Technical Electives

Revised September 15, 2021

The following are the departmentally approved technical electives for ECE programs. Note that any differences between the below elective options and the Academic Catalog are pending review and require an ECE advisor to submit a request to update a student's degree audit. Contact ece-advisor@illinois.edu for any questions or to initiate the update request. 

See additional notes and restrictions below.

Aerospace Eng. (AE): 202, 302, 311, 312, 321, 352, 353, 402, 403, 410, 412, 416, 419, 420, 428, 433, 434, 435, 451, 460

Agri. Bio Eng. (ABE): any 300- and 400-level¹ course EXCEPT 440

Astronomy (ASTR): 210, 310, 330, 350, 404, 405, 406, 414, 450

Atmospheric Science (ATMS): 201, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 404, 405, 406, 410, 411, 420, 421, 447, 449

Biochemistry (BIOC): 406, 440, 446, 455

Bioengineering (BIOE): 201, 202, 302, 414, 415, 461, 467, 473, 476, 480, 485

Biophysics (BIOP): all 400-level courses¹

Chem & Bio Eng (CHBE): 221, 321, 421, 422, 424, 430, 431, 440, 451, 452, 453, 456, 457, 471, 472, 473, 474

Chemistry (CHEM): 102², 103², 104, 105, any 200/300/400-level¹ class EXCEPT 396/7, 497, 499

Civil & Env. Eng. (CEE): 310, 330, 408, 409, 410, 416, 430, 447, 491

Crop Sciences (CPSC): 265

Computer Science (CS): (101, by approval), 173³, 225³, 242, 357, 407, 409, 410, 411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 416, 418, 419, 420, 421, 422, 423, 424, 425, 426, 427, 428, 429, 431, 433, 435, 436, 437, 438, 439, 440, 441, 444, 445, 446, 447, 448, 450, 460, 461, 463, 465, 466, 467, 473, 474, 475, 476; 477, 481, 484, 491; CS 398 & 498 Special Topics, as approved.

ECE^†: 297, 304, 307, 310, 311, 314, 329⁴, 330, 333, 340⁴, 342, 343, 350, 364, 365, 374³, 380, 391³, 395, 396, 397, 402, 403, 407, 408, 410, 411, 412, 414, 415, 416, 417, 418, 419, 420, 421, 422, 424, 425, 428, 431, 432, 434, 435, 437, 438, 439, 441, 443, 444, 445⁴, 446, 447, 448, 449, 451, 452, 453, 454, 455, 456, 457, 458, 459, 461, 460, 462, 463, 464, 465, 466, 467, 468, 469, 470, 471, 472, 473, 476, 478, 479, 480, 481, 482, 483, 484, 485, 486, 487, 488, 489, 490, 491, 492, 493, 495, 496⁴, 499⁴; ECE 398 & 498 Special Topics, as approved.

• For Electrical Engineering
  Elective Labs: See table below for specific courses
• For Computer Engineering
  1 of 6 EE Foundation Courses: 310, 329, 330, 340, 461, 486
  Advanced Computing Elective Courses: See table below for specific courses

Engineering (ENG): 491, InterdisciplinaryDesign; CubeSat, Solar Decathlon, Formula SAE, Baja SAE, or by approval. Other Engineering courses by approval of the Advising Office.

Geology (GEOL): 107, 208, 333, 380, 411, 417, 432, 436, 440, 450, 452, 460

Industrial Eng. (IE): 310, 330, 360, 361, 400, 410, 411, 412, 413, 420, 430, 431

Integrative Biology (IB): 150, 202, 203, 204, 302, 335, 348, 368, 401, 405, 420, 421, 426, 427, 431, 432, 440, 444, 451, 452, 453, 461, 462, 463, 464, 467, 468, 471, 472, 473, 481, 482, 483, 485, 486

Linguistics (LING): 300, 406, 407, 427

Material Science & Engineering (MSE): 280, any 300/400-level¹ class EXCEPT 304, 460, 461

