Glossary

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Software Engineering

Description

Software Engineering is concerned with the production of large software systems that are reliable, efficient and precisely meet the requirements of their users. Software engineers will be increasingly in demand as software becomes ever more complex and critical to our society.

The major areas of Software Engineering include methodologies for:

Specifying, designing, coding, and testing new software systems
Demonstrating that a software component correctly implements its specification
Maintaining existing systems, including correcting errors and adding new functionality
Dealing with specialised situations such as distributed and parallel computing.

Software Engineering graduates have strengths in both formal and informal design techniques and experience in software design and development, which equips them for a wide range of careers in the booming information technology industry. Graduates find employment:

with the IT departments of major companies
with public sector organisations
with companies in the Information and Communications Technology sector
as independent consultants or contractors (normally after some experience).

Studying Software Engineering at UNSW

The study of Software Engineering at UNSW is primarily through the School of Computer Science and Engineering (www.cse.unsw.edu.au) which offers a number of undergraduate programs of study (please refer to the table below). It is also possible to study Software Engineering within a combined degree program. The School also offers Honours and postgraduate programs.