Computer Science and Technology

Within 3 to 5 years after graduation from the CS program, the graduates are expected to:

• Further their intellectual growth through graduate education or professional development.
• Apply their creativity and global perspective in their engineering or non-engineering professions.
• Assume leadership roles in a variety of contexts.

Graduates from the CS program should be able to demonstrate:

1）an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics

2）an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors

3）an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences

4）an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts

5）an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives

6）an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions

7）an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies

Candidates for the Bachelor of Science in CS must satisfactorily complete 122 credit hours required by the GC CS program, including:

• Engineering Foundation: 34 credits
• Program Subjects: 31 credits
• Academic Writing 4 credits
• Intellectual Breadth: 14 credits
• Electives:
• Upper-Level Electives: 17 credits
• Flexible Technical Electives: 11 credits
• General Electives: 11 credits
• Requirement of Experiential Learning
• Additionally, domestic Chinese students are also required to take all courses required by the Ministry of Education of China. International students are required to take 12 credits of Chinese language and culture courses.

 

Course requirements for each of the credit categories are listed below:

 

Engineering Foundation (34 credits) 

• Introduction to Engineering – ENGR1000J （4）
• Introduction to Computer and Programming – ENGR1010J （4）
• Physics I – PHYS1400J or PHYS1600J（4）
• Physics II – PHYS2400J or PHYS2600J（4）
• Physics Lab I & II – PHYS1410J & PHYS2410J (1 + 1)
• Calculus II – MATH1160J or Honors Calculus II – MATH1560J or Honors Mathematics II – MATH1860J （4）
• Calculus III – MATH2150J or Honors Calculus III – MATH2550J or Honors Mathematics III – MATH2850J （4）
• Linear Algebra – MATH2140J or MATH4170J （4）
• Discrete Mathematics – MATH2030J （4）

Note: If both Calc. IV – MATH2160J and Chemistry CHEM2100J are taken; Chemistry CHEM2100J can be counted as an IB（NS）.

 

Academic Writing (4 credits)

• Academic Writing I – ENGL1000J

 

Intellectual Breadth (14 credits)

Intellectual Breadth education aims to equip engineering students with diverse modes of thinking and interdisciplinary knowledge beyond pure technical expertise. It seeks to provide essential contextual grounding for students’ future engineering practice, enabling them to understand human ideological paradigms, the structure and evolution of human society, patterns of human behavior and interaction, and the spiritual pursuits and creative expressions of humanity embodied in literature, art, and diverse cultural works.

Through interdisciplinary learning across multiple fields, students can fully comprehend the multifaceted impacts of engineering practices in global, economic, environmental and societal contexts. This comprehensive intellectual cultivation fosters flexible thinking, innovative consciousness, and cross-cultural and cross-group collaboration competencies, empowering students to become well-rounded, adaptable engineering professionals with social responsibility and holistic cognitive literacy.

To fully accommodate diverse, high-quality interdisciplinary courses that align with the talent cultivation philosophy of Intellectual Breadth, and to break the limitations of fixed course categories, this curriculum module covers established core disciplinary fields and reserves inclusive admission qualifications for eligible alternative courses. All students are required to complete a total of 14 credits of Intellectual Breadth coursework in accordance with the following standardized requirements:

• Disciplinary Distribution & Credit Requirements (14 elective credits)

Students must complete 14 credits of interdisciplinary elective courses, covering humanities, social sciences, professional development, natural sciences, art, and other approved general intellectual breadth courses, with specific category credit requirements as follows:

• A minimum of 3 credits in Humanities
• A minimum of 3 credits in Social Sciences
• A maximum of 6 credits of language courses can be counted toward the Intellectual Breadth credit requirement

Credits earned for Chinese language courses taken by international students beyond the required Chinese language courses may be counted toward this 6-credit language limit, subject to the same cap.

• A minimum of 2 credits in Aesthetic literacy coursework，which may be fulfilled in two ways with distinct credit counting rules:

· Art courses listed under the Intellectual Breadth Art subcategory will count directly toward Intellectual Breadth credits.

· General art courses (including university-wide Chinese-taught art courses) can satisfy the aesthetic literacy requirement but will not count toward Intellectual Breadth credits; these credits will be applied to General Electives instead. Students are permitted to satisfy the full 2-credit aesthetic literacy requirement through general art courses and are not required to take courses from the Intellectual Breadth Art subcategory.

• Course Category Specifications
• Humanities: Includes but is not limited to Philosophy, English Language and Literature, Asian Languages and Culture, American Culture, Comparative Literature, Film Studies, and other humanistic courses that explore human ideology, culture and spiritual connotation.
• Social Sciences: Includes but is not limited to International and Comparative Studies, Political Science, Asian Studies, Economics, Environmental Studies, History, and other courses that study social operation, institutional development and human social behaviors.
• Professional Development: Includes but is not limited to Engineering Ethics, Business Studies, Entrepreneurship Studies, and other courses that support students’ professional growth, career development and comprehensive competency improvement.
• Natural Sciences: Includes Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Earth Sciences, and other basic science courses that cultivate scientific thinking and explore natural laws.
• Art: Covers various art appreciation, art creation, aesthetic theory and related practical courses that cultivate aesthetic literacy and creative thinking.
• Other General Intellectual Breadth Courses (upon approval): To enrich the curriculum system and fully recognize high-quality interdisciplinary learning outcomes, other courses that conform to the core philosophy of Intellectual Breadth, break through pure technical training, and help expand students’ interdisciplinary vision, comprehensive thinking and social cognition can be included in this category after official review and approval. This flexible category covers all eligible courses that cannot be classified into the above fixed sub-disciplines but meet the college’s talent cultivation standards.

