Civil Engineering

Major: Civil Engineering
Degree Awarded: Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (BSCIV)
Calendar Type: Quarter
Minimum Required Credits: 189.5
Co-op Options: Three Co-op (Five years); One Co-op (Four years)
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 14.0801
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 17-2051

About the Program

The civil engineering major prepares students in the fundamental principles necessary to practice this profession in any of its branches, including construction management, water resources, structural, transportation, environmental, geotechnical, and public facilities engineering.

Civil engineers are active in the planning, design, construction, research and development, operation, maintenance, and rehabilitation of large engineering systems. A particular focus is the reconstruction of the nation’s infrastructure through solutions that minimize the disruption of social and natural environments.

Civil engineering graduates are grounded in the fundamental principles necessary for the practice of this profession in any of its modern branches, including construction management, water resources engineering, structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, transportation engineering, and environmental engineering.

Seven of the required courses in the discipline include integral laboratories or field projects for both educational illustration and professional practice exposure.

Careful selection of the electives specified in the curriculum can lead to a wide variety of career objectives. For instance, students with an interest in water resources engineering may elect advanced courses in hydrology, ecology, and chemistry; select senior professional electives in the geotechnical and water resources areas; and choose appropriate topics for senior design and senior seminar. Seniors, with the approval of the department head, can elect certain graduate courses.

A special feature of the major is senior design. A group of students works with a faculty advisor to develop a significant design project selected by the group. All civil engineering students participate in a design project.

Mission Statement

The civil and architectural engineering faculty are responsible for delivering an outstanding curriculum that equips our graduates with the broad technical knowledge, design proficiency, professionalism, and communications skills required for them to make substantial contributions to society and to enjoy rewarding careers.

Program Educational Objectives

Civil engineering graduates will become responsible professionals who analyze, design, construct, manage or operate built and natural infrastructure and systems, and/or will have advance knowledge of the field.

Student Outcomes

The department’s student outcomes reflect the skills and abilities that the curriculum is designed to provide to students by the time they graduate. These are:   

1. An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
2. An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
3. An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
4. An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of the engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
5. An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
6. An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
7. An ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies

Additional Information 

The Civil Engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, www.abet.org.

For more information about this major, contact the program head:
Ivan Bartoli, PhD
Professor
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
ib77@drexel.edu

You can also view webpage of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering.

Degree Requirements

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General Education Requirements.

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CHEM sequence is determined by the student's Chemistry Placement Exam score and the completion of a summer online preparatory course available based on that score.

***

MATH and PHYS sequences are determined by the student's Calculus Placement Exam score and the completion of any summer online preparatory courses available based on that score.

†

A sequence of three courses in a major area of study is required, with a total of six 3-credit professional electives.

Writing-Intensive Course Requirements

In order to graduate, all students must pass three writing-intensive courses after their freshman year. Two writing-intensive courses must be in a student's major. The third can be in any discipline. Students are advised to take one writing-intensive class each year, beginning with the sophomore year, and to avoid “clustering” these courses near the end of their matriculation. Transfer students need to meet with an academic advisor to review the number of writing-intensive courses required to graduate.

A "WI" next to a course in this catalog may indicate that this course can fulfill a writing-intensive requirement. For the most up-to-date list of writing-intensive courses being offered, students should check the Writing Intensive Course List at the University Writing Program. Students scheduling their courses can also conduct a search for courses with the attribute "WI" to bring up a list of all writing-intensive courses available that term.

Sample Plan of Study 

4 year, 1 co-op 

*

CHEM sequence is determined by the student's Chemistry Placement Exam score and the completion of a summer online preparatory course available based on that score.

**

Co-op cycles may vary. Students are assigned a co-op cycle (fall/winter, spring/summer, summer-only) based on their co-op program (4-year, 5-year) and major. 

COOP 101 registration is determined by the co-op cycle assigned and may be scheduled in a different term. Select students may be eligible to take COOP 001 in place of COOP 101.

