Courses

The following is a list of CSEE graduate courses offered either regularly or  at least once during the past four years. Unless otherwise indicated, all courses provide 3 credit hours

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CIE 500 Special Topics in Civil Engineering (Fall/Spring, Various)

CIE 500 presents advanced topics in civil engineering to meet the needs and interests of students.

CIE 501, 502 Individual Problems

The course presents the fundamental principles of solid mechanics. Material covered in the class includes a review of vectors, matrices and tensors; the geometry of deformation; elastic constitutive theory; boundary value problems in elasticity; Ritz methods; linear beams and plates; energy principles; stability; planar buckling of beams; and an introduction to nonlinear solid mechanics.

The course addresses risk and decision analysis for geotechnical and structural engineering systems based on statistics and reliability modeling.  Students will learn to make probabilistic predictions of the behavior of geotechnical and structural engineering systems by characterizing and quantifying the uncertainties associated with the material properties and external forces, and propagating them through the relevant prediction equations.

The course reviews variational calculus and introduces the fundamental concept of structural stability. The goal is to develop the background needed to understand the principles behind structural instability and to analyze buckling/post-buckling behavior of conventional structural components and periodic structures. Topics include functional analysis, variational calculus, stability of discrete structures, Euler’s elastica, buckling of colums/beam-columns/frames, torsional buckling, arc-length technique, and Bloch-periodic analysis. 

This course blends the fundamentals of solid mechanics and mathematics to enable students to glean into the behavior of civil engineering systems. The topics to be covered include the geometry of deformation; elastic constitutive theory; boundary value problems in elasticity; Ritz methods; energy principles, linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, Fourier analysis.

This course will build on concepts from undergraduate mechanics of solids and structural analysis courses, developing ideas in a more general setting and in a manner suitable for computer implementation. The goal is to develop the background needed to intimately understand principles behind advanced computer codes, used for example in analyzing structures in extreme events. With such an understanding, one can use these codes with confidence, improve upon them when necessary, and in some cases even develop new codes. In undergraduate courses, structures are typically analyzed making approximations such as small displacements and linear elastic material behavior. In many applications, such approximations are not valid. Therefore, a significant part of this course will be on nonlinear analysis of structures. There will be substantial emphasis on implementation.

The course reviews the undergraduate engineering mathematics, and covers a range of topics that are relevant to contemporary civil engineers in research. Topics include linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, Fourier analysis and partial differential equations. It will emphasize fundamental concepts and analytical solution techniques.

This course introduces the types and properties of masonry units, mortar and grout mixes, reinforcing bars and connectors. It then focuses on the design of reinforced masonry beams, bearing and shear walls following current strength design provisions for gravity, as well as lateral in- and out-of-plane seismic and wind loads. The class also examines the overall structural behavior, construction and inspection practices, as well as recent research developments.

This course is the first of a two-course sequence on Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering. The course covers (a) dynamics of lumped parameter single and multi-degree-of-freedom systems under various types of time-dependent loads, (b) seismic response and response spectra, (c) modal analysis, (d) numerical evaluation of response, (e) inelastic systems, and (f) special topics on visco-elastic behavior, damping, simplified nonlinear analysis, capacity and demand spectra, torsion, etc.

This course focuses on behavior and design of structural elements and systems under fire. Topics addressed in this course include fire load, material properties at elevated temperatures, fire resistance of structures, current code guidelines and standards for fire design, analytical tools and risk assessment frameworks for fire. 

This course covers the basis of current design specifications for metal structures, including material behavior, failure under stress, strength theories, brittle fracture, fatigue, and residual stress. Topics covered in the class include fundamentals of member performance, bending and extension of beams, uniform and non-uniform torsion, column buckling including the effects of crookedness and rotation, inelasticity, residual stress, plate buckling, and design of girders.

This course is an advanced course in reinforced concrete. Topics addressed in the course include concrete materials; moment-curvature relationships; response of components to flexure, axial force and shearing force; anchorage; strut-and-tie models; limit analysis and design of slabs; seismic design of reinforced concrete buildings that include moment frames and/or shear walls; and seismic analysis and design of safety-related nuclear structures. LEC. Prerequisites: CIE 423 (or equivalent) and CIE 429 (or equivalent).

This course provides the fundamentals of the finite element method, including elasticity, matrix algebra, calculus of vibrations, and energy principles. The formulation for axial, beam, isoparametric, membrane, plate, axisymmetric, three-dimensional, torsion, and fluid finite elements is presented. Solution methodologies and computer programming are discussed including the Ritz method, Galerkin's method and finite elements for stability and dynamics.

The analysis and design of flexible and rigid pavements is considered for applications to airports, highways, and other infrastructure. Topics addressed in the course include a soils and paving materials and their interaction; pavement behavior under different loading conditions and ambient conditions; and pavement evaluation, maintenance, and recycling. Laboratory work on asphaltic material properties and mixture design methods is undertaken.

