The primary mission of the Software Engineering Department is the education of professionals who can define, design, develop and deliver high quality software systems within resource constraints.

Our goal is for graduates of the program to participate in the development of software that exhibits the characteristics of quality, reliability and cost-effectiveness expected of any well-engineered product. As such, our focus is on the people involved in engineering teams, the selection of processes employed, and the characteristics of products created.

Our focus on team-based activities is in recognition of the fact that software systems of any size or complexity are rarely the result of a single individual's effort.

In support of this primary mission, the department's faculty will engage in scholarship and research that advances the software engineering profession and enhances software engineering education. In addition to traditional funding avenues, activities will include collaboration with industry, both to transfer research results into practice and to determine those industrial problems most suitable for further software engineering research.