Current CS Science and Technology (Sci-Tech) Options

 

The Science and Technology Requirement is intended to allow Computer Science majors to further deepen and diversify their technical knowledge through upper division course study in 1) additional Computer Science electives or 2) a related scientific and/or technical field. A summary of the requirements are as follows:

  • Required for Computer Science Majors Only.

  • Requires completion of 12 units (at least 3 courses) of upper division scientific and/or technical coursework from a related field/department. Note that the Computer Science department allows students to petition to use ONE lower division course toward this requirement as long as the course is a listed requisite for one of the upper division courses you are using. You should submit the petition to request this exception once you are enrolled in the upper division course that lists the lower division course as a requisite.

  • These courses may not be used to satisfy other requirements in the major (no double counting in CS).

  • All courses are subject to the Subset Restrictions detailed on our Technical Breadth Requirement website. Double check that you are not taking more than one course from a subset, as you will only be able to get credit for one.

  • EFFECTIVE FALL 2024 PLEASE DECLARE YOUR SCI-TECH AREA IN MY.ENGINEERING.UCLA.EDU IN THE “ABOUT ME” SECTION. YOUR SELECTED SCI-TECH AREA WILL POPULATE IN DARS WITHIN 24-48 HOURS. AD HOC SCI-TECH AREAS MUST BE PETITIONED. WE RECOMMEND DECLARING YOUR SCI-TECH AREA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE IT DECLARED NO LATER THAN TWO QUARTERS BEFORE YOUR DEGREE EXPECTED TERM. PLEASE NOTE THAT STUDENTS IN A CATALOG YEAR PRIOR TO FALL 2024 MAY DECLARE THEIR SCI-TECH AREA IN MY.ENGINEERING.UCLA.EDU, BUT YOUR DARS WILL NOT BE AFFECTED AS A RESULT.

  • EFFECTIVE FOR STUDENTS IN THE FALL 2024 CATALOG YEAR OR LATER, YOU MAY DECLARE THE FOLLOWING SCI-TECH AREAS THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY CONSIDERED “AD HOC” AREAS IN MY.ENGINEERING.UCLA.EDU WITHOUT A PETITION: TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY, MUSIC INDUSTRY ENGINEERING AND FILM & TV. STUDENTS IN CATALOGS PRIOR TO FALL 2024 STILL REQUIRE A PETITION TO PURSUE THESE SCI TECH AREAS.
  • STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE FALL 2025 CATALOG REQUIREMENTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO ADDITIONAL CS ELECTIVES FOR THEIR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENT. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE FALL 2025 CATALOG REQUIREMENTS, VIEW OUR MAJOR & MINOR REQUIREMENTS PAGE

Take 12 units (at least 3 courses) courses from ONE of the following Departments/Areas

UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, COURSES FROM THE SCI-TECH AREAS BELOW MUST BE UPPER DIVISION COURSES (100 LEVEL OR HIGHER) IN ORDER TO APPLY. FOR MOST AREAS, ANY UPPER DIVISION COURSE IS APPLICABLE TO THIS REQUIREMENT. AREAS WITH SPECIFIC LISTS OF APPROVED COURSES, OR OTHER EXCEPTIONS, ARE HIGHLIGHTED BELOW WITH **.

You are responsible for meeting prerequisites to enroll.  You may petition ONE lower division prerequisite course with the upper division course that listed that prereq.

Enrollment access to the departments listed below is at the respective department’s discretion. There is no guarantee of access to the courses.  For many, enrollment is restricted for 1st pass. For this reason, we STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you begin your sci-tech coursework NO LATER THAN THE BEGINNING OF YOUR JUNIOR YEAR, particularly if you are pursuing an area outside of Engineering. We’re aware of a variety of enrollment challenges related to courses in the following departments, in particular, but note that we can not guarantee enrollment in courses outside the School of Engineering: PSYCHOLOGY AND DIGITAL HUMANITIES

Petitions for courses from departments not on this list, should be submitted through Message Center well in advance of enrolling in courses for the vice chair to review.

