Requirements

Engineering Honors (EH) students in the computer science and engineering (CSCE) department must meet the academic and participation requirements below.*

*Honors Computer Engineering majors in the CSCE department can fulfill the honors requirements either for the CSCE department or the electrical engineering department but must meet with the CSCE department coordinator(s) for their honors meetings.

Academic Requirements

Students must earn at least 18 hours of honors credits (undergraduate honors courses with HNR prefix or graduate courses) in courses offered by the Colleges of Engineering or Arts and Sciences.**

**Any math or science course offered by the College of Arts and Sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, or statistics) can be used to fulfill EH requirements, as long as it is approved as part of the student's degree plan.

Your hours must consist of the following:

• At least 9 hours must be engineering credit (including honors ENGR courses plus honors courses from any department or major in engineering). See remarks above regarding courses offered by the College of Arts and Sciences.
• At least 3 hours of an honors CSCE 400-level or approved CSCE graduate course. CSCE graduate level courses, with approval, can be used in replace of a 400-level honors course and count toward this requirement as well as the 9 hours of ENGR credit. See the Fast Track section below for more information.
• Exactly 6 hours of CSCE 491H, taken as part of the Undergraduate Research Scholars program; see the Research Experience section below for more information. NOTE: these 6 hours do not count towards the 9 hours for engineering credit mentioned in the first item above.  
• Exactly 1 hour of Engineering Honors Seminar (ENGR 181H)

For ways to earn honors credit, please visit the General Requirements page.

Graduation requirements

• Grade requirements:
  • Earn a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher
  • Earn a GPA of 3.25 or higher in honors courses
  • Earn a GPA of 3.25 or higher in the final semester
• Complete a thesis with the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. See the Research Experience section below for more information.
• Receive no honor code violations
• Take at least one approved honors course during each academic year and pass with a grade of B or better.

Research Experience

• Get involved in research with a professor in the CSCE department for at least two semesters and take 6 hours of CSCE 491H. Ideally, you will take these 6 credits as 3 hours each in consecutive fall and spring semesters (either junior year or senior year). This ensures you have enough time to complete the URS requirements (non-flexible), which run from Fall to Spring.
• Participate in the university's Undergraduate Research Scholars program, which guides you through the process of writing a bachelor's thesis about your research. NOTE: This requires an application. Find out more about the Undergraduate Research Scholars program here.
  • Though a rare occurrence, if you believe you should be exempted from the Undergraduate Research Scholars requirement, you must get prior approval from the CSCE Honors Committee. Fill out this form to submit that request. NOTE: even if you get an exemption from the URS program, that does not exempt you from completing a bachelor's thesis. You submit your thesis to the university library through a separate process.
• Curious to see completed CSCE undergraduate theses? Here are some thesis examples.
• Hints for finding a research advisor:
  • Think about what kind of things you like to do (write code, design or analyze algorithms, perform user studies, build hardware, etc.).
  • Attend Engineering Honors-CSCE and other departmental activities that involve interactions with professors.
  • Ask your course instructors about their research.
  • Explore our research area pages to discover our interests.
  • Make an appointment to talk to professors whose research looks interesting to you.

Fast Track

• A subset of the CSCE graduate courses is in the "fast track," meaning you get double credit for these: undergraduate credit for your bachelor's degree and graduate credit that can be used later for your graduate degree. NOTE: You must get a grade of 'B' or better in the graduate course AND your instructor's approval to use the credit toward both degrees.
• The benefit is that you can simultaneously fulfill your undergraduate requirements while getting a head start on graduate coursework, which can shorten your time to receive a graduate degree.
• Fast Track courses count as honors credits. NOTE: you do not have to participate in the Fast Track program to get honors credit for your graduate-level courses (see details in the Curricular Notes section below).
• Find more information and the list of Fast Track courses on our Fast Track program page.
• Follow the instructions on our Undergraduate Program page in the section titled Undergraduates Enrolling for Graduate Courses to request enrollment in a CSCE graduate course. When completing the Registrar’s petition as part of your request, be sure to only check the box "Reserve for graduate credit.”
• After you finish a Fast Track course, the course will initially appear only in your graduate degree with the letter grade. However, in a few days, it will also appear in your undergraduate degree in the form of a TCR (transfer credit). This process is automatic and handled by undergraduate advising.

Participation Requirements

• Honors Meeting: Meet with a CSCE honors committee member (view members of the committee on this webpage) during each academic year (i.e., once per year) you are on campus (fill out the correct meeting form first and bring a hard copy to the meeting). Schedule your meeting.
• Activity: Participate in at least two EH activities each regular semester you are on campus. View the EH calendar for all upcoming EH events. Check out the Engineering Honors-CSCE Activities page for a list of upcoming EH activities specifically for CSCE students.
• Annual Survey: Complete the EH Survey (sent out via email) in May of each year

Curricular Notes:

• Any 600- or 700-level CSCE course can be used for honors credit except for CSCE 601, CSCE 602, CSCE 603, CSCE 681, CSCE 684, CSCE 685, or CSCE 691. To take a graduate course, you must fill out the graduate course form. Once you have the instructor sign it, take the form to the CSCE Undergraduate Advising Office. NOTE: No more than two graduate courses can be used to fulfill honors credit.
• Undergraduate research courses, including CSCE 491H, require an application. Fill out this form and submit it to the undergraduate advising office.
• Honors students in the CSCE track may request to use up to 6 hours of CSCE 491H to replace up to two of the non-tracked technical electives in the computer science (CPSC) degree plan, the open non-tracked area elective in the computer engineering (CECN) degree plan, or the prescribed electives in the Bachelor of Arts in Computing (COMP) degree plan. This replacement requires prior approval on the degree plan.
• You can no longer use CSCE 491H URS thesis research to replace the Capstone Senior Design courses required by your undergraduate degree (CSCE 482 or CSCE 483, depending on your major).