Session F3C

An Undergraduate Software Engineering Program.. .

Within Electrical Engineering
Stephen T.Frezza
Department of Electrical Engineering
Gannon University
Erie, PA 16541
Abstract - For the past two years, the Department of encouraging remarks from unofficial ABET visitors, and is
Electrical Engineering has oflered a specialty within scheduled for ABET review in 1999.
electrical engineering to help prepare graduates for careers What this software engineering program represents is a
in Embedded Software Engineering. This program offers a shift from more traditional electrical engineering towards
unique blend of Software Science and Engineering within software. What we believe our students will achieve is the
an ABET-accredited Electrical Engineering program. mastery of a unique blend of engineering problem-solving
techniques and experience, combined with a sufficiently
Software Engineering (SE)[l] is a field of study that strong software background to permit them to continue to
takes on many forms, because it is the application of learn what they need as they transit from the University and
engineering practice to the rapidly expanding area of into industry.
software. At the introductory/undergraduate level, there are
two areas of contention that typically arise: how much
software vs. application domain knowledge that students
must master. Most undergraduate SE programs originate
from Computer Science (CS) departments, and include little
focus on domain issues. (See [2,3] for excellent examples of
undergraduate CS-oriented SE programs). Support for
control theory and embedded development is typically
lacking. This ESE program tries to balance the electrical/
computer/control engineering aspects of an application
domain with the student’s need for a foundation in software.
What we have developed is an undergraduate specialty
in (Embedded) Software Engineering (ESE) within our
ABET-Accredited electrical engineering (EE) program in
conjunction with our Computer Science department that
focuses on embedded control system development. The
program requires 39 credit-hours of General Education, 32
credits of Math and Science, 28 credits in Electrical
Engineering, 22 credits in Software, as well as 12 required
and 6 elective credits in Embedded Systems and Software
Process (136 credits total). An overview of the SE program
with respect to our other EE options is depicted in Figure 1.
In this figure, Software refers to fundamental software References
courses, such as software architecture, visua1/00 languages, 1) Wasserman, A., “Towards a Discipline of Software
operating systems, and networking. Electrical refers to Engineering,” ZEEE Sofmare, (13:6), November 1996.
common EE courses such as circuits, electronics, digital
2) Parrish, A., et al, “Computer Engineering, Computer
logic, computer architecture, control theory, and capstone Science and Management Information Systems: Partners
design. Track refers to elective and required courses specific in a Unified Software Engineering Curriculum,” Proc.
to the individual tracks, which for ESE includes software 11th Conf: on Software Engineering Education &
engineering and embedded systems. Our program allows for Training, February 1998, pp. 67-75.
more credits (3), fewer EE and Track courses, and a 3) Nevada, J. F. and Lutz, M. J., “Crafting a
significant increase in the credit hours devoted to software. Baccalaureate Program in Software Engineering,” Proc.
Highlights of our ESE program include a shift away 10th Con$ on Software Engineering Education &
from the physical-science orientation of traditional EE Training, April 1997, pp. 74-80.
programs, to include adequate focus on Software Science for
development of embedded control systems. The program
recently recruited its second freshmen class, has received

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