2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Civil Engineering

Robert Liang, Department Chairperson

Deogratis Eustace, Graduate Program Director
 

Master of Science in Civil Engineering (CEE)

The program of study for the degree of Master of Science in Civil Engineering, developed in cooperation with an advisor assigned by the department chair, must include a minimum of 30 semester hours.  The program of study must include:

  1. Fifteen to eighteen semester hours of civil engineering, engineering mechanics, and/or thesis-related courses.
  2. Six to nine semester hours of engineering or basic science electives.
  3. Six semester hours of research on a civil engineering topic, CEE 599 Thesis. Students may elect to pursue a non-thesis option by replacing the six semester hours of thesis credit with six semester hours of coursework.  The thesis option requires both an oral defense and a written thesis.

Students are strongly encouraged to identify an area of focus (Environmental, Geotechnical, Structural Transportation, Construction Management, or Water Resources) in their program of study by selecting courses from the below areas.  Civil Engineering courses in addition to the offerings listed below are available.
 

EGR 500Academic Integrity and Responsible Conduct of Research for Engineers0
Choose 5 Courses from Below (can mix focus areas) 1, 215
Environmental
CEE 560Biological Processes in Wastewater Engineering
CEE 562Physical & Chemical Water & Wastewater Treatment Processes
CEE 563Hazardous Waste Engineering
CEE 564Solid Waste Engineering
CEE 574Fundamentals of Air Pollution Engineering I
CEE 575Fundamentals of Air Pollution Engineering II
CEE 576Environmental Engineering Separation Processes
Geotechnical
CEE 520Advanced Geotechnical Engineering
CEE 522Subsurface Investigations
CEE 524Foundation Engineering
CEE 526Retaining Structures & Slopes
CEE 528Soil Dynamics & Earthquake Engineering
Structural
CEE 500Advanced Structural Analysis
CEE 501Structural Analysis by Computer
CEE 502Prestressed Concrete
CEE 503Introduction to Continuum Mechanics
CEE 504Structural Dynamics
CEE 505Plastic Design in Steel
CEE 507Masonry Design
CEE 508Design Timber Structures
Engineering Mechanics
CEE 511Experimental Stress Analysis
CEE 533Theory of Elasticity
CEE 534Theory of Plates & Shells
CEE 535Advanced Mechanical Vibrations
CEE 539Theory of Plasticity
CEE 540Composites Design
CEE 541Mechanics of Composite Materials
CEE 546Finite Element Analysis I
Transportation
CEE 550Highway Geometric Design
CEE 551Traffic Engineering
CEE 552Intelligent Transportation Systems
CEE 553Travel Demand Modeling
CEE 554Urban Public Transportation
CEE 555Highway Traffic Safety
CEE 558Traffic Engineering Research
Construction Management
CEE 514Design & Construction Project Management
CEE 516Managing Construction Field Operations
CEE 517Management of Construction Organization
CEE 518Procurement & Contract Management for Construction Projects
CEE 519Risk Management for Construction Projects
Water Resources
CEE 580Hydrology & Seepage
CEE 582Advanced Hydraulics
CEE 584Open Channel Flow
Basic Engineering Science9
Three approved graduate-level courses from Engineering, Math, or Natural Sciences (including courses from focus areas above).
Choose one option below:6
Thesis Option: work closely with your advisor when registering. See footnote. 3
Thesis 3
Non-Thesis Option: Six additional credits in approved Civil Engineering coursework
Total Credit Hours: 30
1

See also: Master's Degree Requirements in the School of Engineering section in the catalog and consult with your advisor.

2

At nine hours of completed coursework: A Graduate Program of Study Document (found on Porches) is to be completed by the student and submitted to the advisor and graduate program director for approval. This document will outline the specific coursework required to complete the degree requirements. This document can be amended if necessary.

3

Thesis hours should be registered for a maximum of three hours mid-way through your program. Consult with your advisor before registering for the final 3 credits to determine if the Thesis is a viable option or if an alternative may be necessary, such as coursework or a project.

Courses

CEE 500. Advanced Structural Analysis. 3 Hours

Frames of variable cross-section; arches; flat and folded plates; elastic stability of columns, frames, and plates; cylindrical, spherical, and barrel shells; structural dynamics of beams and frames. Required background: CEE 317 or equivalent.

