Academic Catalog

Environmental and Sustainability Engineering (M.S.)

The Master of Science in Environmental and Sustainability Engineering aims to advance environmental engineering and sustainability to enhance human well-being through the development, application, and dissemination of relevant knowledge. The curriculum is arranged into four themes: 

  1. Systems & Resources – topics within this area vary in scale and include: modeling of groundwater, surfacewater, and air systems; engineered systems such as drinking water distributions systems; and interactions between the environment and urban systems (e.g. stormwater management).
  2. Treatment & Sensing Technologies – topics within this area focus on the mitigation and quantification of pollutants loads to the environment, including humans, within all media (air, water, soils).
  3. Bio-chemical-physical Processes – topics within this area focus on fundamental process that control the fate and transport of pollutants, including remediation techniques.
  4. Environmental Exposure and Risk – topics within this area focus on identifying, quantifying and reducing risk.

Admission Requirements

Admission to this program is contingent upon admission to the Graduate School.

The M.S. in Environmental and Sustainability Engineering will admit students with bachelor’s degrees or the equivalent in engineering and other qualified science programs if there is a demonstrated aptitude for quantitative analysis. The degree program is suitable for new or recent graduates, as well as experienced professionals. Students will be required to have significant mathematics-based science capabilities. Students should have an overall grade point average (g.p.a.) of 3.2 for regular admission. Qualified or probationary admission may be granted with a lower g.p.a. As noted above, field/professional experience will be viewed positively in the application review process.

Program Requirements

The M.S. in Environmental and Sustainability Engineering requires a minimum of thirty credits under one of two degree plans approved by the College of Engineering:

Plan A: consists of a minimum of twenty-four credit hours of course-work in combination with a minimum of six credits of thesis.

Plan C: consists of a minimum of thirty credits of course-work.

MS students may take a maximum of three credits of CE 7990 and a maximum of three credits of CE 7996. Registration in CE 7990 and/or CE 7996 must be approved by a faculty advisor and the graduate program director.

The program  is designed to provide graduates a core of systems, treatment, process, and exposure/risk skills in research and applied situations.

Students must take at least one course from each of the four foundational areas described below. Other courses may satisfy foundational area requirements if approved by Graduate Program Director.
Water Resources Foundational Area:
Open Channel Hydraulics
Hydrologic Analysis and Design
Groundwater
Chemistry Foundational Area:
Environmental Chemistry
Principles of Atmospheric Chemistry and Applications
Advanced Principles of Atmospheric Chemistry and Applications
Biology Foundational Area:
Applied Environmental Microbiology
Statistics Foundational Area:
Risk and Reliability in Civil Engineering
Civil Engineering Research Methods
Other Civil & Environmental Engineering course options include:
Water Supply and Wastewater Engineering
Energy, Emissions, Environment (E3) Design
Geotechnical Engineering I
Geotechnical Engineering II
Special Topics in Civil Engineering I
River Assessment and Restoration I
Sustainability Assessment and Management
Geoenvironmental Engineering I
Pharmaceutical Waste: Environmental Impact and Management
Advanced River Assessment and Restoration I
Groundwater Modeling
Industrial Waste Treatment
Advanced Air Pollution Engineering
Sustainability of Urban Environmental Systems
Engineering Properties of Soils
Environmental Remediation
Directed Study
Special Topics in Civil Engineering II
Research
Master's Thesis Research and Direction
Students may also take up to 9 credits from electives (as approved by advisor), such as:
Advanced Transport Phenomena
Intermediate Fluid Mechanics
Computational Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer
Applied Engineering Statistics
Engineering Experimental Design
Aquatic Ecology
Elementary Analysis
Mathematical Models in Operations Research
Methods of Optimization

The graduation requirement is completion of the M.S. courses with an overall GPA of 3.00 or higher.  All core classes in the program must be completed with a 3.00 score or better. And all course work must be completed in accordance with the regulations of the Graduate School and the College of Engineering.

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