Graduate Engineering Curriculum
Engineering graduate students in the ICSSP program need to be pursuing an on-campus Master’s or Ph.D. program in the area of cyber security. ICSSP Graduate scholars must complete their graduate program degree requirements and the following ICSSP coursework requirements listed below. Course requirements are subject to change. NOTE: Scholars who are in a 5-year BS-MS program must follow the graduate-level ICSSP scholar requirements.
NOTE: All grades in all ICSSP coursework must be a “B” or higher.
Ethics Requirement
Scholars must complete the online Ethics Training during their first semester in the program, and prior to beginning any research projects.
Required Security Courses
- CS 461/ECE 422 (Computer Security I) and/or CS 463/ECE 424 (Computer Security II); students who have already taken these courses (i.e., as undergraduates), or show that they took equivalent courses at another institution, should instead take any sequence of 2 security-related courses chosen from one of the below Concentration Areas (or other courses as approved by the ICSSP advisor).
- CS 563/ECE 524 – Advanced Computer Security
- CS 491 – Information Assurance & Trust Seminar (must register for this each semester)
Concentration Courses Related to Computer Security
All Engineering ICSSP graduate students must complete at least one sequence of two courses chosen from one of the Concentration Areas listed below. Students who start their graduate work having already taken CS 461/ECE 422 (Computer Security I) and CS 463/ECE 424 (Computer Security II) should choose TWO sequences (of two courses each) chosen from the below options. Other courses may be substituted with ICSSP adviser permission. (A list of security-related courses at UIUC is available online.)
- Applied Cryptography:
- Human Aspects of Security & Privacy:
- CS 462 Issues of Law and Policy in Computer Science (SP26)
- CS 464 Topics in Societal and Ethical Impacts of Computer Technology (FA25: CD1 Cyber Dystopia)
- CS 465 User Interface Design (FA25)
- CS 467 Social Visualization
- CS 470 Social and Information Networks (FA25)
- CS 498 RC Law & Policy Issues in CS (FA25)
- CS 562 Advanced Topics in Security, Privacy, and Machine Learning (FA25)
- CS 563 Advanced Computer Security
- CS 565 Human-Computer Interaction
- CS 567 Social Signals and Social Media
- CS 591 IC Interactive Computing (FA25)
- CS 591 SP Security and Privacy (FA25)
- CS 598 CAC Inclusive Cybersecurity & Privacy
- CS 598 CAG Security and Privacy for IoT in Homes
- CS 598 ECH or RBO Antisocial Computing
- CS 598 UCP Usable Cybersecurity & Privacy
- ECE 479 IoT and Cognitive Computing
- ECE 598 DI Digital Identity
- ECE 598 DP Deploying Privacy (SP26)
- INFO 390 JB Information Security & Global Society
- INFO 490 JBG/JBU Digital Forensics II (SP26)
- INFO 490 DFU/DFG Digital Forensics I (FA25)
- INFO 490 Fundamentals of Info Security
- IS 364 Privacy and Info Technology
- IS 390 BS Blockchain and Society (FA25)
- IS 464 Information Assurance
- IS 467 Ethics and Policy for Data Science (FA25)
- IS 524 Data Governance
- IS 584 IFC Int. Freedom and Censorship (SP26)
- IS 584 PVO Privacy in the Internet Age (FA25)
- IS 594 IPO Information Policy
- IS 597 HCD Human Centered Data Science (FA25)
- IS 597 TML Trustworthy Machine Learning
- Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence:
- CS 441 Applied Machine Learning (FA25)
- CS 442 Trustworthy Machine Learning
- CS 446/ECE 449 Machine Learning (FA25)
- CS 521 FMC Formal Methods and Machine Learning in Programming Systems (FA25)
- CS 521 LCC Machine Learning and Compilers (FA25)
- CS 540 Deep Learning Theory (FA25)
- CS 547 Deep Learning
- CS 568 User-Centered Machine Learning
- CS 598 BL: Adversarial Machine Learning
- IS 492 AIG Introduction to Gen AI for Human-AI Collaboration (FA25)
- Data, Systems, and Cyberinfrastructures:
- CS 341 System Programming (FA25)
- CS 411 Database Systems (FA25)
- CS 412 Introduction to Data Mining (FA25)
- CS 423 Operating Systems Design (FA25)
- CS 427 Software Engineering I (FA25)
- CS 425/ECE 428 Distributed Systems (FA25)
- CS 438/ECE 438 Communication Networks (FA25)
- CS 439/ECE 439 Wireless Networks (FA25)
- CS 511 Advanced Data Management (FA25)
- CS 512 Data Mining Principles (FA25)
- CS 598 AB Endpoint Threat Detection and Investigation
- CS 598 DH Secure Computation
- CS 598 EKS Smart Cities, Homes & Beyond (SP26)
- CS 598 OSS Operating System Security
- ECE 365 Data Science and Engineering (FA25)
- ECE 484 Principles of Safe Autonomy (FA25)
- ECE 498 AL3 / ECE 598 AL1 Trust Critical Infrastructures (FA25)
- ECE 542/CS 536 Design of Fault-Tolerant Digital Systems
- ECE 573 Power System Control
- ECE/CS 584 Embedded System Verification (FA25)
- ENG 498 FSA Foundations in Secure Systems Administration (SP26)
- ENG 498 FSN Foundations in Secure Networking for Cyber-Social Systems
- IS 496 CN3 Computer Networks
- Approved Track: Students may work with Professor Bashir and the ICSSP leadership team to create an approved concentration area.
