TECHNICAL COMPLEMENTARY COURSES - SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PROGRAM
Students following the regular Electrical Engineering program must take 4 courses (12-14 credits) from the following list. 6 credits must be chosen from List A, and 6-8 credits must be chosen from List B. It is possible that not all the courses listed will be offered in any given year. Please refer to the up-to-date course assignments before selecting any course. Permission will not be granted to take Technical Complementary courses that are not on this list.
Technical Complementaries - List A
Course information not available.
COMP 330. Theory of Computation.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026
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Description
Finite automata, regular languages, context-free languages, push-down automata, models of computation, computability theory, undecidability, reduction techniques.
- Restriction Note G: Open only to students registered in a Core Group* or Mathematics Group* program, * as defined in the SOCS section, Undergraduate Programs Calendar
- Prerequisite: COMP 251.
- 3 hours
- Prerequisite: COMP 251.
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderCOMP 350. Numerical Computing.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description
Computer representation of numbers, IEEE Standard for Floating Point Representation, computer arithmetic and rounding errors. Numerical stability. Matrix computations and software systems. Polynomial interpolation. Least-squares approximation. Iterative methods for solving a nonlinear equation. Discretization methods for integration and differential equations.
- Restriction Note G: Open only to students registered in a Core Group* or Mathematics Group* program, * as defined in the SOCS section, Undergraduate Programs Calendar
- 3 hours
- Prerequisites: MATH 222 and MATH 223 and one of: COMP 202, COMP 208, COMP 250; or equivalents.
- Restrictions: Students cannot receive credit for both COMP 350 and MATH 317.
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderCOMP 409. Concurrent Programming.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Description
Characteristics and utility of concurrent programs; formal methods for specification, verification and development of concurrent programs; communications, synchronization, resource allocation and management, coherency and integrity.
- Restriction Note G: Open only to students registered in a Core Group* or Mathematics Group* program, * as defined in the SOCS section, Undergraduate Programs Calendar
- 3 hours
- Prerequisites: COMP 251, COMP 302, and COMP 310 or ECSE 427
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderCOMP 424. Artificial Intelligence.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description
Introduction to search methods. Knowledge representation using logic and probability. Planning and decision making under uncertainty. Introduction to machine learning.
- Restriction Note J: Open only to students registered in a Core Group* or Mathematics Group* program, or the Minor in Computer Science, or the Minor in Cognitive Science. * as defined in the SOCS section, Undergraduate Programs Calendar
- 3 hours
- Prerequisites: (COMP 206 or ECSE 321), MATH 323 or equivalent and COMP 251.
- Restriction: Not open to students who have taken or are taking ECSE 526.
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderECSE 526. Artificial Intelligence.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Electrical & Computer Engr (Faculty of Engineering)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description
Design principles of autonomous agents, agent architectures, machine learning, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and multi-agent collaboration. The course includes a term project that consists of designing and implementing software agents that collaborate and compete in a simulated environment.
- (3-0-6)
- Prerequisite: ECSE 324
- Restriction: Not open to students who have taken or are taking COMP 424.
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderCOMP 520. Compiler Design.
Credits: 4
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Description
The structure of a compiler. Lexical analysis. Parsing techniques. Syntax directed translation. Run-time implementation of various programming language constructs. Introduction to code generation for an idealized machine. Students will implement parts of a compiler.
- Prerequisites: COMP 273 and COMP 302
- 3 hours, 1 hour consultation
- Prerequisites: COMP 273 and COMP 302
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderCOMP 566. Discrete Optimization 1.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Use of computer in solving problems in discrete optimization. Linear programming and extensions. Network simplex method. Applications of linear programming. Vertex enumeration. Geometry of linear programming. Implementation issues and robustness. Students will do a project on an application of their choice.
- Prerequisites: COMP 360 and MATH 223
- 3 hours
- Prerequisites: COMP 360 and MATH 223
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Technical Complementaries - List B
Course information not available.
ECSE 404. Control Systems.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Electrical & Computer Engr (Faculty of Engineering)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Modelling and simulation of control systems; basic concepts of linear systems; open and closed loop control; classical design of controllers - specifications in the step response and the frequency domain; state space design of controllers - pole placement and LQR; sampled data systems.
- (3-1-5)
- Corequisite: ECSE 304 or ECSE 306
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ECSE 412. Discrete Time Signal Processing.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Electrical & Computer Engr (Faculty of Engineering)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description
Discrete-time signals and systems; Fourier and Z-transform analysis techniques, the discrete Fourier transform; elements of FIR and IIR filter design, filter structures; FFT techniques for high speed convolution; quantization effects.
