Program Overview

Master's Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Master's Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering is designed to provide students with advanced knowledge and skills in the field of electrical and computer engineering. The program is tailored to meet the needs of students who wish to pursue a career in research, industry, or academia.

General Degree Requirements

• The program requires a minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate-level coursework.
• Students must meet with the Graduate Student Coordinator to review their graduate file and ensure that all degree requirements are satisfied before applying for graduation.
• The Program of Study must meet the Graduate School minimum requirement of 30 credit hours of graduate-level coursework.

Credit Requirements

• The program requires a minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate-level coursework.
• Within the 30 credits, the following requirements must also be fulfilled:
  • 18+ Advanced ECE Credits
  • Final exam requirement courses and credits are all considered Advanced ECE.

Advanced ECE Credits

• Courses listed as ECE 6000-level and above are considered Advanced ECE credits.
• Where a course is cross-listed at the 5000- and 6000- level, graduate students should enroll in the 6000- level section.
• Some exceptions apply, see list of approved allied coursework and departments below.

Required Courses

• GENERAL ECE OPTION: ECE 6900+6910 Grad Seminar (2.0)
• CE FOCUSED OPTION: ECE 6710 Digital VLSI (4.0), ECE 6810 Comp. Architecture (3.0), CE Electives* (3.0-14.0)

Final Exam Requirement

• Coursework: Course from Approved List (3.0-4.0)
• Project: ECE 6950 Special Study (3.0-6.0)
• Thesis: ECE 6970 Thesis Research (6.0-10.0)

Allied Courses

• Outside of the minimum 18 required Advanced ECE credits, students may choose to complete additional courses for allied credit.
• Allied courses include:
  • ECE 5000- level courses
  • ECE 5960/ TA Training
  • ECE 6900/6910 Graduate Seminar (for EE track)
  • ECE 7951 Teaching Engineering
  • ECE 7952 Education Project
  • Allied department - level courses

Allied Departments

• ANAT – Neurobiology and Anatomy
• ASTR – Astronomy
• ATMOS – Atmospheric Sciences
• BIO C – Biochemistry
• BIOL – Biology
• BLCHM – Biological chemistry
• BME – Biomedical Engineering
• BMI – Biomedical Informatics
• CH EN – Chemical Engineering
• CHEM – Chemistry
• COMP – Computing
• CS – Computer Science
• CTLE – Center for Teaching Excellence
• CVEEN – Civil and Environmental Engineering
• ENGIN – Engineering
• GEO – Geology and Geophysics
• MATH – Mathematics
• MBIOL – Molecular Biology
• ME EN – Mechanical Engineering
• MET E – Metallurgical Engineering
• MG EN – Mining Engineering
• MSE – Materials Science and Engineering
• MST – Master of Science and Technology
• NEUSC – Neuroscience
• NSURG – Neurosurgery
• NUCL – Nuclear Engineering
• PHYS – Physics
• RDLGY – Radiology
• ROBOT – Robotics see Robotics Certificate
• SIME – Systems, Industrial, Management Engineering see Systems Engineering Certificate

Required Track Courses

• General ECE Option:
  • ECE 6900 Graduate Seminar I (1.0)
  • ECE 6910 Graduate Seminar II (1.0)
• CE Focused Option:
  • ECE 6710 Digital VLSI Design (4.0)
  • ECE 6810 Computer Architecture (3.0)
  • Courses from CE Restricted Elective List