 

Program Subjects（31 credits）

• ECE2800J Programming & Elem. Data Structures
• CS2810J Data Structures and Algorithms
• ECE3700J Introduction to Computer Organization
• ECE4010J Probabilistic Methods in Eng.
• CS4770J Introduction to Algorithms
• Logic and computation
• Major Design Experience
• TC3000J Tech Comm
• ENGR4960J Professional Ethics

Note:

• Logic and computation can be waived for UM-SJTU Dual degree students if they have taken EECS376 in UMich.

 

Major Design Experience:

All CS students are required to complete a Capstone Design course (CS4500J) or one of the Major Design Experience (MDE) courses  from the list below.

• CS Capstone Design – CS4500J/(MDE)
• MDE courses
• ECE4410J App Development for Entrepreneur
• ECE4700J Computer Architecture
• ECE4730J Advanced Embedded Systems

Courses in the MDE course list can be counted as either an MDE course or an upper-level technical elective course, which is a choice of the student. However, a course can be used to satisfy the major design experience requirement only when it is taken in the senior year of a student. Note that some courses are not offered every semester.

 

Upper Level Technical Electives (17 credits):

Students are advised to check the prerequisite requirements of the intended courses and plan earlier to enroll in further courses to satisfy the prerequisites or apply for further exemption from the course instructor.

Up to 6 credits of 500-level and higher graduate courses listed in the following can be counted towards this category. To enroll in the graduate courses, students have to get further approval from the course instructor.

• CS3610J Large Language Model
• CS4820J Introduction to Operating Systems
• CS4890J Computer Networks
• ECE4450J Introduction to Machine Learning
• CS4880J Computer Vision
• CS4840J Database Management Systems
• ECE4850J Optimization in Machine Learning
• CS4750J Introduction to Cryptography
• ECE4711J Applied Parallel Programming with GPUs
• ECE4700J Computer Architecture
• ECE4730J Advanced Embedded System
• ECE4760J Data Mining
• ECE4440J Networks
• ECE4721J Methods and Tools for Big Data
• ECE4710J Introduction to Data Science
• STAT4710J Data Science and Analytics using Python
• STAT4060J Computational Methods for Statistics and Data Science
• ECE4270J VLSI Design I
• ME4670J Introduction to Robotics
• ECE3480J Introduction to Quantum Information Science
• CS3330J Agentic Software Engineering
• CS3310J Reinforcement learning

Flexible Technical Electives (11 credits):

The flexible technical elective requirement may be fulfilled by taking 300-level or higher courses in CS or in other engineering, biology, chemistry, mathematics, finance, and physics fields offered in GC, or courses that are specified in the following list.

Up to 6 credits of courses taken from other engineering or science departments of SJTU may be counted in this category but must be 300-level or higher. These courses must be approved by the CS Program Advisor.

Any credits in excess of 11 may be applied to the General Elective category.

ECE

• ECE2150J Introduction to Circuits
• ECE2160J Introduction to Signals and Systems
• ECE2300J Electromagnetics I
• ECE2700J Introduction to Logic Design
• And any other 300-level or higher ECE courses

ME

• ME2110J Introduction to Solid Mechanics
• ME2350J thermodynamics
• ME2400J Introduction to Dynamics and Vibrations
• ME2500J Design and Manufacturing I
• And any other 300-level or higher ME courses

MSE

• MSE2420J Physics of Materials
• MSE2500J Principles of Engineering Materials
• And any other 300-level or higher MSE courses

General Electives (11 credits):

General electives are intended to allow students to explore any dimension of intellectual endeavor that they elect, in both technical (including engineering) and non-technical fields. This requirement can be met by any course subject to the following restrictions:

• A maximum of 4 credits of research work (such as PRP, IPP, etc.) can be counted towards graduation.

Students should select general elective courses to explore areas of their cultural interest or professional interest, such as:

• Management, business, or finance classes in preparation for working in industry.
• Classes to prepare for further study outside engineering, such as medicine, dentistry, law or education.
• Additional language, literature or culture classes to prepare for a career in the global economy.
• Additional CS classes to go into more depth than what the limited technical electives allow.
• Engineering classes in other departments in preparation for graduate school outside CS.

Requirement of Experiential Learning:

the students need to fulfill the Experiential Learning requirement by having at least two experiences out of the following list:

• Scientific research (e.g., PRP, IPP, ENGR4901J/4902J/4903J, etc.)
• International experience
• Field-study experience
• Relevant professional internships (an official internship certificate upon completion is mandatory.)
• TA experience
• Relevant professional volunteer experience
• Other approved experience

For those experiences which are not formal courses, evidence should be provided and will be  checked by the UEO.

 

Elective groups:

The CS program has no official specializations, and we encourage students to take electives across a broad range of topics in computer science. In the meantime, you also have the option to focus the direction of your study by selecting a track, which is a pre-defined grouping of upper-level Computer Science courses from upper-level technical electives and flexible tech electives that help you to gain expertise in a specific area of interest. Completing a track is entirely optional and not required to complete a CS degree. Tracks are not reflected on your diploma transcript.

1. System software track

• CS4820J Introduction to Operating Systems
• ECE4840J Database Management Systems
• CS4890J Computer Networks
• Agentic Software Engineering

2. Artificial Intelligence track

One of:

• ECE4450J Introduction to Machine Learning
• ECE4921J Artificial Intelligence: Principles and Techniques

Three of :

• CS4880J Computer Vision
• ECE4921J Artificial Intelligence: Principles and Techniques
• Large Language Models
• ECE4850J Optimization in Machine Learning
• Reinforcement Learning

3. Security track

• ECE3880J Introduction to Computer Security
• CS4750J Introduction to Cryptography

One of

• ECE4840J Database Management Systems
• CS4820J Introduction to Operating Systems