Undergraduate Degree Programs

Computer science is embedded in all aspects of our daily life. Computer science, computer engineering, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence jobs are well-known to be some of the fastest growing. CSE's undergraduate programs build a strong foundation in software and hardware engineering, as well as the fundamentals of all major fields in computer science.  We offer a supportive environment for our students and prepare them well for solving our society’s most important and challenging problems.  

Educational Mission

The educational mission of the Computer Science and Engineering Programs at UCSD is to provide our students with the computational, learning, teamwork, and communication skills to be productive and responsible members and leaders in computing and related industries.  

Core Competencies/Pillars

Our graduates obtain skills and knowledge in five major areas (pillars):

  • Oral and Written Communication #Com 
  • Modeling/Analysis #Mod 
  • Problem framing + solving #Prob 
  • Ethics/Impact #Pact
  • Community/Processes/Teamwork #Team

These pillars cross-cut the learning outcomes we desire for our students.

High-level Learning Objectives

The graduates of our BS program in CS and CE will be able to:

  1. Develop and contribute to large-scale programs and computational systems
  2. Understand, guide, shape the impact of computing on society/the world
  3. Reason about computation and systems
  4. Know, select, and apply appropriate computing knowledge and problem-solving techniques

Lower Division Classes

In their first two years of study at UC San Diego, CSE students are prepared for advanced studies designing, building, and analyzing computational systems. As part of this preparation, students in each of the CSE majors complete a core set of lower-division CSE and related courses. The CSE website is your go-to source for course selection and planning. The CSE Course Placement Advice page will help you choose your first CSE course, and course descriptions can be found in the UCSD Catalog. 

Upper Division Classes: Advanced Studies

In their junior and senior years, CSE students study advanced topics across the spectrum of computer science and engineering. The core set of upper-division courses first establishes depth of knowledge with CS Core balanced across theory, software, and hardware; CE Core drawing on electrical and computer engineering perspectives; Bioinformatics Core integrating biology with computational tools; and Artificial Intelligence Core introducing the theoretical roots and modern applications of AI and machine learning.  Students then build further breadth and depth through several elective courses, including opportunities for industry internships and research with faculty as well as large-scale projects. Course descriptions can be found in the UCSD Catalog. 

 

Major restrictions - The following majors may NOT double major or minor in CSE: 

 

 

"Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." – Edsger Dijkstra