CEE 501. Structural Analysis by Computer. 3 Hours

Review of force and displacement methods. Introduction to direct element and substructure methods. Students write and execute computer programs to analyze plane and space trusses, grids, and frames. Required background: CEE 317 or equivalent.

CEE 502. Prestressed Concrete. 3 Hours

Discussion of the properties of concrete and prestressed steel. Theory and design of prestressed concrete beams, slabs, columns, frames, ties, and circular tanks. Prerequisites: UG CEE 412 GR/DO None.

CEE 503. Introduction to Continuum Mechanics. 3 Hours

Tensors, calculus of variations, Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions of motion. General equations of continuum mechanics, constitutive equations of mechanics, thermodynamics of continua. Specialization to cases of solid and fluid mechanics. Required background: EGM 303 or equivalent.

CEE 504. Structural Dynamics. 3 Hours

The response of undamped and damped single and multi-degree-of-freedom structures subjected to harmonic, periodic, and general dynamic loadings. Special topics include nonlinear structural response, response spectra, shear buildings, and simple systems with distributed properties. Required background: CEE 316 or permission of instructor.

CEE 505. Plastic Design in Steel. 3 Hours

Analysis and design procedures based on ultimate load capacity applied to steel beams, frames, and their connections. Concept of the plastic hinge, necessary conditions for the existence of plastic moment, instability, deformations, repeated and reversed loading, and minimum weight design. Required background: CEE 411 or equivalent.

CEE 506. Design of Temporary Structures. 3 Hours

Design and analysis of temporary structures including loading, shoring, formwork, falsework, scaffolding, ground support systems, bracing, soldier beam and lagging, sheet piling, equipment bridges, and support of existing structures. Required background: Analysis of Structures Prerequisites: UG CEE 316, GR/DO None.

CEE 507. Masonry Design. 3 Hours

Properties and performance criteria of bricks, concrete blocks, mortar, and grout; codes and construction practices; design of masonry elements. Required background: CEE 316 or equivalent.

CEE 508. Design Timber Structures. 3 Hours

Study of basic wood properties and design considerations. Design and behavior of wood connectors, fasteners, beams, columns, and beam-columns. Introduction to plywood and glued laminated members. Analysis and design of structural diaphragms and shear walls. Required background: CEE 316 or permission of instructor.

CEE 509. Bridge Engineering. 3 Hours

Design and engineering of modern steel and concrete bridge structures; loading; analysis; design. Required background: CEE 316 or equivalent. Concurrency requirement: CEE 411 and CEE 412. Corequisites: CEE 411, CEE 412.

CEE 511. Experimental Stress Analysis. 3 Hours

A study of the experimental analysis of stress as an aid to design for strength and economy with emphasis on electrical strain gages. Also, photoelasticity, brittle coatings, analogies, structural similitude. Two hours lecture and one three-hour laboratory period per week. Required background: EGM 303 or equivalent.

CEE 512. Data Analytics for Engineering Applications. 3 Hours

This course is designed to provide students opportunities to learn how state-of-the-art data analytics technologies can generate useful information from data to improve cost, time, quality, and safety performances of engineering systems. Key topics that will be covered in this course include: probabilistic concepts, statistical learning, and machine learning. Basic programming for implementing data analytics algorithms is presented. Methodologies for identifying data analytics needs, evaluating its usefulness, and estimating its economic potential are also addressed. Required background: MTH 168 or equivalent courses.

CEE 513. Bayesian Learning and Engineering applications. 3 Hours

The goal of this course is to provide a broad introduction to the key ideas and concepts in Bayesian machine learning and uncertainty quantification and their applications in recent engineering research and design practices. It is aimed at advanced undergraduates or graduate students. The emphasis will be on some selected intuition and practical examples rather than heavy theoretical results, though some experience with probability, statistics, and linear algebra will be important. Through a variety of lecture examples, students will learn how to apply uncertainty quantification techniques to get the confidence intervals of the predictions from a machine learning model and how to use the results as a critical basis for the following decision-making in relevant engineering practices. Hands-on programming skills using Python packages will be covered as well. Prerequisites are basic linear algebra, calculus, or permission of instructor.

CEE 514. Design & Construction Project Management. 3 Hours

Fundamentals of project management as they relate to the design and construction professional, and the application of project management techniques to the design and construction of major construction projects. The course provides a tour of project management knowledge areas and how they are applied to successfully develop and execute a construction project.

CEE 515. Pavement Engineering. 3 Hours

Fundamental principles of flexible and rigid highway and airport pavement design, construction, and management. Prerequisites: UG CEE 403 GR/DO None.

