A joint CS/E&CE undergraduate option in software engineering

The paper describes a software engineering option which has been developed and is being taught jointly by two departments in two faculties: Computer Science (Faculty of Mathematics) and Electrical and Computer Engineering (Faculty of Engineering). The attempt to create a joint option has resulted in certain strengths and weaknesses. The strengths derive from the different approaches to software engineering in the two departments. The weaknesses derive from the constraints of having to deal with two sets of departmental, faculty, and accreditation board constraints, which leaves the option less flexibility. We describe the option, emphasizing three components: the course selection and, in particular the three new courses which were created specifically for the option; the CASE tools which accompany each of the new courses; and the project which spans all three of the new courses. The project is described in detail, emphasizing its bifurcated nature, with a real time embedded system aspect for the computer engineers and an information system aspect for the computer scientists.