE 5250 Software Design Techniques (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5270 User Interface Engineering (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5310 Data Mining (3 credits)
    • CSSE 5430 Software Systems Verification (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5440 Web Technology (3 credits)
    • CSSE 5480 Artificial Intelligence (3 credits)
    • CSSE 5540 Software Configuration (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5600 Software Maintenance (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5610 Software Testing (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5700 Applied Cryptology & Network Security (3 credits)
    • CSSE 5710 Software Engineering Metrics (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5850 Advanced Topics in Software Engineering (3 credits) *
    • CSSE 5510 Parallel Systems (3 credits)
    • CSSE 5670 Distributed Processing (3 credits)
    • CSSE 5650 Bioinformatics (3 credits)
    • ELEE 5350 Machine Learning (3 credits) *
    • ELEE 5360 Internet of Things (IoT) (3 credits) *
    • ELEE 5680 Computer Networking (3 credits)
    • ELEE 5920 Image Processing & Computer Vision (3 credits)

    *Courses noted with * are offered as graduate-only sections. At least half (15 credits) of the program must be selected from graduate-level only options.

Program Contact Information

Program Director: Shadi Bani Taan, Ph.D.
Engineering 332
Telephone: 313-993-1163
Email: banitash@udmercy.edu

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2021-2022