CEE 516. Managing Construction Field Operations. 3 Hours

This course is the first of two construction management courses and covers: life-cycle of construction management efforts from pre-construction services through to project close-out; planning and managing a construction job site each day – including health, safety and quality activities; managing technical submittals and field challenges, development of construction execution strategies reflecting decisions related to approaches for and coordination among various construction disciplines (civils, steel, mechanical/HVAC, electrical); and selection of construction equipment.

CEE 517. Management of Construction Organization. 3 Hours

This course is the second of two graduate construction management courses and covers: planning and managing construction labor productivity, construction, quality, health, safety, security, and environmental topics; organizational development (including management of labor force); administering contracts; cash flow forecasting, construction accounting principles, managing information, and communications; and effective operations reporting.

CEE 518. Procurement & Contract Management for Construction Projects. 3 Hours

This course covers the fundamentals of procurement and contracting management as they relate to the construction professional. Topics include procurement and contract strategy, use of standard contract models such as AIA, EJCDC, Consensus Docs in the United States and NEC, FIDIC, JCT outside of the United States, principles in the allocation of risks between owner and contractor, review and use of key provisions in design and construction contracts, construction contractor’s use of purchase orders and subcontracts, and dealing with changes, disputes, and claims. The course will also cover use of design-build contracts and CMAR (construction management at risk) for construction projects.

CEE 519. Risk Management for Construction Projects. 3 Hours

This course covers the fundamentals of risk management for construction projects, with an emphasis on qualitative and quantitative risk analysis as well as treatment of these risks. The first portion of the course will concentrate on qualitative risk analysis and cover the development of risk management plan, identification, and prioritization of risks, development of risk registers, and probability-impact matrices. The second portion of the course will focus on quantitative risk analysis and cover the development of cost and schedule models, conducting a Monte Carlo simulation of these models, and interpreting the results. The third and last portion of the course will discuss the treatment of risks, including the development of risk mitigation strategies and risk response plans. The course will include use of risk simulation software.

CEE 520. Advanced Geotechnical Engineering. 3 Hours

Advanced study of Geotechnical engineering principles and study. Stress-strain characteristics; constitutive relationships; failure theories; dynamic soil properties; difficult soils; soil improvement; stability of earth slopes. Required background: CEE 312 or equivalent.

CEE 522. Subsurface Investigations. 3 Hours

Soil & rock classification; Geophysical methods; subsurface explorations; soil sampling; van shear, standard penetration, cone penetration, pressuremeter, dilatometer, and plate load testing; in-situ measurements; field instrumentation. Prerequisites: UG CEE 312 GR/DO None.

CEE 524. Foundation Engineering. 3 Hours

Application of Geotechnical engineering principles of analysis and design of shallow and deep foundations and earth retaining structures. Topics include site exploration and characterization, foundation types, bearing capacity, settlement analysis, shallow foundation design, earth pressures theories, design of retaining walls, flexible retaining structures and braced excavations, design of pile foundations and drilled piers. Prerequisites: UG CEE 312 GR/DO None.

CEE 525. Soil Improvement. 3 Hours

Principles of various mechanisms and technologies for improving soils in situ, design consideration and design methods, construction technologies, including construction equipment and construction process, performance specifications, quantity and cost estimate, sustainability consideration, quality assurance, and acceptance criteria, decision making, and construction optimization, case studies. Required background: CEE 312 or equivalent.

CEE 526. Retaining Structures & Slopes. 3 Hours

Earth pressure theories; design of earth retaining structures, such as rigid walls, anchored sheet pile walls, and reinforced soil structures; stability of excavation, cut, and natural slopes; slope stabilization methods. Prerequisites: UG CEE 312 GR/DO None.

CEE 528. Soil Dynamics & Earthquake Engineering. 3 Hours

Soil behavior under dynamic loading conditions; foundation design for vibratory loadings; introductory earthquake engineering; field and laboratory techniques for determining dynamic soil properties and liquefaction potential. Prerequisites: UG CEE 312 GR/DO None.

CEE 533. Theory of Elasticity. 3 Hours

Three-dimensional stress and strain at a point; equations of elasticity in Cartesian and curvilinear coordinates; methods of formulation of equations for a solution, plane stress, and plane strain, energy formulations, numerical solution procedures. Required background: EGM 303 or equivalent. Corequisites: EGM 503.