  • Astronomy
  • Atmospheric & Oceanic Science
  • Biological Chemistry
  • Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
  • Chemisry & Biochemistry
  • Civil & Environmental Engineering
  • Computer Science** (read below)
  • Earth, Planetary, & Space Science
  • Economics
  • Electrical & Computer Engineering**(read below)
  • Film & TV** (read below)
  • Geography**(read below)
  • Life Science Prep** (read below)
  • Linguistics
  • Management**(read below)
  • Materials Science & Engineering
  • Mathematics**(read below)
  • Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
  • Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics
  • Molecular, Cell, & Developmental Biology
  • Music Industry Engineering** (read below)
  • Physics
  • Psychology**(read below)
  • Statistics**(read below)
  • Technology & Society** (read below)
**DEPARTMENT RESTRICTIONS AND APPROVED COURSES
  • COMPUTER SCIENCE: STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE FALL 2025 CATALOG REQUIREMENTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO COMPLETE THIS OPTION FOR THEIR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENT. PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OF THE OTHER OPTIONS INSTEAD.
  • FILM & TV: FILM TV 122K, C148, C152C, 155, 181A, 181C, 483A, 489A, 224. Other courses subject to review; please attach syllabi and petition in advance of taking courses. STUDENTS IN A CATALOG YEAR PRIOR TO FALL 2024 MUST PETITION THIS AREA TO HAVE IT REFLECTED IN DARS.
  • GEOGRAPHY:  GEOG 180 (formerly 167), 181A (formerly 168), 181B (formerly 170), 181C (formerly 173) 182A (formerly 169), 182B (formerly 172) , 184 (formerly 166), and M186 (formerly M171) only. Other courses subject to review; please attach syllabi and petition in advance of taking courses.
  • LIFE SCIENCE PREP: CHEM 20A, 20B, 30A, LIFESCI 7A. This combination of courses can be use to acquire prerequisites for the Genomics or Pre-med TBR or the Bioinformatics minor **LS 7A will not automatically apply because can be picked up as a LS GE.  To have it moved to Sci-Tech, please submit a petition and plan to take an alternate Life Science GE.
  • MANAGEMENT: Effective Fall 2021, ENGR courses that are part of the Technology Management Technical Breadth Area DO NOT need to be petitioned to apply toward this sci-tech area. If your DARS does not auto-populate these classes, please submit a petition to have your DARS corrected. Students who chose to complete their TBR in Tech Mgmt may not complete the Sci-Tech requirements in this area.
  • MATHEMATICS: Math 100-106 and 182 are not approved; Math 116 not approved for students with credit for CS 183 ; Math 156 not approved for students with credit for CS M146, effective F2020 (Math 100-106 will not apply)
  • MUSIC INDUSTRY ENGINEERING: EC ENGR 102, MSC IND M103, 104A, 107A, 107B, 114, 115A, 116A, 116B, 125, 155, 181, MUSC C176, NEUROSCI 17. Other courses subject to review; please attach syllabi and petition in advance of taking courses. STUDENTS IN A CATALOG YEAR PRIOR TO FALL 2024 MUST PETITION THIS AREA TO HAVE IT REFLECTED IN DARS.
  • PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCH 110, PSYCH 120A, PSYCH 124C, PSYCH 130, PSYCH 133A, PSYCH 133B, PSYCH 133C, PSYCH 133E, PSYCH 135, PSYCH 137A, PSYCH 137C, PSYCH 137D, PSYCH 137I, PSYCH 137J, PSYCH 150, PSYCH 152, PSYCH 161, and PSYCH 167 only EFFECTIVE WINTER 2024. Other courses subject to review; please attach syllabi and petition in advance of taking courses. NOTE: Due to a coding error in DARS that was corrected at the end of Fall 2023, you may have taken upper division PSYCH courses for your sci tech area that were not on the approved list. For classes taken in Fall 2023 or earlier, we are allowing upper division PSYCH classes that are not on the approved list to be counted toward the sci tech requirement as an exception to this policy. If you took an upper division PSYCH course in, or prior to, Fall 2023 that was not part of the approved list, please contact an academic counselor via MyUCLA Message Center to have your DARS reviewed and corrected. 
  • STATISTICS: STATS 112 and C116 are not approved for the STATS Sci-tech.
  • ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING: For students in the Fall 2025 catalog year or later, EC ENGR M148 is not accepted as a science and technology requirement elective. If you took the course prior to Fall 2025, we will allow the use of this course for the science and technology requirement, by petition.
  • TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY: COMM 121, 151, 154, 156, 159 (formerly 188C), COM SCI 188 (HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION), DGT HUM 101, 110, 120, 125, 131, 140, M145, 150, 151, 199, M221, SOCIOL 111. Other courses subject to review; please attach syllabi and petition in advance of taking courses. STUDENTS IN A CATALOG YEAR PRIOR TO FALL 2024 MUST PETITION THIS AREA TO HAVE IT REFLECTED IN DARS.

Effective Fall 2018, DESMA is not a listed Sci-Tech Option because of the enrollment stress on this small department. If you have already started taking some of these courses prior to Fall 18, you may propose other dept courses that make sense for this area e.g. CS 174A or 188 (Depending on the topic). All courses subject to review; please attach syllabi and petition in advance of taking courses.  It is possible that you will need to select and take 3 courses from a different area.