Master of Software Engineering

Offered through on-campus classes or through Distance and Continuing Education classes. Please note that F-1 and J-1 non-immigrant international students are only allowed to take one online course per semester.

Completion of 12 courses listed below with grades of B or better and two-semester sequence of CSCI 771 and CSCI 772 Software Development Project. Any CSCI 700 or 800 level course can be substituted for a required course with departmental approval, except CSCI 771 and CSCI 772.

• Successful completion of an Internet-based 16 hour module on Computer Ethics. This module will be required for students starting the program in fall, 2016 or later. Students are required to join a Blackboard group called MSE Ethics Module and complete the ethics module including answering all questions and the three case studies.
• Maximum of 4 courses may be attempted in any one semester. If a course is started in a particular semester, it must be dropped or completed within that semester.

Ph.D. in Software Engineering

Program Requirements: 90 semester hours

All Master of Science in Software Engineering from NDSU requirements or their equivalent in transfer or examination credits.

Satisfactory completion of the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination. This examination will consist of integrative questions on the 4 core courses described under the Master of Science degree. Students must complete this requirement within their first 7 semesters of participation in the program. 

• Thirty-six to 45 semester credit hours for research, preparation, and defense of a dissertation in Software Engineering. These hours will be graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis.

Additional course work requirements:

1. A student holding a Master of Science degree from an educational institution of recognized standing may use:
   30 credits of previously completed coursework toward the 90 total credits required for the doctoral degree   OR
   Up to 9 credits previously earned from an educational institution of recognized standing with a grade of B or better may be used toward the 90 total credits required for the doctoral degree.
2. The 90 credits may include a maximum of 15 credits of independent study and seminar hours. Seminars are limited to four of those credits.

3. The student's supervisory committee, the department chair, college dean, and the graduate dean all must approve the course work on the plan of study at least 4 semesters before graduation.

Department Faculty

Anne Denton, Ph.D.
University of Mainz, 1996
Research Interests:  Data Mining, Bioinformatics, Scientific Informatics, Databases, Geospatial Data, Cloud Computing

Dean Knudson, Ph.D.
Northwestern University, 1972
Research Interests: Software Engineering, International Capstone Programs, University/Industry Relationships

Jun Kong, Ph.D.
University of Texas, Dallas, 2005
Research Interests: Human Computer Interaction, Mobile Computing, Software Engineering

Juan (Jen) Li, Ph.D.
University of British Columbia, 2008
Research Interests: Large-scale Distributed System ( P2P and Cloud Computing, Distributed Search, Routing Algorithms), Semantic Web Technologies, Social Networks, Information Retrieval, Knowledge Discovery

Simone Ludwig, Ph.D.
Brunel University, 2004
Research Interests: Swarm Intelligence, Evolutionary Computation, Fuzzy Reasoning, Cloud Computing

Kenneth Magel, Ph.D.
Brown University, 1977
Research Interests: Software Engineering, Human-Computer Interfaces, Software Complexity, and Software Design

Kendall Nygard, Ph.D.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1978
Research Interests:  Data Science, Optimization Modeling, Smart Grid, Sensor Networks, Agents, Artificial Intelligence, Security, Adaptive Systems, Swarm Intelligence

Saeed Salem, Ph.D.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2009
Research Interests: Bio-Informatics and Data Mining

Brian Slator, Ph.D.
New Mexico State University, 1988
Research Interests: Artificial Intelligence, Educational Media

Jeremy Straub, Ph.D.
University of North Dakota, 2015
Research Interests: Multi-tier Mission Architecture & Control, Autonomous Data Link Reduction, Autonomous Vehicle Control, Machine Vision, Super Resolution

Vasant Ubhaya, Ph.D.
University of California-Berkeley, 1971
Research Interests: Algorithm Analysis, Approximation and Optimization

Gursimran Walia, Ph.D.
Mississippi State University, 2009
Research Interests: Empirical Software Engineering, Software Errors and Software Quality Improvement, Requirements Engineering, Human Cognition in Software Engineering, Managing and Estimating Software Quality

Changhui Yan, Ph.D.
Iowa State University, 2005
Research Interests: Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics, Machine Learning, Data Mining, Big Data, Cloud Computing

Professors of Practice

Oksana Myronovych, Ph.D.
North Dakota State University, 2009

Mark Pavicic, Ph.D. 
Columbia University, 1985

Affiliate Faculty

Otto Borchert, Ph.D.
North Dakota State University, 2015
Research Interests: Artificial Intelligence, Educational Games, STEM Learning

Hyunsook Do, Ph.D.
University of Nebraska, 2007
Research Interests: Software Engineering, Software Testing, Regression Testing, Software Maintenance, Requirements Verification, Software Empirical Methodologies

Hassan Reza, Ph.D.
North Dakota State University, 2002
Research Interests: Software Architecture, Cloud Computing, Architectural Analysis & Description

Xiaodong Zhang, Ph.D.
Dalhousie University, Canada, 2001
Research Interests: Satellite Sensing, Geographic Information Systems