ECE Registration

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Stellic Issues

  • Stellic is currently listing ECE 534 (Graduate Rainforest Engineering) as a Computer Engineering and Digital Systems concentration course - that is incorrect. There used to be a computer engineering course numbered 534 that counted, but it went dormant and the grad version of Rainforest Engineering took the number. Neither ECE 534 nor its undergraduate version ECE 365 are concentration courses.
  • Stellic does not immediately update classes that get approved as area courses.
  • Stellic does not put special topics (495, 496, 590) into areas - that has to be done by hand.

Registration for Fall 2026 Updates

New Approved Curricular Area Courses

  • ECE 590 / ME 555 Robot Learning now counts as an SPC&C Area class

Design Courses

Note that all design courses require the degree core of ECE 230/250/270/280, MTH through differential equations (353 or 356), an approved statistics course, physics 2, and chemistry. They will also have at least one more requirement. These all must be taken before the design class is taken for the class to count as a design class. There is no exception to this requirement. While planning your schedules for Fall 2025 and beyond, be sure you have scheduled the pre-requisites that you need for the design courses you might like to take. Also note that design classes generally need to remain small and do fill up, so having a backup plan is also important!

Fall 2025 Design Courses

  • ECE 449 - Sensors and Sensor Interface Design - TuTh 10:05-11:20
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (ECE 330L or ECE 331L or ECE 340L or ECE 350L)
  • ECE 459 - Introduction to Embedded Systems - TuTh 1:25-2:40
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (ECE 350L or 331L or 330L)
  • ECE 539 - CMOS VLSI Design Methodologies - TuTh 11:45-1
    • Pre-reqs: Core + ECE 331L + ECE 350L

Presumptive Spring 2027 Design Courses

  • ECE 458 - Engineering Software for Maintainability
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (CS 307, CS 308, or ECE 495 Software Development and Engineering)
  • ECE 469 - Wearable and Ubiquitous Computing Systems Design
    • Pre-reqs: Core + ECE 350L
  • ECE 487 - System Design for Machine Learning and Signal Processing
    • Pre-reqs: Core + 2 SPC&C area of concentration classes
  • ECE 532 - Analog Integrated Circuit Design
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (ECE 330L or ECE 331L)


Registration for Spring 2026 Updates

Miscellaneous

  • CS 310 (ECE 353) is not the schedule for this Spring, but CS 356 (ECE 356) has been added.
  • ME 555 Data-Driven Dynamic Systems has been added as an Option 5 course for the Concentration in Machine Learning and as an upper-level course for the Minor in ML/AI.
  • CS 372 has been added as an Option 5 course for the Concentration in Machine Learning and as an upper-level course for the Minor in ML/AI.
  • If you need a permission number for CS 330 because you took alternative courses as the pre-req (ECE 280_STA, etc), please go to https://cs.duke.edu/undergraduate/registration-logistics and scroll to the Permission Number Request part and fill out that form.


Design Classes

  • In order to make sure each graduating senior has an opportunity to take a required ECE Design Elective, students will only be allowed to sign up for one design elective directly; signing up for a second or beyond will put a student on a waitlist for the second or beyond. Once the department has confirmed that all students who need their first design class have their design class, students from the waitlists will be added to the class if there is still space available in the course.
  • Here are where things stand for the 48 ECE majors who still need a design course:
    • 458 Only: 3
    • 469 Only: 15
    • 487 Only: 10
    • 532 Only: 0
    • 458 Possible: 15
    • 469 Possible: 31
    • 487 Possible: 22
    • 532 Possible: 3
  • Note that ECE 469's enrollment cap is temporarily set to 5 to make sure the 15 people who must take it get in. The actually allowed enrollment in that course is 20.

Future Planning

  • ECE 330 will be temporarily discontinued for the foreseeable future.
  • ECE 331 will be offered in Spring 2026. The next expected time ECE 331 will be offered is Spring 2027. If you are graduating in F26 or S27 and looking at taking a design class that has ECE 331 as a pre-requisite, please be sure to include this in your plan.

Presumptive Fall 2026 Design Courses

If you are planning to take a design course in Fall of 2026, note the following offerings and required pre-requisites. Remember that to enroll in a design class, you must have completed all of the pre-requisites. "Core" means all of ECE 230, 250, 270, 280; COMPSCI 201; CHEM 101DL; MTH 353; PHYSICS 152; and an approved course in statistics or probability. Design courses always have at least one more 300-level ECE class as a pre-requisite. Note that ECE 330 is still officially listed below but is not being offered for at least the next several semesters. ECE 350 is definitely the Swiss Army Knife of pre-requisite courses for Fall design.