***

MATH and PHYS sequences are determined by the student's Calculus Placement Exam score and the completion of any summer online preparatory courses available based on that score.

†

 See degree requirements.

5 year, 3 co-op

*

CHEM sequence is determined by the student's Chemistry Placement Exam score and the completion of a summer online preparatory course available based on that score.

**

Co-op cycles may vary. Students are assigned a co-op cycle (fall/winter, spring/summer, summer-only) based on their co-op program (4-year, 5-year) and major. 

COOP 101 registration is determined by the co-op cycle assigned and may be scheduled in a different term. Select students may be eligible to take COOP 001 in place of COOP 101.

***

MATH and PHYS sequences are determined by the student's Calculus Placement Exam score and the completion of any summer online preparatory courses available based on that score.

†

 See degree requirements.

Co-op/Career Opportunities

When students complete their co-op jobs, they are asked to write an overview of their experiences. These brief quotes are taken from some recent student reports:

Engineering construction inspector, state department of transportation: Supervised daily activities involved in the roadway construction of the [interstate] bypass. Recorded daily visual inspection reports for soil sub-base and materials placed on site. Aided senior roadway engineers in approving grade prior to asphalt placement. Used various instruments to check temperature and depths for asphalt placement. Took part in on-site discussions with contractor to clear up any daily construction problems that would hinder quality of construction. ”

Construction inspector, municipal department of public property: “Inspected work performed by private contractors on city public works construction and rehabilitation projects for adherence to contract plans and specifications. Projects included health centers, police and fire stations, libraries, city hall, transit concourses, and prisons. Responsible for daily inspection reports and overall coordination for each respective project. Also responsible for reviewing bills and writing contract modifications and amendments...the variety of work was excellent. ”

Environmental co-op, chemicals manufacturer: “Compiled data and wrote monthly regulatory reports, in charge of hazardous waste management and small projects as needed...I had my own responsibilities that had an impact on the entire company. Employer was really interested in my opinion and gave me a chance to demonstrate my abilities, but also knew when to step in. Everybody was willing to answer any questions I may have had."

Visit the Drexel Steinbright Career Development Center page for more detailed information on co-op and post-graduate opportunities.

Facilities

The Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department laboratories provide students with fully equipped space for education and research opportunities. 

Structural and Geotechnical Research Laboratory Facilities and Equipment

The geotechnical and structural engineering research labs at Drexel University provide a forum to perform large-scale experimentation across a broad range of areas including infrastructure preservation and renewal, structural health monitoring, geosynthetics, nondestructive evaluation, earthquake engineering, and novel ground modification approaches among others.

The laboratory is equipped with different data acquisition systems (MTS, Campbell Scientific, and National Instruments) capable of recording strain, displacement, tilt, load and acceleration time histories. An array of sensors including LVDTs, wire potentiometers, linear and rotational accelerometers, and load cells are also available. Structural testing capabilities include two 220kips capacity loading frames (MTS 311 and Tinius Olsen), in addition to several medium capacity testing frames (Instron 1331 and 567 and MTS 370 testing frames), two 5-kips MTS actuators for dynamic testing and one degree of freedom 22kips ANCO shake table. The laboratory also features a phenomenological physical model which resembles the dynamic features of common highway bridges and is used for field testing preparation and for testing different measurement devices.  

The Woodring Laboratory hosts a wide variety of geotechnical, geosynthetics, and materials engineering testing equipment. The geotechnical engineering testing equipment includes Geotac unconfined compression and a triaxial compression testing device, ring shear apparatus, constant rate of strain consolidometer, an automated incremental consolidometer, an automated Geotac direct shear device and a large-scale consolidometer (12” by 12” sample size). Other equipment includes a Fisher pH and conductivity meter as well as a Brookfield rotating viscometer. Electronic and digital equipment include FLIR SC 325 infrared camera for thermal measurements, NI Function generators, acoustic emission sensors and ultrasonic transducers, signal conditioners, and impulse hammers for nondestructive testing.

