Specialization in Embedded Systems

ITESO's Specialization in Embedded Systems is listed on the National Registry of Quality Graduate Programs of the National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT, in its initials in Spanish), accredited as a Development Program that trains high-level professionals in the design, implementation, and testing of embedded systems.

This specialization is aimed at:

• Graduates of engineering programs in Electronics, Electronics, and Communications, Electronic Systems, Electronic Technologies, Computer Systems, Mechatronics, or related areas.
• Engineers with experience in the electronics industry who have developed embedded systems and wish to learn more advanced methodologies and/or new challenges in the area, in order to promote the competitiveness of the industry where they work.
• Professors from different educational institutions where embedded systems of any kind are part of the program's object of study.
• Entrepreneurs with experience developing embedded systems, who want to create their own design company to offer solutions to the local and global markets.

Graduate profile

Graduates will be capable of:

• Analyzing requirements, applying designs on the basis of a methodological approach, debugging embedded systems, including hardware-software application interfaces, among other elements.
• Integrating standard communication stacks, adapting them for a specific application, as well as developing their own stacks that include protocols such as USB, IrDA, RS488, Bluetooth, GPRS, Zigbee, WiFi, Ethernet, CAN, LIN, Flex Ray, Thread, etc.
• Managing commercial operating systems, such as WinCE or Embedded Linux, to develop applications through the implementation of device drivers and to configure the operating system to meet the needs of a specific application.
• Applying development methodologies and embedded software testing to achieve a fluid and clearly documented process.

Reasons for studying at ITESO

• The Specialization Program in Embedded Systems is accredited by the National Registry of Quality Graduate Studies (PNPC, in its initials in Spanish) of the National Science and Technology Council (Conacyt, in its initials in Spanish).
• The academic program of this specialization is based on a formal ongoing research project within the Department of Electronics, Systems, and Computer Science, headed by nationally and internationally renowned academics, many of them belonging to the National System of Researchers (SNI, in its initials in Spanish) of Conacyt.
• The program includes substantial practical and methodological content, which promotes laboratory activities, project application, the development of specific products, and solutions to real-world problems.
• The curricular structure of the program enables students to become experts in the development of embedded systems and qualifies them to join analyst and designer teams anywhere in the world.
• The program has close ties with companies that develop computer and electronic products in Mexico and the world. Together with these companies, we have set up laboratories with specialized, world-class technology for the analysis, design, testing, and maintenance of embedded systems.

ITESO offers a variety of specializations, master's degrees, and PhDs that will help you be a better professional and interact with outstanding members of the academy, civil organizations, the government, and the private sector. We have more researchers listed on the National System of Researchers than any other private university in western Mexico, and many of our graduate programs are recognized by the National Registry of Quality Graduate Programs.

ITESO graduate programs give you access to networks of knowledge in which researchers, experts, and students work together on academic, professional, social, cultural, and economic projects. By studying at ITESO, you will get a closer look to the work of renowned academics who put human values at the center of their work; they are interested in making relevant contributions to knowledge and offering viable solutions to specific problems. For these reasons, ITESO is recognized as the most important private university in western Mexico.

Our professors are experts in their fields; they lead projects in collaboration with other academics, from both ITESO and other universities; they actively participate in collaboration and research projects, and are committed to the values and foundations of our educational project.

In addition, our university belongs to the Jesuit University System, a group of universities that has the most programs listed on the National Registry of Quality Graduate Programs (PNPC, in its initials in Spanish) of the National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT, in its initials in Spanish) in the private education sector.

Educational model

ITESO's graduate programs reflect the institution's particular approach to the advanced production of knowledge and learning. It is an ideal scenario for the articulation of different areas of expertise and perspectives that address the social and technological needs of our society and strengthen the different professions. It is an ongoing effort by students, professors, and numerous actors and institutions to maintain an academic conversation that questions the reductionism of certain technical-scientific perspectives.

ITESO graduate programs center their learning process around students as the main actors. With their personal autonomy and dignity as their starting point, students take on the double role of agents and beneficiaries of educational work, complemented by their interaction with peers and the program faculty.