  • ECE 449 - Sensors and Sensor Interface Design
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (ECE 330L or ECE 331L or ECE 340L or ECE 350L)
  • ECE 459 - Introduction to Embedded Systems
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (ECE 350L or ECE 331L or ECE 330L)
  • ECE 539 - CMOS VLSI Design Methodologies
    • Pre-reqs: Core + ECE 331L + ECE 350L

Concentration in Machine Learning

  • ECE 580 will not be offered in Spring of 2026. As a result, Requirement 2 for students graduating in Spring 2026 can be satisfied either by having taken ECE 580 previously or by taking a second course from Requirement 3. Courses satisfying that requirement being offered in Spring 2026 include ECE 682D, ECE 685, and ECE 590.09 (Neural-net-based Large Language Models).

New Approved Transcriptable Concentration Classes

Concentration in Machine Learning

  • ME 555 Data-Driven Dynamic Systems is now an Option 5 course for the concentration
  • COMPSCI 590 Generative Models: Foundations and Applications is now an Option 5 course for the concentration
  • CS 372 is now an Option 5 course for the concentration

Fall 2025 Class Updates

New Terminology

In order to keep the four require curricular area courses needed for a BSE in ECE separate from the concept of a transcriptable concentration, the categories that used to be called "Concentration Areas" are now "Approved Curricular Areas" or just "Areas" for short.

New Transcriptable Concentration and Minor in Software Engineering

These just got approved (checks calendar) March 26, 2025; more information on these options soon!

New Approved Curricular Area Courses

Note - some of these are taught in Fall, some in Spring, and some both; check DukeHub for the Fall schedule.

  • ECE 461/461A has been approved as an SSDIC Area course.
  • ECE 495 / ECE 351 (as of Fall 2025) Software Development and Engineering has been approved as a CEDS Area course
  • ECE 590 Cross-Platform Mobile Application Programming has been approved as a CEDS Area course
  • ECE 564 Mobile Application Programming has been approved as a CEDS Area course
  • ECE 657 Usable Security and Privacy has been approved as a CEDS Area course
  • ECE 653 Human-Centered Computing has been approved as a CEDS Area course
  • ECE 590 Neural Network Based Large Language Models has been approved as a SPC&C Area course
  • ECE 661 Computer Engineering Machine Learning and Deep Neural Networks has been approved as a SPC&C Area course (and remains a CEDS Area course)

Design Courses

Note that all design courses require the degree core of ECE 230/250/270/280, MTH through differential equations (353 or 356), an approved statistics course, physics 2, and chemistry. They will also have at least one more requirement. These all must be taken before the design class is taken for the class to count as a design class. There is no exception to this requirement. While planning your schedules for Fall 2025 and beyond, be sure you have scheduled the pre-requisites that you need for the design courses you might like to take. Also note that design classes generally need to remain small and do fill up, so having a backup plan is also important!

Fall 2025 Design Courses

  • ECE 449 - Sensors and Sensor Interface Design - TuTh 10:05-11:20
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (ECE 330L or ECE 331L or ECE 340L or ECE 350L)
  • ECE 459 - Introduction to Embedded Systems - TuTh 10:05-11:20
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (ECE 350L or 331L or 330L)
  • ECE 539 - CMOS VLSI Design Methodologies - TuTh 11:45-1
    • Pre-reqs: Core + ECE 331L + ECE 350L

Presumptive Spring 2026 Design Courses

  • ECE 458 - Engineering Software for Maintainability
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (CS 307, CS 308, or ECE 495 Software Development and Engineering)
  • ECE 469 - Wearable and Ubiquitous Computing Systems Design
    • Pre-reqs: Core + ECE 350L
  • ECE 487 - System Design for Machine Learning and Signal Processing
    • Pre-reqs: Core + 2 SPC&C area of concentration classes
  • ECE 532 - Analog Integrated Circuit Design
    • Pre-reqs: Core + one of (ECE 330L or ECE 331L)

Design Classes *not* Scheduled for the next academic year

  • ECE 489 - Advanced Robot System Design - Dormant since 2020
  • ECE 559 - Advanced Digital System Design - Dormant since 2021