Math: 213³, 257⁵, 314, 347, 348, 357, 402, 403, 412, 413, 414, 415⁵, 416⁵, 417, 418, 423, 424, 425, 427,428, 432, 442, 444, 446, 447, 448, 450, 453, 473, 475, 481, 482, 484, 487, 489, 494

Molecular & Cellular Biology (MCB): 150, 250, 251, 252, 253, 300, 301, 314, 316, 354, 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 406, 408, 410, 413, 419, 421, 424, 426, 430, 431, 433, 435, 446, 480

Mechanical Eng. (ME): 200, 310, 320, 330, 340, 370, 371, 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 410, 411, 412, 420, 430, 431, 440, 445, 451, 452, 460, 461, 471, 472, 485, and 487

Music (MUS): 407, 409

Neuroscience (NEUR): 453

Nuclear Plasma & Radiological (NPRE): 201, 247, 402, 412, 421, 423, 429, 431, 432, 435, 441, 442, 444, 446, 447, 448, 451, 455, 457, 458, 470, 475

Physics (PHYS): 225, 246, 325, 326, 370, 371, 401, 402, 403, 406, 419, 420, 427, 460, 466, 470, 485, 486, 487

Psychology (PSYC): 204

Speech & Hearing Science (SHS): 200, 240, 300, 301, 320, 450, and 470

Statistics (STAT): 420, 424, 425, 428, 429, and 440

Systems Eng (SE): 411, 420, 423, 424

Theoretical & Applied Mechanics (TAM): 211, 212, 251, 324, 335, 412, 435, 445, 451

¹ except seminars and special topics courses, which may be reviewed in the Advising Office
² Elective for CompEs on the Fall 2021 or later catalog year
³ Elective for EEs only, required core for CompEs (any catalog year)
⁴ Elective for CompEs only, required core for EEs (any catalog year)
⁵ Elective for EE or CompEs on the old curriculum (prior to Fall 2021 catalog year)
Technical electives must be taken for a letter grade. S/U graded courses will not count.
Bring descriptions of new courses to the Advising Office, 2120 ECE Building, for evaluation.

Restrictions:

• Proficiency exams, AP, and Int'l. Baccalaureate credit cannot be used as technical elective hours. A-level credit is accepted as transfer credit and applicable to technical electives.
• Courses that are “same as” ECE courses are counted as ECE courses. GE 421 Intro to Robotics is “same as” ECE 470, so it counts as an ECE tech elective. In CS 241 it says “Credit is not given for both CS 241 and ECE 391.” They are not the same course; you won’t get any credit for CS 241.
• ECE/PHIL 316, Engineering Ethics, is a Campus Humanities course which meets the Comp II requirement. It does not count as an ECE Elective.
• Some sections of ECE 198, 199, 298, 398, and 498, Special Topics, may not have technical content. These sections will not count as ECE electives.
• Specifically required ECE courses (e.g., ECE 220) do not count as electives.
• Courses for non-majors (e.g., ECE 205) do not count except by permission.
• Independent study courses = ECE elective hours: ECE 297, Individual Study, ECE 397, Individual Study in ECE, ECE 396, Honors Project, ECE 496+499⁴, Senior Thesis. ECE 297 may be repeated once for a total of 2 hours of ECE tech electives, but does not count as part of the 6 hours of independent study allowed for tech electives.

In different departments, CS, PHYS, etc. independent study can be approved for non-ECE tech elective hours. Bring to 2120 ECE Building for approval.

However, no student may take more than 4 hours special problems with the same instructor, nor count more than a total of 6 hours towards graduation as a technical elective or a required advanced ECE course or lab.

• Non-ECE tech elective hours: ENG 491 Interdisciplinary Design Project, and other project classes, for technical credit, go to 2120 ECEB.

ECE Elective Laboratories: Old EE majors must take 2 hardware labs besides the required labs (385, 445), more are allowed. EE students entering August, 2014 and later must take 3 labs, at least one of which must be a hardware lab.