This course examines the behavior of structural materials, such as concrete, soils, and metals. Topics covered in this course include the nature of soil, its formation and composition; stresses in a soil mass; effective stress; basic stress-strain relationships and their application; drained and undrained characteristics of cohesionless and cohesive soils; consolidation; Camclay models; incremental theory of plasticity applied to metal, concrete, and soils; failure theories for ductile and brittle materials; and laboratory methods for determining stress-strain and strength properties.

The selection, engineering design, construction, monitoring and performance evaluation of earth structures are presented in this class. Topics of study include densification (soft ground consolidation, deep dynamic compaction, compaction); reinforcement (earth retaining systems; soil nailing; reinforced earth; micropiles; etc.); and ground improvement by admixtures, including grouting and soil mixing.

This course provides an overview of statistical methods relevant to applications in environmental and water resources engineering, with an emphasis on regression modeling.  Other topics include sampling design, hypothesis testing for regulatory compliance, nonparametric methods, analysis of variance, treatment of censored data, and time series analysis.

This course covers the design and construction of foundation systems and addresses site investigation; selection of soil parameters; design of shallow foundations (single footings, strip footings, and mat foundations); deep foundations (piles and caissons); earth structures (retaining walls, sheet piles, bracing, tie backs, anchors, and reinforced earth), and ground improvement. This is a design-oriented course in which students work on a project, in groups of three, from schematic design through a final design report.

Fundamental principles and design methods for geotechnical earthquake engineering and machine foundations are presented in this course. Topics covered in the course include basic concepts of seismology, earthquakes, strong ground motion, and seismic hazard analysis. The basic principles of wave propagation are used to develop procedures for site response analysis and to provide insight into such important problems as local site effects, liquefaction, seismic slope stability, and seismic design of retaining structures. Analysis and design procedures for dynamically loaded shallow and pile foundations are discussed.

This course addresses the design, operation, control and management of transportation facilities. Topics covered in the course include geometric design of roadways, capacity analysis for freeway segments, signal timing and design, and intersection design and layout. Students are introduced to a number of traffic analysis and traffic simulation software, including SYNCHRO and SimTraffic. Students are required to undertake a comprehensive term project that involves detailed analysis and/or simulation of a transportation facility and write a survey-type paper on a topic of recent interest that is related to traffic operations and design.

The focus of this class is on the state-of-the-art methods for forecasting travel demand. The ability to forecast travel demand is fundamental to any transportation planning effort. The first part of the class will focus on the four-step travel demand forecasting process that consists of the trip generation, trip distribution, mode split, and traffic assignment steps. This approach, though aggregate and conventional, has been widely used for planning purposes in the US and other countries in the world. Recent refinements to the process will also be discussed, along with a brief introduction to activity-based analysis, an alternative paradigm of travel demand forecasting that is behavior oriented and tends to increase the sensitivity of transportation planning models to policy making.

This course presents the fundamentals of fluid flow and mass transport in porous media. The governing mass and energy balance equations are derived and several commonly applied solutions are developed. Other topics covered in the class include groundwater flow under saturated and unsaturated conditions, well hydraulics, multiphase flow, fundamentals of solute transport, geostatistics, and remediation of contaminated aquifers.

This course introduces the application of mathematical models to making rational decisions regarding the management of natural aquatic systems. Computer models are developed and used for the simulation of fate and transport of conventional and priority pollutants in streams, lakes and estuaries.

The basic equations of unsteady fluid flow are developed in the course including continuity, Navier-Stokes equations, and conservation of energy. Transport processes, including molecular and turbulent diffusion of mass, momentum and heat, dispersion in open channel flow are discussed. The advection-diffusion equation is derived for mass conservation of a tracer in natural surface water and atmospheric systems, and specific analytical solutions are discussed for ideal pollutant sources. Jet and plume modeling, sediment transport, stratified flow and other selected topics are presented.

This course addresses the hydrologic cycle-water budget, precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, and infiltration. Particular topics covered in the course include groundwater and surface water flow, storm analysis, hydrography analysis, and snow hydrology. Watershed simulation, frequency and correlation analysis, and hydrologic simulation are applied to the design of structures.

This course covers the principles and basic design criteria of the physical and chemical unit processes used in water treatment and wastewater reuse. Core topics include particle removal, disinfection, advanced oxidation, and membrane processes. Special topics such as ion exchange and sorption are introduced based on class projects.

CIE 557-558 Engineering Project

This course is available only to master’s degree candidates with projects that have been approved by their academic advisor.

Develop understanding of wind load effects on structures; be able to quantify wind loads and their effects on structures based on basic theories, numerical schemes, experimental methods, full-scale observations and codes & standards.