CEE 534. Theory of Plates & Shells. 3 Hours

Theory of plates; small and large displacement theories of thin plates; shear deformation; buckling; sandwich plate theory. Thin shell theory; theory of surfaces; thin shell equations in orthogonal curvilinear coordinates; bending, membrane, and shallow shell theories. Required background: EGM 533 or equivalent.

CEE 535. Advanced Mechanical Vibrations. 3 Hours

Review of undamped, damped, natural, and forced vibrations of one and two degrees of freedom systems. Lagrange's equation, eigenvalue/eigenvector problem, modal analysis for discrete and continuous systems. Computer application for multi-degree of freedom, nonlinear problems. Required background: MEE 319 or equivalent; computer programming.

CEE 539. Theory of Plasticity. 3 Hours

Fundamentals of plasticity theory including elastic, viscoelastic, and elastic-plastic constitutive models; plastic deformation on the macroscopic and microscopic levels; stress-strain relations in the plastic regime; strain hardening; limit analysis; numerical procedures. Required background: EGM 503 or EGM 533 or equivalent.

CEE 540. Composites Design. 3 Hours

Design with fiber-reinforced composite materials. Fiber and resin selection, laminate design, bending and torsion of stiffening elements, open and filled holes, joining methods, fatigue, damage tolerance, building-block approach, design allowables. Required background: EGM 303 or equivalent.

CEE 541. Mechanics of Composite Materials. 3 Hours

Introduction to the mechanical response of fiber-reinforced composite materials with emphasis on the development of experimental methodology. Analytical topics include stress-strain behavior of anisotropic materials, laminate mechanics, and strength analysis. Theoretical models are applied to the analysis of experimental techniques used for characterizing composite materials. Lectures are supplemented by laboratory sessions in which characterization tests are performed on contemporary composite materials. Required background: EGM 303 or equivalent.

CEE 543. Analytical Mechanics Composite Materials. 3 Hours

Analytical models are developed for predicting the mechanical and thermal behavior of fiber-reinforced composite materials as a function of constituent material properties. Both continuous and discontinuous fiber-reinforced systems are considered. Specific topics include basic mechanics of anisotropic materials, micro-mechanics and lamination theory, free-edge effects, and failure criteria. Required background: EGM 303 or equivalent.

CEE 546. Finite Element Analysis I. 3 Hours

Fundamental development of the Finite Element Method (FEM), and solution of field problems and comprehensive structural problems. Variational principles and weak, forms; finite element discretization; shape functions; finite elements for field problems; bar, beam, plate, and shell elements; isoparametric finite elements, stiffness, nodal force, and mass matrices; matrix assembly procedures; computer coding techniques; modeling decisions; program output interpretation. Emphasis on a thorough understanding of FEM theory and modeling techniques. Required background: CEE 503 or CEE 533 or equivalent.

CEE 550. Highway Geometric Design. 3 Hours

Advanced topics in horizontal and vertical alignment design controls and criteria, sight distance, intersection, and interchange design. Prerequisites: UG CEE 403 GR/DO None.

CEE 551. Traffic Engineering. 3 Hours

Characteristics of traffic, including the road user, vehicle, traffic control devices, accident analysis, signal operations, and design and the fundamentals of signal system progression. Prerequisites: UG CEE 403 GR/DO None.

CEE 552. Intelligent Transportation Systems. 3 Hours

Fundamentals of planning, design, deployment, and operations of ITS. Integrated application of ITS architecture, traffic flow principles, advanced equipment, communications technologies, and management strategies to provide traveler information and increase the safety and efficiency of the surface transportation system. Prerequisites: UG CEE 403 GR/DO None.

CEE 553. Travel Demand Modeling. 3 Hours

Introduction to the theory, concepts, and methods underlying the practice of urban travel demand modeling. The course involves model data inputs, model development, forecasting applications, and model evaluation techniques. Prerequisites: UG CEE 403, GR/DO None.

CEE 554. Urban Public Transportation. 3 Hours

Planning and analysis of urban public transportation service and operations with a focus on bus and rail modes. Provides fundamental knowledge and methods for route and network planning, service planning and analysis, performance monitoring, operations control, and frequency and headway determination. Prerequisites: UG CEE 403, GR/DO None.

