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Civil & Environmental Engineering
Civil & Environmental Engineering | Courses | Faculty

224 Marston Hall

Degree: Bachelor of Science in Civil
Engineering

Contact: Alexander Chajes

Office: 224 Marston

Phone: 545-2964

E-mail: ceedept@ecs.umass.edu

Web site: www.ecs.umass.edu/cee

Head of Department: Professor Jonathan Upchurch. Professors Chajes, Chang, Edzwald, Highter, Lardner, Lutenegger, Ostendorf, Reckhow, Shuldiner, Switzenbaum; Associate Professors Ahlfeld, DeGroot, Ho, Stockton, Tobiason; Assistant Professors Civjan, Ergas, Hancock, Long, Noyce, Parkany, Rees.

The Field

Civil and Environmental Engineering originated as a field involved with civil works the planning, design, construction, and operation of facilities that serve the general population. Today the field is still largely centered in the public arena, and is a profession dedicated to the needs and progress of humankind. Civil and environmental engineers design and construct facilities that we use every day roadways, drinking water treatment plants, tunnels, subways, buildings, solid waste landfills, bridges, wastewater treatment plants, canals and waterways, water supply pipe networks, railroads, dams and reservoirs, and even ski lifts and amusement rides. They analyze and solve problems of water, land, and air pollution and oversee the operation of water supply, pollution control, and hazardous waste control facilities. Civil and environmental engineers participate in city planning and in planning the uses of natural systems, river basins, and other public areas. They perform reliability and economic feasibility studies to ensure safe and economically efficient outcomes. Using satellite images and global positioning systems, they survey and monitor the environment and assist in overall resource planning and management.

The field of Civil and Environmental Engineering is quite broad and encompasses a variety of interrelated disciplines: structural engineering, environmental engineering, hydraulics, transportation, water resources, geotech-nical engineering, construction, and surveying. Two large projects in Massachusetts illustrate how the various disciplines in the Civil and Environmental Engineering field interact and contribute to different aspects of a project. The first project is construction of the Central Artery and Third Harbor Tunnel in Boston. Geotechnical, transportation, structural, and hydraulic engineers all contribute to the planning, design, and construction of this large civil engineering project. The second large effort in Massachusetts involves water supply and wastewater collection and treatment. The existing water supply system has reliably provided drinking water to Boston and its surrounding communities since construction of Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s. There are, however, a host of new challenges to be met by environmental engineers with the implementation of new federal regulations to ensure that biological and chemical contaminants do not reach household taps. In addition to these two projects, a massive state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant to prevent pollution of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay was designed by environmental engineers and is currently being constructed by civil engineers. An outfall pipe to disperse the treated wastewater was designed and constructed by hydraulic, geotechnical, and construction engineers.

The Major

The Civil Engineering curriculum has been designed by the faculty to prepare students to enter the profession directly upon graduation or to receive further specialized training at the graduate level. The curriculum is broad and students are required to take Civil and Environmental Engineering courses in several areas of the field including surveying, construction, materials, structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, transportation engineering, hydraulics, and environmental engineering. By stressing the fundamentals, the curriculum prepares the graduate for lifelong learning.

In the first three semesters, students take several courses in mathematics and the basic sciences which prepare them for subsequent classes in which fundamental engineering principles are learned. These principles are then applied to the design of civil and environmental engineering facilities starting in the sophomore year. All students are required to take the equivalent of at least 16 credit hours of design to qualify for graduation. The design experience culminates in the senior year with a professional problems design course in which design fundamentals learned in earlier courses are integrated into a design project.

Students make oral presentations in the senior-level design course, in which engineering ethics are also discussed.

Each student is assigned to a faculty member who serves as his or her academic adviser.

Requirements

At the time this catalog was being prepared, revisions were being considered to some of the following course requirements. Students and applicants are urged to contact the department or visit our web page for the most recent information.

Sophomores

240 Statics

241 Strength of Materials I

270 Civil Engineering Systems Analysis

ECON 103 Introduction to Microeconomics

PHYSIC 152/154 General Physics II

MATH 233 Multivariable Calculus

MATH 431 Differential Equations

RES EC 211 (or equivalent) Introductory Statistics for the Life Sciences

MIE 230 Thermodynamics

Juniors

310 Transportation Systems

320 Soil Mechanics

331 Structural Analysis

357 Elementary Fluid Mechanics

370 Environmental Engineering Principles

371 Water and Wastewater Treatment

434 Structural Design

ENGL 351 Technical Writing

365 CEE Laboratory

Seniors

486 Professional Problems or

469 Water Supply and Wastewater Collection

CEE Senior Electives (4)

Additional Elective (1)

In addition to fulfilling course requirements, all seniors, before graduation, must complete a survey that assesses their undergraduate education.

Civil & Environmental Engineering | Courses | Faculty

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