The program educational objectives focus on producing quality civil engineers to meet the needs of the profession and the employers. Accordingly, the program has a well-established curriculum in place, balancing scientific, technical, and professional components congruous to constituency needs, institutional mission, and program educational objectives. The program prepares our students for engineering practice by integrating the scientific, technical, and professional components, and culminating in a project-oriented major design experience.
Preparation of Students for Engineering Practice
The curriculum provides a broad background to civil engineering students in the areas of environmental, geotechnical, structural, and water resources engineering. The curriculum satisfies the required number of credits for science, engineering, and general education (under Criterion 4 and Criterion 8) for accreditation by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET.
The program incorporates professional components starting from the early courses. Each of the four areas has several design-intensive courses, culminating in a capstone design course in the senior year, where the students integrate all the skills and knowledge gained in previous courses in designing systems to solve real-world problems. The program has a dedicated and well-qualified faculty team for preparing the students for engineering practice.
In addition to the technical curriculum, all graduates are required to complete a broad-based complementary course sequence spanning economic, environmental, social, and humanitarian areas.
Incorporation of Professional Components into the Curriculum
Towards satisfying employer needs, the professional component of the curriculum aims to develop the following skills in our graduates: problem solving; designing of component, process or system; communicating effectively; working in teams; ability to use modern techniques and tools; knowledge of contemporary issues and ethical responsibilities; and the recognition of the need for life-long learning for professional growth. The program curriculum is structured so that these skills are developed from early stages, culminating in a capstone design course in the senior year. During the capstone course, the students hone their skills garnered in earlier courses, and present and defend their work in a professional manner in written and oral formats.
Ability to design and analyze components, processes, or elements, is integrated into the curriculum from early stages; ability to design integrated, real life-like systems is covered in the capstone design courses in each of the four areas. Design is intentionally and explicitly incorporated into the courses taught by the department, starting from fundamental math, science and engineering courses, and progressing through design-intensive courses to culminate in the capstone design course.