Spring 2025 Class Information

New Approved Curricular Area Courses

  • ECE 431 has been approved as an SSDIC Area course
  • ECE 516 (c/l ME 516) has been approved as an SSDIC Area course
  • ECE 522 (formerly ECE 590.3 S25) has been approved as an EP Area course
  • ECE 557 (c/l COMPSCI 557) has been approved as a CEDS Area course

New ML Concentration Courses

General Notes

  • If you are planning to also get a major in CS and need a permission number for a CS class (for instance, you want to take CS 330 and have taken the courses that substitute for CS 310), please see https://cs.duke.edu/undergraduate/registration-logistics and specifically the section named Permission Number Request
  • ECE 580 and ECE 661 now have the "PROGRAMMING & DS FOR ML" (offered as ECE 590D.1 and ECE 590D.2 in Fall 2024) as an acceptable pre-req.
  • ECE 350L labs are 180 minutes long, not 75; these are being corrected as quickly as possible
  • ECE 495.1 for Fall 2024 is a SIPR Concentration course and thus counts as one of the possible candidates for the two SIPR Concentration pre-reqs for ECE 487. It is not possible to formally list that in the system, so if you have ALL the pre-reqs, and one of them is ECE 495.1 for Fall of 2024, and the system is not letting you enroll in ECE 487, contact Dr. G at mrg@duke.edu.
  • Starting in Fall of 2024, you should use Stellic versus the "Degree Progress" option in DukeHub to track your progress.
  • Future planning: ECE 449 will not be offered in Spring of 2025 but will be offered in Fall of 2025, so if you are looking to take that, plan your courses accordingly to acquire all the pre-reqs. You cannot take a design class to have it count as a design class unless you have satisfied all the pre-reqs in advance!

Registration Issues

  • 10/22/2024: FIXED: ECE 623 was originally listed as being taught in Spring 25 - it is not
  • 10/22/2024: FIXED: ECE 621 was not originally listed as being taught in Spring 25 - it is (TueThu 1:25-2:40)
  • 10/22/2024: FIXED: ECE 545 was not originally listed as being offered in Spring 2025; it will be (MonWed 1:25-2:40)
  • 10/21/2024: FIXED: ECE 469 incorrectly showed ECE 331L as a co-requisite. ECE 331L is neither a co-requisite nor a pre-requisite. The Registrar's Office has been alerted and we have asked them to correct this issue. They have.
  • 10/21/2024: FIXED: ECE 590 sections all have "instructor consent required," which is not the case. These are being fixed today.

Special Topics Concentration Courses for Spring 2025

The following ECE 495 / 496 / 590 courses are also Area courses. Note that this is relatively rare - the department generally waits for a course to have a permanent number before giving it status as an area or ML concentration elective.

  • ECE 496.03 S25 "SOFTWARE ENGINEERING" is a CEDS Area Course and a replacement for CS 307/208 wrt ECE 458 (edit: it is now ECE 351)
  • ECE 590.3 S25 "QUANTUM ENGINEERING WITH ATOMS" is an EP Area Course; also as of January it is now ECE 522.1!
  • ECE 590.4 S25 "FOURIER TRANSFORM &APPLICATION" is a SIPR Area Course

Other Special Topics Courses from the Past

  • ECE 495.01 F24 "INTRODUCTION TO NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING" is a SIPR Area Course and a Machine Learning Concentration option
  • ECE 495.03 F24 "SOFTWARE ENGINEERING" is a CEDS Area Course and a replacement for CS 307/208 wrt ECE 458 (edit: it is now ECE 351)

Renumbering

  • ECE 590.3 S25 "QUANTUM ENGINEERING WITH ATOMS" is now ECE 522

Common Questions

  • "Can classes double count for ECE and ***?" It depends - Generally, if a course can be used to count for two majors it can count for both; for example, ECE/CS 250D satisfies the requirements both for an ECE major and a CS major. If you are a Trinity student majoring in CS and looking to get an ECE minor, however, courses that are used to fulfill the student’s major(s) may not be double-counted toward the minor. In addition, ECE courses with content substantially equivalent to courses in the student’s major(s) may not be counted toward the minor. See https://ece.duke.edu/academics/undergrad/minors/ and specifically the detailed requirements for minors for more information.

Revision History (Starting 12/16/2025)

  • 12/16/2025: COMPSCI 376 "Computational Approaches to Human Language" is now an approved ML concentration option 5 course.
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