CE Restricted Elective List

• Students who completed their undergraduate degree at the University of Utah that may have already completed required and/or CE restricted elective courses at the 5000- level will not be required to retake the same class again.
• Courses include:
  • CS 6110 – Software Verification
  • CS 6140 – Data Mining
  • CS 6150 – Advanced Algorithms
  • CS 6235 – Program. Many-Core Architecture
  • CS 6300 – Artificial Intelligence
  • CS 6350 – Machine Learning
  • CS 6353 – Deep Learning
  • CS 6450 – Distributed Systems
  • CS 6460 – Operating Systems
  • CS 6470 – Comp. Principles & Techniques
  • CS 6475 – Advanced Compilers
  • CS 6480 – Advanced Computer Networks
  • CS 7460 – Distributed Operating Systems
  • ECE 5325 – Wireless Comm Systems
  • ECE 5520 – Digital Communication Systems
  • ECE 6530 – Digital Signal Processing
  • ECE 6531 – Adv. Digital Signal Processing
  • ECE 6580 – Implementation of DSP Systems
  • CS/ECE 6720 – Analog Integrated Circuit Design
  • CS/ECE 6740 – CAD of Digital Circuits
  • CS/ECE 6745 – Test & Verif of Digital Circuits
  • CS/ECE 6750 – Synth & Verif Async VLSI Systems
  • CS/ECE 6770 – Adv. Digital VLSI
  • CS/ECE 6780 – Embedded System Design
  • CS/ECE 6785 – Adv. Embedded Systems
  • CS/ECE 6830 – VLSI Architecture
  • CS/ECE 7810 – Adv. Architecture
  • CS/ECE 7820 – Parallel Architecture

Additional Criteria

• All coursework should be completed within 4 consecutive years (not including any official Leaves of Absence) and students should graduate in the semester in which 30 hours of coursework are completed.
• A minimum GPA of 3.0 on coursework listed on the program of study with no grade lower than C- is required for graduation.
• Coursework cannot be used for more than one degree.
• Cross-listed courses must be registered through the ECE course numbers.
• A course taken for 5000-level credit cannot be taken again for 6000-level credit.

Supervisory Committee

• A student’s supervisory committee should be selected by the second semester of study (or third for part-time MS students).
• The MS supervisory committee consists of a minimum of three members – at least two of the committee members must meet the committee member criteria.
• After the beginning of a student’s 2nd semester of study, if a committee has not been indicated the Graduate Student Coordinator will assign a faculty default committee.

Committee Roles and Criteria

• A student’s MS faculty advisor is the committee chair.
• The chair and majority of the committee (2 out of 3 committee members) need to be:
  1. University of Utah Faculty
  2. Electrical and Computer Engineering (as Academic Home Department)
  3. Tenure-Line
• A list of faculty and their classifications can be verified on the Faculty Information page.
• If a committee member does not meet all three of these requirements, they are considered an Outside Committee Member.

Options for Final Exam Requirement

• There are three options for degree completion to match a student’s various career and professional goals.
• Students are considered part of the coursework option by default and can change to the project or thesis option with supervising faculty approval.

Coursework

• The department has an approved list of level courses that incorporate either an oral presentation or a written report as a required component of the class.
• Students must receive a grade of a B or higher in an approved course to fulfill requirement.

Project

• Students who have chosen the project option will fulfill the final exam requirement through a formal report and/or presentation at the completion of their project, as determined by their supervisory committee chair and/or industry project advisor.

Thesis

• Students should use the formatting requested by their supervisory committee/chair when writing and organizing their work.
• If no specific formats are provided or suggested, students are recommended to use the department’s guidelines for outlines and additional helps when preparing their written reports and oral presentations.

Coursework

• The coursework option is ideal for students who wish to broaden their technical knowledge by enrolling in additional upper-level coursework from professors at the cutting edge of research.
• This option does not contain research or thesis requirements and instead fills the 30-credit requirement with additional classes.
• Students are admitted to the coursework option by default.

Project

• The project option is ideal for students who would like to conduct a research or special project without writing and defending an entire thesis.
• Students may also choose whether to perform their research and earn credits on-campus or through an industry project.

Thesis

• The thesis option is for students who wish to perform research, develop, write, and defend a traditional thesis under the guidance of a faculty supervisor as part of their research group.
• This option is ideal for students who have aspirations of potentially continuing on to a PhD degree.