Embedded Systems FAQs

Our Embedded Systems Engineering (ESE) Professional Master’s degree subplan offers a wide variety of technical embedded systems courses in CU Boulder’s Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering Department (ECEE) . Curriculum is systemically kept current and strategically comprehensive across essential embedded systems technologies, design engineering techniques, development tools and key trends. Our subplan will generate creative, workforce-ready graduates equipped with versatile embedded engineering skills and thought leadership stemming from a greater context around organizational and business dimensions as well.

Yes! Courses that have online availability are indicated with an asterisk on our Courses page. Master’s degree students must initially matriculate as distance degree students through the application process to access distance degree sections of ESE courses via CU Boulder’s distance education program. All non-degree students can access ESE course distance sections and must apply as Professional Certificate students (see Certificate Option on the ESE home page). The ESE program and ECEE department offer many course options for completing a master’s degree online.

When registering for courses through buffportal.colorado.edu, you will see the number of currently available slots for the appropriate course section based on your student type.  A number of seats in ESE courses are also reserved for ESE student priority enrollment. ESE courses have on-campus sections for students who attend class in person (degree and non-degree), and most ESE courses (after first run) also include distance sections, offered for degree-seeking and non-degree-seeking students without consistent access to main campus.

While our ESE subplan focuses on embedded-specific courses, electives under the 30-credit hours required to complete the Master’s degree may include other 5000-level graduate courses in our department, from which there are many to choose. Enrolling in the ESE subplan provides access to the best of both worlds.

Yes, industry recognizes our Professional MS degree and the ESE subplan. The word "Professional" is not listed on any graduation documents - your diploma will indicate you graduated with a Master of Science in Electrical & Computer Engineering with an Embedded Systems subplan. 

Example career roles targeted by this program are (not limited to):

• Firmware Engineer
• Design Engineer
• Solutions Architect
• Embedded Systems Architect
• Software Engineer
• Embedded Software Engineer
• Systems Engineer
• (Field) Applications Engineer
• Embedded Software/Hardware Developer
• Technical Project Manager
• Product Engineer