CIE 562 Environmental Fate and Transport of Pollutants (Fall)

This course provides a quantitative description of the physical, chemical, and biological processes governing the migration and transformation of pollutants in surface water, ground water, soil, and atmospheric systems. Topics include mass and energy balances, reaction kinetics, mixing processes, multi-compartment partitioning, and pollutant migration across various spatial and temporal scales.

This course surveys the sources, fates, effects and control of air pollution and air pollutants and covers industrial, agricultural and municipal contributions to acid rain, smog, and toxic air pollutants in fish and humans.

This course presents fundamentals in aquatic chemistry as applied to natural waters, water treatment, and wastewater treatment. Topics covered in the course include equilibrium, chemical thermodynamics, acid-base reactions, precipitation and dissolution, oxidation and reduction, carbonate system chemistry, and complexation.

This course presents the fundamentals of microbial involvement in nature and environmental processes. Topics covered in the class include nutrient cycling, characteristics of microorganisms, microbial metabo­lism, microbial growth kinetics, nutrient transport mechanisms, bacterial adhesion and flocculation, microbial competition, biomonitoring, and the relationship between mi­croorganisms and disease. The role of microorganisms in various treatment processes, including suspended growth, fixed film, and anaerobic reactors is discussed.

Theory and its application for design and operation of biological treatment processes used in water and wastewater treatment. Emphasis is on understanding traditional treatment technologies as well as the emergence of new sustainable technologies that are seeking to transform traditional treatment plants into water resource recovery facilities that are energy and resource positive. Topics include microbial metabolism and growth kinetics and the role that microorganisms play in various treatment processes, and theory/design of traditional emerging treatment processes such as microalgal systems.

A brownfield is a property whose redevelopment is complicated by the presence or potential presence of hazardous substances.  With more than an estimated 450,000 brownfields in the U.S., their cost-effective and sustainable management is an important national priority.  This course covers a variety of engineering and policy issues associated with the subsurface pollution. Topics include: (1) evolution of current laws dealing with the management of hazardous wastes and contaminated land; (2) environmental fate and transport of hazardous chemicals; and (3) investigation and remediation of sites with soil and/or groundwater contamination.  Students are expected to have familiarity with basic concepts of environmental chemistry, hydrogeology, and engineering mathematics.

This course provides state-of-the-art knowledge of advanced concrete materials, including high and ultra-high performance concretes, fiber-reinforced concretes, and strain-hardening cementitious composites. Students learn about the ingredients and the design philosophy behind these materials. Fracture mechanics, scale-linking, and fiber/matrix bond-related concepts that are central for understanding the behaviors of these materials are discussed in detail. Students gain hands-on experience of mixing, processing, and testing high performance concretes. Durability properties of materials are given equally significant attention as the mechanical properties. Basics of Life cycle analysis of structures is presented in the last part of this course as it helps the students to appreciate the importance of the durability of materials, along with the mechanical properties, in determining the long term performance of a structure and its repair and maintenance needs. By completing this course, the instructor’s expectation is that the students will be inspired to seek innovative applications of these materials in both industry and research.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with the principles of traffic safety with a focus on safety modeling, methods, and applications.  More specific topics include: safety audits; identification and prediction of hazardous locations; safety hot spots and countermeasures; traffic conflicts; accident frequency analysis; accident rate analysis; accident injury-severity analysis; selecting safety projects; intersection safety; human behavior in accident analysis.  NLOGIT (LIMDEP) software will be used in this course, but no prior knowledge is necessary.

This course covers issues, approaches, and practices in the management of bridge and transportation infrastructure systems and public policy. Topics covered in the course include the roles of bridge engineers in managing highway transportation infrastructure, specifications and standards of practice, capital project development and financing mechanisms, research funding processes, environmental issues, project delivery procurement methods, and asset management.

This course surveys emerging technologies, including both software and hardware systems, which are intended to enhance the analysis, design, construction, performance, and asset management of bridges and highway infrastructure. Emphasis is placed on those technologies whose basic knowledge has been established but not yet fully deployed into bridge and infrastructure engineering practice. Examples may include nonlinear analysis methods and design software, energy dissipation and seismic isolation systems, accelerated construction methods, health monitoring, seismic and other retrofit methods and guidelines, integrated project delivery methods, and lifecycle asset management. Presentations by subject area experts complement those given by the instructor.

This course introduces the fundamentals of steel bridge theory, analysis, and design, including single and continuous span bridge structures. Other topics covered in the course include connection design and construction, fatigue analysis, deck design and bearing design. Industry-appropriate software is used for project work.

