Architectural Engineering

Major: Architectural Engineering
Degree Awarded: Master of Science in Architectural Engineering (MSAE) or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Calendar Type: Quarter
Total Credit Hours: 45.0 (MSAE); 90.0 (PhD)
Co-op Option: None
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 14.0401
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 11-9041

About the Program

Architectural Engineering is inherently an interdisciplinary enterprise that is centered on the design, construction, and operation of the built environment. Architectural Engineering MS or PhD graduates may include students with expertise in one or more of the following sub-disciplines (usually housed in civil/environmental engineering and elsewhere in traditional disciplinary constructs or newly developing fields of focus or expertise):

• Building energy efficiency and alternative energy
• Indoor environmental quality

Our graduates are engineers and researchers trained in integrated building design and operation practices, who can work on interdisciplinary teams that are able to develop creative solutions combined with technological advances to produce functional, efficient, attractive and sustainable building infrastructure.

Additional Information

For more information, visit the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering webpage.

Admission Requirements

Applicants to the MS or PhD in Architectural Engineering must meet the following requirements:

• A BS in Engineering OR
• For students without an Engineering degree, the following courses, or their approved equivalents from other departments, will meet these requirements:
  • Introduction to Fluid Flow – CIVE 320
  • Introduction to Thermodynamics – ENGR 210
  • Heat Transfer – MEM 345 – for Building Energy students
  • General Chemistry II – CHEM 102 – for Indoor Environmental Quality students

The application package will include:

• undergraduate and graduate transcripts;
• three letters of recommendation from faculty or professionals who can evaluate the applicant’s promise as a graduate student;
• GRE scores;
• a written statement of career and educational goals.

Competitive applicants will possess an undergraduate GPA of 3.30 or higher and GRE scores above the 60th percentile.

Degree Requirements (MS)

The goal of the MS in Architectural Engineering (AE) is to produce graduates who have a solid understanding of the Architectural Engineering discipline as well as an understanding of the interrelationships between the major AE sub-disciplines. Graduates will have demonstrated the ability and capacity to apply that understanding and skill, and the curriculum and project requirements are designed to provide to the students and then ask them to demonstrate the ability to effectively engage in professional-level performance.

Degree Requirements (PhD)

The following general requirements must be satisfied in order to complete the PhD in Architectural Engineering:

• 90.0 quarter credit hours total (or 45 credit hours post-MS)
• Plan of study established with Advisor
• Qualifying courses
• Candidacy exam
• Approval of dissertation proposal
• Defense of dissertation
• Full-time residency for one continuous academic year is usually desired for the PhD degree to ensure students the opportunity for intellectual association with other scholars.

Students entering with a master’s degree may be exempted from some or all of the courses in the breadth requirement; however, they are still required to meet all milestones of the program. Individual courses may also be transferred with approval of the Graduate Advisor. The total credit amount, candidacy exam, and dissertation are University Requirements. Additional requirements are determined by the department offering the degree.

Qualifying Courses

To satisfy the qualifying requirements, students must earn a grade of B+ or better in the first 6 Architectural Engineering graduate courses taken at Drexel, and must earn an overall GPA of 3.5 or better in these courses. Normally these courses comprise at least 4 "core" courses and either 2 more courses, either "core" or in one of the Architectural Engineering themes taken as part of the PhD program; however, they may in some cases include more advanced courses (e.g., if the student has received transfer credit for a core course).

Undergraduate courses, independent studies, research credits, and courses from other departments cannot be counted toward the qualifying requirements. Student progress toward these requirements will be assessed in the Annual Review following the student's first year in the PhD program. For more information visit the Department's PhD Program Requirements page.

Candidacy Exam

After approximately one year of study beyond the master’s degree, doctoral students take a candidacy examination, consisting of written and oral parts. The Architectural Engineering candidacy examination serves to define the student’s research domain and to evaluate the student’s knowledge and understanding of various fundamental and seminal results in that domain. At this point the student is expected to be able to read, understand, analyze, and explain advanced technical results in a specialized area of Architectural Engineering at an adequate level of detail. The candidacy examination will evaluate those abilities using a defined set of published manuscripts. The student will prepare a written summary of the contents of the material, present the summary orally, and answer questions about the material. The examination committee will evaluate the written summary, the oral presentation, and the student’s answers.

Thesis Proposal

After completing the candidacy examination successfully, the PhD candidate must prepare a thesis proposal that outlines, in detail, the specific problems that will be solved in the PhD dissertation. The quality of the research proposal should be at the level of, for example, a peer-reviewed proposal to a federal funding agency, or a publishable scientific paper. The candidate is responsible for sending the research proposal to the PhD committee two weeks before the oral presentation. The PhD committee need not be the same as the candidacy exam committee, but it follows the same requirements and must be approved by the Office of Graduate Studies. The oral presentation involves a 30-40-minute presentation by the candidate followed by an unspecified period during which the committee will ask questions.

After the question and answer period, the candidate will be asked to leave the room and the committee will determine if the research proposal has been accepted. The research proposal can be repeated at most once. A thesis proposal must be approved within two years of becoming a PhD candidate.

After approval of the proposal, the committee meets from time to time to review the progress of the research.

Thesis Defense

After completing the research proposal successfully, the PhD candidate must conduct the necessary research and publish the results in a PhD dissertation. The dissertation must be submitted to the PhD committee two weeks prior to the oral defense and at least 90 days before the graduation date. The oral presentation involves a 45-minute presentation by the candidate, open to the public, followed by an unspecified period during which the committee will ask questions. The question and answer period is not open to the public.

 After the question and answer period, the candidate will be asked to leave the room and the committee will determine if the candidate has passed or failed the examination. The candidate will be granted one more chance to pass the final defense if he or she fails it the first time. Paperwork selecting the thesis committee and indicating the results of the thesis defense must be filed with the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and the Office of Graduate Studies.

The PhD degree is awarded for original research on a significant Architectural Engineering problem. Graduate students who have an MS degree or have completed work equivalent to that required for of an MS degree will continue to work closely with individual faculty members to purse the PhD degree (see Faculty Research Interests on the department website). PhD dissertation research is usually supported by a research grant from a government agency or an industrial contract.

Many doctoral students take three to five years of full-time graduate study to complete their degrees.

Sample Plan of Study (MSAE)

 Indoor Air Quality - Sample Plan of Study

Undergraduate Course Prerequisites for students without an Engineering Degree:

The following courses, or their approved equivalents from other departments, will meet these requirements:

• CIVE 320 - Fundamental Fluids
• CHEM 102 - Basic Chemistry
• ENGR 210 - Thermodynamics

Building Energy - Sample Plan of Study

Undergraduate Course Prerequisites for students without an Engineering Degree

The following courses, or their approved equivalents from other departments, will meet these requirements:

• CIVE 320 - Fundamental Fluids
• MEM 345 - Heat Transfer
• ENGR 210 - Thermodynamics

Plan of Study (PhD)

Upon entering the PhD program, each student will be assigned an academic advisor, and with the help of the advisor will develop and file a plan of study (which can be brought up to date when necessary). The plan of study should be filed with the graduate coordinator no later than the end of the first term.

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty

Emeritus Faculty