CEE 555. Highway Traffic Safety. 3 Hours

Issues involved in transportation safety, strategic highway safety planning at state and local levels. The extent of the highway safety problem, elements of traffic accidents, common accident countermeasures, collection and analysis of accident data, evaluation of safety-related projects and programs, and litigation issues. Prerequisites: UG CEE 403, GR/DO None.

CEE 558. Traffic Engineering Research. 3 Hours

Practical problems in control or capacity restraints based on studies of actual local situations. Prerequisites: UG CEE 403, GR/DO None.

CEE 560. Biological Processes in Wastewater Engineering. 3 Hours

Measuring the characteristics of wastewater produced from domestic and industrial sources. Principles of designing and operating microbiological processes for the treatment of wastewater. Mechanisms and kinetics of biological reactions are emphasized. Prerequisites: UG College level general chemistry, GR/DO None.

CEE 562. Physical & Chemical Water & Wastewater Treatment Processes. 3 Hours

Principles and design of physical and chemical unit processes to treat water and wastewater. Industry pretreatment technologies and the basis for their development. Prerequisites: UG CHM 124; CEE 434 or CME 406, GR/DO None.

CEE 563. Hazardous Waste Engineering. 3 Hours

The fundamental principles of the design and operation of hazardous waste control and hazardous substances remediation processes. Hazardous waste regulations, risk assessment, and management. Prerequisites: UG College level chemistry, GR/DO None.

CEE 564. Solid Waste Engineering. 3 Hours

Characterizing solid waste. Managing solid waste collection, transport, minimization, and recycling. The design of solid waste disposal and resource recovery facilities.

CEE 574. Fundamentals of Air Pollution Engineering I. 3 Hours

Air pollution, combustion fundamentals, pollutant formation and control in combustion, pollutant formation and control methods in internal combustion engines, particle formation in combustion. Required background: CME 311 or MEE 301 or equivalent; CME 324 or MEE 410 or equivalent or permission of instructor.

CEE 575. Fundamentals of Air Pollution Engineering II. 3 Hours

Review of the concepts of air pollution engineering; aerosols; removal of gaseous pollutants from effluent streams; optimal air pollution control strategies. Required background: CME 574 or equivalent or permission of instructor.

CEE 576. Environmental Engineering Separation Processes. 3 Hours

Discussion of the unit operations associated with environmental engineering separation processes of solid-liquid, liquid-liquid, and gas-liquid systems; general use, principles of operation, and design procedures for specific types of equipment. Instructor permission is required.

CEE 580. Hydrology & Seepage. 3 Hours

A detailed study of the hydrologic cycle with a focus on rainfall/runoff generation techniques. The practical application of hydrologic fundamentals is demonstrated through the design of urban stormwater systems. Introduction to sub-surface hydrology and groundwater modeling. Prerequisites: UG CEE 312; CEE 333 GR/DO None.

CEE 582. Advanced Hydraulics. 3 Hours

Detailed examination of unsteady flow in closed conduits and open channels. Practical methods for solving water hammer and flood routing problems are presented. Physical modeling integrated with dimensional analysis and similitude is presented. Prerequisites: UG CEE 313; CEE 333 GR/DO none.

CEE 584. Open Channel Flow. 3 Hours

Open channel flow in its various forms will be studied. Major topics to be covered include energy and momentum principles, uniform and gradually varied flow. This course will concentrate on one-dimensional steady-state flow with an emphasis on the use of widely-used computer simulation models to determine water surface profiles and to examine flooding in urban areas. Erodible and non-erodible channel design is also covered. Prerequisites: UG CEE 313; CEE 333 GR/DO None.

CEE 585. Advanced Open Channel Flow. 3 Hours

This course builds upon concepts presented in CEE 584 with a special emphasis on one-dimensional and two-dimensional unsteady flow in open channels. Other topics to be covered include modeling hydraulic structures including bridges, culverts, in-line structures, and lateral structures. Widely used computer simulation models will be used to solve practical problems associated with advanced open channel flow. Required background: CEE 584 or equivalent. Prerequisites: CEE 584.

CEE 590. Selected Readings in Civil Engineering. 3 Hours

Directed readings in a designated area arranged and approved by the student's faculty advisor and the department chair. May be repeated.

CEE 595. Special Problems in Civil Engineering. 0-3 Hours

Special assignments in civil engineering subject matter to be arranged and approved by the student's advisor and the department chair.

CEE 598. Project. 3 Hours

Project in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

CEE 599. Thesis. 1-6 Hours

Thesis in Civil and Environmental Engineering.