Departments and Academic Programs : Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics : Graduate Programs

Graduate Programs

M.S. students must complete the professional development and leadership course, ENGI E4000, as a graduation requirement. Ph.D. candidates are strongly encouraged to complete the ENGI E6001–6004 and should consult their program for PDL requirements.

Master of Science Degree Program

The Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics offers a graduate program leading to the degree of Master of Science (M.S.) in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. The Master of Science degree is awarded upon the satisfactory completion of a minimum of 30 points of credit of approved graduate study extending over at least two semesters.

The M.S. program is very flexible and includes concentrations in Construction Engineering and Management, Engineering Mechanics, Environmental Engineering and Water Resources, Forensic (Structural) Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, and Structural Engineering, or combinations of these areas. There are no required courses at the M.S. level. Every student is assigned a faculty member as an academic advisor. Student and advisor meet regularly and plan together the sequence of courses that best fit the student's interests. While a suitable M.S. program will necessarily entail some degree of specialization, the program of study established between the student and the advisor should be well balanced, including basic subjects of broad importance as well as theory and applications Students may take graduate-level courses from across various concentrations within the department.

The Master of Science concentrations are:

  • Construction Engineering and Management
  • Engineering Mechanics
  • Environmental Engineering and Water Resources
  • Forensic (Structural) Engineering
  • Geotechnical Engineering
  • Structural Engineering

Doctoral Degree Programs

Two doctoral degrees in engineering are offered within the department: the Doctor of Engineering science (Eng.Sc.D.), administered by The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), administered by the Graduate School of Arts and Science. The Eng.Sc.D. and Ph.D. programs have nearly identical academic requirements with regard to courses, qualifying examinations, and the dissertation, but differ in residence requirements and in certain administrative details. A student must obtain the master's degree (M.S.) before enrolling as a candidate for either the Ph.D. or Eng.Sc.D. degree.

In conjunction with their faculty advisor, doctoral degree students plan an appropriate course of study related to their area of focus within the department. Doctoral degree students must complete a minimum of 30 credits of graduate-level coursework beyond the M.S. degree. Candidates for the Eng.Sc.D. degree must also accumulate 12 credits in the departmental course CIEN E9800 Doctoral Research Instruction. In addition to coursework requirements, doctoral degree students must write a dissertation embodying original research under the sponsorship of their faculty adviser.

Major research thrusts for the doctoral degree programs include:

  • Computational mechanics
  • Multiscale mechanics
  • Poromechanics
  • Dynamics and vibrations
  • Infrastructure monitoring
  • Cementitious materials and concrete
  • Advanced infrastructure materials
  • Structural safety and reliability
  • Probabilistic mechanics
  • Sustainable/green infrastructure
  • Geomechanics
  • Fluid mechanics
  • Autonomous transportation
  • Disasters and natural hazards

Civil Engineering

By selecting technical electives, students may focus on one of several areas of concentration or prepare for future endeavors such as architecture.

  • Construction Engineering and Management: capital facility planning and financing, strategic management, managing engineering and construction processes, construction industry law, construction techniques, managing civil infrastructure systems, civil engineering and construction entrepreneurship
  • Environmental Engineering and Water Resources: transport of water-borne substances, hydrology, sediment transport, hydrogeology, and geoenvironmental design of containment systems
  • Geotechnical Engineering: soil mechanics, foundation engineering, earth-retaining structures, slopes, and geotechnical earthquake engineering
  • Forensic (Structural) Engineering: investigation and determination of the causes of structural failures of buildings, bridges, and other constructed facilities
  • Structural Engineering: applications to steel and concrete buildings, bridges, and other structures

Engineering Mechanics

Programs in engineering mechanics offer comprehensive training in the principles of applied mathematics and continuum mechanics and in the application of these principles to the solution of engineering problems. The emphasis is on basic principles, enabling students to choose from among a wide range of technical areas. Students may work on problems in such disciplines as systems analysis, acoustics, and stress analysis, and in fields as diverse as transportation, environmental, structural, nuclear, and aerospace engineering. Program areas include:

  • Continuum mechanics: solid and fluid mechanics, theories of elastic and inelastic behavior, and damage mechanics
  • Vibrations: nonlinear and random vibrations; dynamics of continuous media, of structures and rigid bodies, and of combined systems, such as fluid-structure interaction; active, passive, and hybrid control systems for structures under seismic loading; dynamic soil-structure interaction effects on the seismic response of structures
  • Random processes and reliability: problems in design against failure under earthquake, wind, and wave loadings; noise, and turbulent flows; analysis of structures with random properties
  • Fluid mechanics: turbulent flows, two-phase flows, fluid-structure interaction, fluid-soil interaction, flow in porous media, computational methods for flow and transport processes, and flow and transport in fractured rock under mechanical loading
  • Computational mechanics: finite element and boundary element techniques, symbolic computation, and bioengineering applications.

A flight structures program is designed to meet the needs of industry in the fields of high-speed and space flight. The emphasis is on mechanics, mathematics, fluid dynamics, flight structures, and control. The program is a part of the Guggenheim Institute of Flight Structures in the department. Specific information regarding degree requirements is available in the department office.