Electives and participating departments

The following courses are officially approved electives for the CSE Program. Each semester, certain special topics courses may also be approved for credit, following evaluation by the CSE Program Director. See the UNM Course Catalog for course descriptions and the Schedule of Classes for what is offered in a given semester.

Offering status, checked August 30, 2026

Every course below was checked against the UNM Schedule of Classes for Fall 2026 (✅ = sections scheduled on main campus; — = no Fall 2026 sections). Click a course number to open its live schedule entry. Many electives run in alternating semesters, so — does not mean a course is discontinued; the Spring 2027 schedule publishes in mid-October 2026. Questions about a specific course or a substitution: csecert@carc.unm.edu.

Some course numbers are changing

The Fall 2026 schedule lists several graduate courses under new numbers and titles (for example, graduate Computer Networks now appears as CS 585, Machine Learning as ECE 517, and numerical methods offerings under revised MATH numbers). The CSE Program Committee is reviewing this list against the 2026–2027 catalog — confirm your program of study with a Program Advisor before enrolling.

Approved electives

Nuclear Engineering

Course Title Fall 2026
NE 462 Monte Carlo Techniques for Nuclear Systems

Civil Engineering

Course Title Fall 2026
CE 502 Finite Element Methods (now titled “Finite Element Methods in CE”)
CE 548 Fuzzy Logic and Applications

Computer Science / Electrical & Computer Engineering

Course Title Fall 2026
CS 481 / ECE 437L Computer Operating Systems ✅ (CS 481)
CS 531 / ECE 517 Machine Learning Pattern Recognition (ECE 517 now titled “Machine Learning”; includes online sections) ✅ (ECE 517)
CS 532 / ECE 516 Computer Vision
CS 547 / ECE 547 Neural Networks

Computer Science

Course Title Fall 2026
CS 427/527 Principles of Artificially Intelligent Machines
CS 485 Intro to Computer Networks (graduate version now offered as CS 585)
CS 491/591 Learning from the Cognitive, Computational and Neuroscience Perspectives (special-topics number; offered topics change each semester) ✅*
CS 530 Geometric and Probabilistic Methods in Computer Science
CS 533 Experimental Methods in Computer Science
CS 564 Intro to Database Management
CS 587 Advanced Operating Systems
CS 591 Topics in Scientific Visualization (special-topics number; this topic is not among the Fall 2026 sections) ✅*

* CS 491/591 special-topics sections run every semester — Fall 2026 topics include deep reinforcement learning, neuromorphic computing, trustworthy AI, and advanced cybersecurity — but each topic requires CSE Program Director approval to count toward the certificate.

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Course Title Fall 2026
ECE 438 Computer Design
ECE 440 Introduction to Computer Networks
ECE 506 Optimization Theory
ECE 533 Digital Image Processing
ECE 537 Foundations of Computing
ECE 538 Advanced Computer Architecture
ECE 540 Advanced Networking (online sections)
ECE 563 Computational Methods in Electromagnetics
ECE 595 Virtual Reality and Visualization Technologies (special-topics number; this topic is not among the Fall 2026 sections) ✅*
ECE 637 Advanced Parallel Algorithms

Mathematics & Statistics

Course Title Fall 2026
MATH 504 / CS 575 Introductory Numerical Analysis: Numerical Linear Algebra
MATH 505 / CS 576 Introductory Numerical Analysis: Approximation and Differential Equations (MATH 505 now titled “Intro Numerical Approximation & DE”) ✅ (MATH 505)
MATH 570 Asymptotics and Singular Perturbations
MATH 576 Numerical Linear Algebra
MATH 578 Numerical Partial Differential Equations
MATH 579 Numerical Solutions of Ordinary Differential Equations (579 currently runs as a selected-topics number)

Mechanical Engineering

Course Title Fall 2026
ME 500 Numerical Techniques in Mechanical Engineering (now titled “Numerical Methods”; online sections)
ME 504 Computational Mechanics

Participating departments

School of Engineering

College of Arts & Sciences