Thesis in the Area of Security (only for M.S. students in CS and ECE)
Thesis must be in the area of information assurance or cyber security, and can be completed with any of the courses listed below.
- CS 597 – Independent Study
- CS 599 – Thesis Research
- ECE 597 – Independent Study
- ECE 599 – Thesis Research
Additional Coursework in the Area of Security (only for M.C.S. students in CS, and M.Eng. students in ECE)
For professional Master’s students, the thesis requirement is replaced with additional coursework to explore technical areas related to security. E.g., courses may include CS 511 (Advanced Concepts in Database Management), CS 523 (Advanced Concepts in OS Design and Recent Research Directions), CS 527 (Topics in Software Engineering), and/or CS 538 (Advanced Computer Networks).
Summer Internship
Complete a summer internship in a government organization, such as a National Laboratory, the National Security Agency, the Department of Defense, the National Standards Institute, or a computing facility (only for participants who are awarded a two- or three-year scholarship). CS/ECE 597 or ENG 572 can be used by grad students, 3 hours.
Summary
| CS M.S. Degree, ICSSP Requirements | CS M.C.S. Degree, ICSSP Requirements | CE M.S. Degree, ICSSP Requirements | M.Eng. Degree (ECE), ICSSP Requirements |
| Total degree credits: 32 hours; Coursework: 28 hours; Students must complete 9–12 hours core CS classes & 12 hours advanced 500-level CS courses. (see CS M.S. degree requirements) | Total degree credits: 32 hours; Coursework: 32 hours; Students must complete 12–16 hours core CS classes, 12 hours advanced 500-level CS courses, & 4–8 hours electives. (see CS M.C.S. degree requirements) | Total degree credits: 32 hours; Coursework: 28 hours; Students must complete 20 hours of core ECE courses. (see CE M.S. degree requirements) | Total degree credits: 32 hours; Coursework: 32 hours; includes 8 hours ECE 500-level courses & 4 hours non-ECE 500-level courses; 4 hours professional development; & 8-10 hours non-ECE electives (see ECE M.Eng. degree requirements) |
16 hours of technical elective courses:
Gov’t internship, ENG 597 |
16 hours of technical elective courses:
Gov’t internship, ENG 572 |
16 hours of technical elective courses:
Gov’t internship, ENG 597 |
16 hours of technical elective courses:
Gov’t internship, ENG 572 |
| 4-7 hours of free electives chosen from UIUC security-related courses and including CS 491 | 4-8 hours of free electives chosen from UIUC security-related courses and including CS 491 | 12 hrs, 400-500-level electives chosen from UIUC security-related courses and including CS 491 | 8-10 hours of electives chosen from UIUC security-related courses and including CS 491 |
| Thesis credit (CS 599) with CS ICSSP Advisor approval | Thesis credit (ECE599) with ECE ICSSP Advisor approval | Master’s project (ECE 596) with ECE ICSSP Advisor approval |
If you have any questions regarding curriculum requirements, please email iti-icssp-info@illinois.edu.