The geosynthetics testing equipment in the Woodring lab includes pressure cells for incubation and a new differential scanning calorimetry device including the standard-OIT. Materials testing equipment that is available through the materials and chemical engineering departments includes a scanning electron microscope, liquid chromatography, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

The Building Science and Engineering Group (BSEG) research space is also located in the Woodring Laboratory. This is a collaborative research unit working at Drexel University with the objective of achieving more comprehensive and innovative approaches to sustainable building design and operation through the promotion of greater collaboration between diverse sets of research expertise. Much of the BSEG work is simulation or model based.  Researchers in this lab also share some instrumentation with the DARRL lab (see below). 

Environmental Engineering Laboratory Facilities and Equipment

The environmental engineering laboratories at Drexel University allow faculty and student researchers access to state-of-the-art equipment needed to execute a variety of experiments. These facilities are located in the Alumni Engineering Laboratory Building and includes approximately 2000 SF shared laboratory space, and a 400 SF clean room for cell culture and PCR.

The major equipment used in this laboratory space consists of: Roche Applied Science LightCyclerÔ 480 Real-time PCR System, Leica fluorescence microscope with phase contrast and video camera, Spectrophotometer, Zeiss stereo microscope with heavy duty boom stand, fluorescence capability, and a SPOT cooled color camera, BIORAD iCycler thermocycler for PCR, gel readers, transilluminator and electrophoresis setups, temperature controlled circulator with immersion stirrers suitable for inactivation studies at volumes up to 2 L per reactor, BSL level 2 fume hood, laminar hood, soil sampling equipment, Percival Scientific environmental chamber (model 1-35LLVL), custom-built rainfall simulator.

The Drexel Air Resources Research Laboratory (DARRL) is located in the Alumni Engineering Laboratory Building and contains state-of-the-art aerosol measurement instrumentation including a Soot Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (Aerodyne Research Inc.), mini-Aerosol Mass Spectrometer, (Aerodyne Research Inc.), Scanning Electrical Mobility Sizer (Brechtel Manufacturing), Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (TSI Inc.), Fast Mobility Particle Sizer (TSI Inc.), Centrifugal Particle Mass Analyzer (Cambustion Ltd.), GC-FID, ozone monitors, and other instrumentation. These instruments are used for the detailed characterization of the properties of particles less than 1 micrometer in diameter including: chemical composition, size, density, and shape or morphology. 

In addition to the analytical instrumentation in DARRL, the laboratory houses several reaction chambers. These chambers are used for controlled experiments meant to simulate chemical reactions that occur in the indoor and outdoor environments. The reaction chambers vary in size from 15 L to 1 m3, and allow for a range of experimental conditions to be conducted in the laboratory.

Computer Equipment and Software

The Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) Department at Drexel University has hardware and software capabilities for students to conduct research. The CAEE department operates a computer lab that is divided into two sections; one open access room, and a section dedicated to teaching. The current computer lab has 25 desktop computers that are recently updated to handle resource intensive GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and image processing software. There are a sufficient number of B&W and color laser printers that can be utilized for basic printing purposes.

Drexel University has site-licenses for a number of software, such as ESRITM ArcGIS 10, Visual Studio, SAP 2000, STAAD, Abaqus and MathworksTM Matlab. The Information Resources & Technology (IRT) department at Drexel University provides support (e.g., installation, maintenance and troubleshooting) to the above-mentioned software. It is currently supporting the lab by hosting a software image configuration that provides a series of commonly used software packages, such as MS Office and ADOBE Acrobat among others. As a part of ESRI campus license (the primary maker of GIS applications, i.e. ArcGIS) the department has access to a suite of seated licenses for GIS software with necessary extensions (e.g., LIDAR Analyst) required for conducting research.  

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty

Emeritus Faculty