About

This site is the local knowledgebase for all UNSW Computer Engineering students for FAQs about equipment, electives, and timetables.

For general Program, Enrolment, Deferment, and CSE Course related issues, visit Engineering Student Support Services.

Equipment: What should I buy as an incoming computer engineering student?

CSE in general provides everything that you will need, but of course it is good to have a good personal computer to help you in your studies, particularly the project courses.

Computer engineering uses specialist embedded systems development software. These programs are both large and do not run on all types of computer.

Notably, modern Apple computers with the M1/M2/M3 etc ARM-based architectures DO NOT support this software.

In other words, DO NOT invest in an Apple MacBook for computer engineering purposes.

Instead, if you are looking to buy a computer which will be useful in our teaching environment, we recommend Intel- and AMD-based machines with at least 32 GB of RAM and at least 1TB of disk space.

Examples include:

• Dell Lattitude and Inspirons with Intel i5, 32GB RAM, >=1TB SSDs
• HP EliteBook with Intel i5, 32GB RAM, >= 1TB SSDs
• Acer Aspire with AMD Ryzen 5, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, NVIDIA Graphics
• Lenovo Yoga Pro and Legion Pro with Intel i7, 32GB RAM, >= 1TB SSD, NVIDIA Graphics
• And too many more to count!

While good graphics cards are not usually important for course work, you may find them useful if you are interested in experimenting with AI, as most AI applications can be accelerated using NVIDIA graphics cards (thanks Cuda!).

What if I want to buy other things?

Of course, there are a lot of things you can buy, and computer engineering students have many tools they might wish to own themselves, from soldering irons to oscilloscopes. But before you spend potentially a lot of money, find out what you are interested in and then come and talk to a staff member! We all have our own preferences.

(And on that note, the Pinecil is an excellent personal soldering iron - Hammond)

Timetables: How should I structure my degree?

There is no set requirement to your timetable structure other than satisfying the pre-requisites for each course! So you can schedule your courses however you like as long as the course is offered in the term you would like to take it. Here are suggested schedules that work starting from 2025!

For students who start in T1:

For students who start in T2:

For students who start in T3:

Electives: What electives should I take?

See also Computer Engineering Elective Advice

This is one of the trickiest to advise on, because you should take electives that you both find interesting as well as ones that you find useful, and those will differ from student to student!

Specific to computer engineering is our newest elective COMP6420 Hardware Security which will be available in 2025 onwards.

There are also fantastic opportunities for electronics (ELEC3106), control systems (ELEC3114), software and networking security (COMP6131 and COMP4337), AI (COMP3411), digital forensics (COMP6445), cryptography (COMP6453), robotics (COMP3431) and so many more!.

To help you pick, you can talk to your fellow students, your tutors, the faculty, and even prospective employers.