- (3-2-4)
- Prerequisite(s): ECSE 206 or ECSE 304 or ECSE 306.
- Tutorials assigned by instructor.
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Course information not available.
OR COMP 535. Computer Networks 1.
Credits: 4
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Description
Fundamental design principles, elements, and protocols of computer networks, focusing on the current Internet. Topics include: layered architecture, direct link networks, switching and forwarding, bridge routing, congestion control, end-to-end protocols application of DNS, HTTP, P2P, fair queuing, performance modeling and analysis.
- Restriction: Students may not take both COMP 435 and COMP 535 for credit
- Restriction: Students may not take both COMP 435 and COMP 535 for credit
- 3 hours
- Prerequisite: COMP 310 or ECSE 427
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderECSE 421. Embedded Systems.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Electrical & Computer Engr (Faculty of Engineering)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description
Definition, structure and properties of embedded systems. Real-time programming: interrupts, latency, context, re-entrancy, thread and process models. Microcontroller and DSP architectures, I/O systems, timing and event management. Real-time kernels and services. Techniques for development, debugging and verification. Techniques for limited resource environments. Networking for distributed systems.
- (3-1-5)
- Prerequisites: ECSE 324
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderECSE 422. Fault Tolerant Computing.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Electrical & Computer Engr (Faculty of Engineering)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Introduction to fault-tolerant systems. Fault-tolerance techniques through hardware, software, information and time redundancy. Failure classification, failure semantics, failure masking. Exception handling: detection, recovery, masking and propagation, termination vs. resumption. Reliable storage, reliable communication. Process groups, synchronous and asynchronous group membership and broadcast services. Automatic redundancy management. Case studies.
- (3-1-5)
- Prerequisites: ECSE 324 and (ECSE 250 or COMP 250)
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderECSE 424. Human-Computer Interaction.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Electrical & Computer Engr (Faculty of Engineering)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description
The course highlights human-computer interaction strategies from an engineering perspective. Topics include user interfaces, novel paradigms in human-computer interaction, affordances, ecological interface design, ubiquitous computing and computer-supported cooperative work. Attention will be paid to issues of safety, usability, and performance.
- (3-4-2)
- Prerequisites: (ECSE 324 and ECSE 250) or (ECSE 324 and COMP 250) or (COMP 251 and COMP 273)
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderECSE 425. Computer Architecture.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Electrical & Computer Engr (Faculty of Engineering)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Description
Trends in technology. CISC vs. RISC architectures. Pipelining. Instruction level parallelism. Data and Control Hazards. Static prediction. Exceptions. Dependencies. Loop level paralleism. Dynamic scheduling, branch prediction. Branch target buffers. Superscalar and N-issue machines. VLIW. ILP techniques. Cache analysis and design. Interleaved and virtual memory. TLB translations and caches.
- (3-1-5)
- Prerequisites: ECSE 324
- Tutorials assigned by instructor.
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderECSE 426. Microprocessor Systems.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Electrical & Computer Engr (Faculty of Engineering)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Introduction to current microprocessors, their architecture, programming, interfacing and operating systems. The course includes lectures, use of crossassemblers, and simulators as well as laboratory experiments on actual microprocessor hardware.
- (1-5-3)
- Prerequisites: (CCOM 206 or WCOM 206) and ECSE 323.
- This course may be counted as a technical complementary or a lab complementary.
- Limited Enrolment (50)
- Lab hours assigned by instructor.
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderCourse information not available.
Course information not available.
Course information not available.
ECSE 532. Computer Graphics.
Credits: 4
Offered by: Electrical & Computer Engr (Faculty of Engineering)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description
Fundamental mathematical, algorithmic and representational issues in computer graphics: overview of graphics pipeline, homogeneous coordinates, projective transformations, line-drawing and rasterization, hidden surface removal, surface modelling (quadrics, bicubics, meshes), rendering (lighting, reflectance models,
ray tracing, texture mapping), compositing colour perception, and other selected topics.
- (3-0-9)
- Prerequisite: ECSE 324
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Launch Visual Schedule BuilderCOMP 557. Fundamentals of Computer Graphics.
Credits: 4
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description
Fundamental mathematical, algorithmic and representational issues in computer graphics: overview of graphics pipeline, homogeneous coordinates, projective transformations, line-drawing and rasterization, hidden surface removal, surface modelling (quadrics, bicubics, meshes), rendering (lighting, reflectance models, ray tracing, texture mapping), compositing colour perception, and other selected topics.
- Prerequisite: MATH 223, COMP 251, COMP 206
- 3 hours
- Prerequisite: MATH 222, MATH 223, COMP 250, COMP 206
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