ITESO's graduate programs are progressively consistent with social needs and institutional orientations, in an effort to address the specific challenges of local/global development with an aim to promoting social responsibility and cohesion, as well as a commitment to the most dispossessed sectors of society. The program and its graduates are expected to have an impact on our social, scientific, and academic contexts.

Our graduate programs achieve excellence in forming students by developing specific and cross-disciplinary competencies, supported by complex and critical thinking, reflexive practices, debate, the manifestation of knowledge, and life-long accumulated social and professional experience, as well as the construction of solidarity.

The fields of academic production- primarily our institutional programs in research and intervention- are built on organized practices within internal networks of basic academic units, departments, or centers. They also operate in external or inter-institutional networks that ITESO has built over the years, allowing students and professors to collaborate and optimize the resources of contextual and applied knowledge.

Our graduate programs produce innovative, creative, and critical knowledge. In this sense, innovation is conceived as the implementation of new alternatives for solving existing problems. The applications of such knowledge serve to recognize and solve socio-economic, scientific, technological, and cultural dynamics and demands and are disseminated through publications, prototype development, systems, patents, social applications, and interventions, among others.

Study plan

This graduate program is designed with a structure that aims at optimal formation in embedded systems in order to meet students' educational needs and concerns within a framework that allows them to fulfill their objectives, complete their degree project, and comply with the program's graduate profile.

The study plan is made up of three curricular areas: Fundamentals; Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I/Advisory); and Electives.

Fundamentals

The courses in this area define the program's disciplinary orientation and identity and include courses from the Lines of Generation and Application of Knowledge (LGAKs). In these courses, students acquire advanced knowledge in embedded systems.

Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I)

This area is closely related to the Advisory Support System, which has the purpose of supporting students in the process of defining, conducting, writing, and presenting their degree projects. Students attend group and individual advisory sessions within the framework of the RD&I/Advisory courses.

Electives

The purpose of this area is to allow students to engage in a dialogue with other currents of knowledge outside of their own discipline, in order to generate knowledge and solve problems related to their project and object of study. This area encompasses all the courses offered by ITESO's graduate programs and other universities that have collaboration agreements with ITESO.

Advisory Support System

The advisory support system seeks to build bridges between students' research, innovation and development interests and each particular graduate program's Lines of Generation and Application of Knowledge, as well as their interrelation with the university's other graduate programs.

This person-centered advisory support system gives priority to collective production scenarios. It promotes interaction between students and advisors with the intention of creating collaborative learning spaces where the dissonance that comes from constructive criticism will favor a reflective process and the collective construction of knowledge.

The academic support is conceived as a system that integrates the different dimensions of formation (individual, social and historical) in each of the program's curricular periods. Peer and individual support processes are also possible.

Due to the program's practical and methodological content, you will attend a combination of lectures plus lab and project development sessions to obtain your specialization degree. If you take 16 weeks of classes in regular semesters and six weeks in the summer, you can complete the specialization in one year; if you elect not to enroll in summer courses, you can graduate in a year and a half.

Fundamentals

• Introduction to Embedded Systems (8 credits)
• Software Engineering in Embedded Environments (8 credits)
• Operating System Design in Embedded Environments (8 credits)
• Communication Software Development in Embedded Environments (8 credits)

Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I)

In these seminars, you will attend group and personalized advisory sessions that will help you complete your degree project.

• Research, Development, and Innovation I: Individual sessions (4 credits)
• Research, Development and Innovation II: Group sessions (4 credits)

Electives

This graduate program is listed on the National Registry of Quality Graduate Programs of the National Science and Technology Council (Conacyt, in its initials in Spanish), as set forth in the accreditation document signed by the Director of Conacyt and the Deputy Minister of Higher Education of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP, in its initials in Spanish), dated December 4, 2012.

Recognition of Official Validity of Studies by the Ministry of Public Education, as set forth in secretarial agreement No. 15018, published in the Official Journal of the Federation on November 29, 1976. Classroom modality.