
The Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department spans multiple areas of research including theory, systems, AI/ML, architectures, and software.
CSE’s areas of research are computer hardware, including architecture, VLSI (chip design), FPGAs, and design automation; computer security and privacy; cyber-physical systems; distributed systems; database systems; machine learning and artificial intelligence; natural language processing; networks; pervasive computing and human-computer interaction; programming languages; robotics; social computing; storage systems; and visual computing, including computer vision, visualization, and graphics.
In cooperation with other departments on campus, CSE also offers a strong research group in bioinformatics, computational biology, biomolecular engineering, and human genome mapping. The CSE department enjoys a close relationship with the Electrical and Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics, and Statistics departments. Faculty members carry out joint research projects, supervise students, and teach courses for these departments. The M.S. degree requires either a master’s thesis or an approved project and is usually completed in two years, although it is possible to complete the program in one year. The Ph.D. degree is usually completed in five years.
#40
top computer science institutions worldwide (Computer Science Rankings, 2024)
#8
best computer engineering bachelor's degree schools in the far Western US region (College Factual, 2025)
#26
best school for computer engineering graduate degrees (College Factual, 2025)
Explore potential Computer Science and Engineering career paths

- Software Engineer/Developer
- Hardware Engineer/Developer
- Network Engineer
- Web Developer
- Mobile App Developer
- AI/ML Engineer
- UX Designer
- Systems Architect
- Cybersecurity Engineer
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Low-cost WiFi devices can measure heart rate with clinical-level accuracy—without the need for a wearable device.

CSE research news
UC Santa Cruz debuts on CodeSignal’s University Report
A new ranking demonstrates Banana Slugs’ software engineering career readiness
Engineering student wins NVIDIA Agents for Impact Hackathon
Preet Karia built an AI-powered tool to turn physics notes into 3D visualizations.
UC Santa Cruz trio takes third at 2026 Mistral AI hackathon with cybersecurity platform
A team of UC Santa Cruz students and an alumnus earned third place at the 2026 Mistral AI Worldwide Hackathon in San Francisco for developing an artificial intelligence-powered cybersecurity solution to help companies prevent phishing attacks.

Many research projects take place at our Silicon Valley Campus
We’re hiring!

Open positions include: lecturer, teaching professor, research professor. Find out more.
Upcoming events
CSE Colloquium – Robust Machine Learning for Biomedical Data: Efficiency, Reliability, and Generalizability
NLP at UC Santa Cruz
The UC Santa Cruz Computer Science and Engineering Department offers a professional M.S. degree in Natural Language Processing (NLP). This program offers in-depth coursework in natural language processing, machine learning, and data science.


