Elective courses for Civil Engineering

Civil Engineering Electives

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Any Civil Engineering course -- 300, 400, or 500 level may be used as an elective. Out of the five Civil Engineering electives, one elective is required in Environmental and Water Resources, one elective is required in Geotechnical Engineering and one elective is required in Transportation Engineering. Only one independent study/special topics course or Honors course may be used as a CEE Elective and this course may not be used to meet the Environmental and Water Resources, Geotechnical and Transportation elective requirements. Courses at the 500 level are only open to students with a GPA of 3.0 or above, or consent of the instructor. Undergraduates may not take 600 level courses.

CEE 390Y – Engineering for the Arctic is offered as a 6-credit sequence that may be used to satisfy the CEE EWRE elective and one CEE Elective. The first part of the course (3 credits) is typically taken during the spring semester of the calendar year. Students have to complete the full sequence to be awarded 6 credits corresponding to two CEE electives. If a student only completes one part of the course (spring) no credits will be counted as CEE elective credits.

Design Electives

Students must complete at least two courses which have been designated as Design Electives. At least one Design Elective should be taken in the same semester as CEE 488 (Professional Practice Seminar) to provide for a meaningful culminating Civil Engineering design experience prior to graduation. The CEE Faculty designates a course as a Design Elective when it meets three criteria: the course has at least two credits of design, students in the course work on teams, and the course includes a major design experience which is based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work and incorporates appropriate engineering standards and multiple realistic constraints. The following courses are currently designated as Design Electives: CEE 421, 433, 434, 450, 462, and 469. A course may meet both the Design Elective and the area elective requirements simultaneously. For example, CEE 421 can meet the requirement for a Geotechnical Engineering elective and the requirement for a Design Elective.

Free Elective

The Free Elective may be any 3 credit course taken while the student is enrolled at the university. The student, in consultation with his/her advisor, selects the course. The only courses not allowed for the Free Elective are Health and Fitness courses and 100 and 200 level Military Leadership courses.

Substitution For Civil Engineering Elective Courses

Under special circumstances, and with approval, students may substitute a course outside the Department for a CEE Elective Course. Substitutions are not allowed for required CEE electives in the Environmental and Water Resources, Transportation or Geotechnical areas. Only one course may be substituted as part of the curriculum for a student. It is to be understood that substitutions are to be approved only in cases in which the CEE Department is unable to present a comparable course that will contribute to the intellectual growth of the student. Substitute courses shall be in an engineering technical area related to the practice of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Approval requires completion of the Substitution Form for Civil Engineering courses (see Appendix D; student handbook PDF ) which is added to the student's file when a substitution is approved. The form shall include a summary of the course content and its relation to an existing course within the Department, if any, and a statement of the reason for the substitution. Approval for the CEE course substitution must be granted by the student’s advisor and the CEE Chief Undergraduate Advisor who may consult with the instructor(s) familiar with the course for which substitution is being sought. Approval for the substitute course shall be based on the course syllabus and its relation to an existing course within the CEE Department, and/or be based on the clear and definite career goals of the student.

The CEE faculty has approved the following courses from Building and Construction Technology (BCT) as substitutes for one CEE Elective:

• BCT 414 – Sustainable Building and LEED Certification
• BCT 520 – Energy and Buildings
• BCT 540 – Design of Wood Structures
• BCT 550 – Construction Project Management.

Other BCT courses at the 400 level or above must be approved by the CEE Chief Undergraduate Advisor. Courses at the 300 level are not considered acceptable as a CE Elective but can be used as Free Elective. Although these courses are pre-approved, a course substitution form is still required to be submitted by the student.

Independent Study And Special Topics

CE-ENGIN 396, 496 and 596 Independent Study/Special Problems and CE-ENGIN 397, 497 and 597 Special Topics can be taken to satisfy up to three credits of Civil Engineering elective requirements within the curriculum. None of these courses can be used to satisfy the Environmental and Water Resources, Geotechnical or Transportation elective requirements. These courses typically involve a close interaction between the student and an instructor. A student with an interest in pursuing an independent study should directly contact the faculty member whose interests best match the topic of the study. Instructors may agree to take on an independent study student if they find it conforms with their needs and availability.

An instructor who wishes to offer one of these courses is required to make an outline of the course conforming to the required format (see Appendix G; student handbook PDF ) and determine the objectives and outcomes of the course. This outline will then be submitted no later than the first week of the semester to the Undergraduate Program Director so that the information can be included in the student's file. No grades will be forwarded to the Registrar's Office until the outline is completed and a copy of the final report (or appropriate deliverable) is submitted. It is the student’s obligation to ensure that the form is completed by the instructor and passed to the Undergraduate Program Director.

Integrated Concentration in Science (iCons) Program

UMass offers a 20-credit Integrated Concentration in Science Program (iCons) intended to provide an integrative science education for students majoring in the physical and life sciences, engineering, and public health.  The CEE faculty has approved iCons 389H – Team Discovery Lab in Renewable Energy or BIO 383H – Gene and Genome Analysis as a substitute course for one CEE elective. These courses are typically taken during the 3rd year of the iCons Program. Additionally, if a student completes the 4th year iCons Advanced Study I and II sequence, this would be considered equivalent to the CEE 499Y and CEE499T sequence and would therefore count as another CEE elective.