This course covers the analysis, mechanics, design methods and applications of prestressed concrete for short to medium span bridges. The loads specific to bridge structures, and the response of prestressed concrete structures to these loads will be studied for single and continuous span bridges. Topics include precast, pre-tensioned, and post-tensioned applications, concepts unique to prestressing: prestressing loss, camber, and crack control, selected connection details of precast members, and an overview of precast bridge substructures. Students will also gain an understanding of the reasoning behind key bridge design provisions. Current research and developments in prestressed concrete bridges, maintenance and inspection issues, and accelerated bridge construction techniques will be discussed, as time permits.

CIE 601, 602 Individual Problems

This course examines advanced experimentation and instrumentation in structural engineering research. The key topics covered in the course include scale modeling, test planning, data acquisition systems, and instrumentation. Students conduct hands-on experiments using servo-hydraulic equipment and shaking tables in a weekly laboratory session.

CIE 617 Advanced Finite Element Analysis (Fall)

This is the second course in the finite element methods. The emphasis is applications of the finite element method to problems in structural engineering and solid mechanics. Topics covered in the course include finite element fundamentals and variational formulations, isoparametric element formulations, advanced material models (viscoelastic, elastoplastic), dynamic analysis (modal analysis, time-domain analysis), geometric nonlinearities and contact mechanics.

CIE 618 Blast Engineering

The course addresses response of structures to non-nuclear air-blast loadings. Topics studied include explosives chemistry, dynamical loadings, nonlinear response of single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems, P-I diagrams, air-blast loadings, clearing effects, equivalent SDOF analysis for blast loadings, implicit and explicit finite element analysis, wave propagation in air and solids, analysis for blast loading using finite element and computational fluid dynamics tools, fragmentation and testing methods. Students are assigned a class project involving the blast analysis of structural components using LS DYNA or similar.

The focus of this course is the earthquake-resistant design of structures and it builds on the first graduate course in structural dynamics, CIE 519. Topics covered in the course include an introduction to mechanics of earthquakes and characteristics of the strong ground motions; responses of structures and mechanical behavior of structural elements under seismic loadings; and techniques to analyze the linear and nonlinear dynamic responses of structures. Selected research topics and applications of basic principles to the design of buildings are addressed.

Yield conditions and flow laws for rigid-perfectly plastic, rigid-strain hardening elastic perfectly plastic and elastic strain hardening materials. Minimum principles and theorems of limit analysis.

This course introduces the basic concepts of seismic (base) isolation and the seismic isolation systems that are widely used in North America. A focus is the analysis and design of individual elastomeric and sliding bearings, and seismic isolation systems. The use of energy dissipation devices as part of the isolation system is also examined. Testing of seismic isolators, project case studies and code provisions are discussed.

CIE 630 Geotechnical in Situ Lab Testing

This course covers the broad topic of testing geotechnical media in the field and in the laboratory. Procedures for conducting tri-axial, direct shear, simple shear, torsion-shear, consolidation and hydraulic conductivity testing in the laboratory using state-of-the-art equipment and data acquisition systems are discussed. Procedures for conducting and recording SPT, CPT, pressure-meter, and dilatometer tests, among others, are discussed.

CIE 631 Transportation Network Analysis

The focus of this class is modeling flow patterns through urban transportation networks. An analytical approach to modeling the resulting flow pattern is adopted, based on the formulation and solution of the traffic assignment problem as a non-linear optimization problem. Among the topics covered in the course are transportation networks and optimality, cost functions, deterministic and stochastic user equilibrium assignment, origin-destination matrix estimation, and network reliability and design.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with a general background in the application of various statistical and econometric analysis techniques and to provide new ideas for analyzing data in their research. The course will focus in a number of model-estimation methods that are used in engineering data analysis. While examples will be drawn primarily from civil and transportation engineering, the methods presented have broad applications to a variety of data-analysis applications in engineering and beyond, and these will also be discussed in the course. The material covered goes well beyond the techniques typically covered in statistics courses. The underlying theory and limitations will be discussed to ensure that the methods are properly applied and understood. The NLOGIT/LIMDEP software will be used, but no prior knowledge necessary.

CIE 659 - CIE 600 Dissertation

CIE 680 Structural Health Monitoring and Nondestructive Evaluation

The course covers the principal methods used for non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) of structural components. Relevant physical principles of continuum mechanics, electrical engineering, acoustics and elastic wave propagation underlying the experimental methods are addressed. Sensor data acquisition and interrogation and ultrasonic digital signal processing are discussed. Laboratory demonstrations are given on selected topics.

STL 520: Emerging Practices in Transportation

The Transportation issues are at the top of national news as part of what is described as a "transportation revolution." Autonomous vehicles, electric fleets, flying cars and hyper-loops are but a few examples of large-scale impending impacts on mobility, city planning, financial structures and consumer behavior. Students will be immersed in a wide range of current topics through discussion and analyses of the changing face of transportation. Guest speakers, news articles and team projects all will be elements of the course.