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:
- Systems & Resources
- Treatment & Sensing Technologies
- Bio-chemical-physical Processes
- Environmental Exposure and Risk
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).
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).
Bio-chemical-physical Processes – topics within this area focus on fundamental process that control the fate and transport of pollutants, including remediation techniques.
Environmental Exposure and Risk – topics within this area focus on identifying, quantifying and reducing risk.
Admissions
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. As noted above, field/professional experience will be viewed positively in the application review process.
Minimum GPA of 3.0 for regular admission. Applicants with a GPA below 3.0 will be considered for admission on a case-by-case basis.
Program requirements and curriculum
The M.S. in Environmental and Sustainability Engineering requires a minimum of 30 credits under one of two degree plans approved by the College of Engineering:
Plan A: minimum of 24 credit hours of course-work in combination with a minimum of 6 credits of thesis.
Plan C: minimum of 30 credits of course-work.
MS students may take a maximum of 3 credits of CE 7990 and a maximum of 3 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.
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.
Students must take at least 1 course from each of the 4 foundational areas described below. Other courses may satisfy foundational area requirements if approved by Graduate Program Director.
Water resources foundational area:
| CE 6130 | Open Channel Hydraulics |
| CE 6150 | Hydrologic Analysis and Design |
| CE 6190 | Groundwater |
Chemistry foundational area:
| CE 5220 | Environmental Chemistry |
| CE 6160 | Principles of Atmospheric Chemistry and Applications |
| CE 7160 | Advanced Principles of Atmospheric Chemistry and Applications |
Biology foundational area:
| CE 7280 | Applied Environmental Microbiology |
Statistics foundational area:
| CE 7070 | Risk and Reliability in Civil Engineering |
| CE 7080 | Civil Engineering Research Methods |
Other civil & environmental engineering course options include:
| CE 5230 | Water Supply and Wastewater Engineering |
| CE 5410 | Energy, Emissions, Environment (E3) Design |
| CE 5510 | Geotechnical Engineering I |
| CE 5520 | Geotechnical Engineering II |
| CE 5995 | Special Topics in Civil Engineering I |
| CE 6170 | River Assessment and Restoration I |
| CE 6270 | Sustainability Assessment and Management |
| CE 6580 | Geoenvironmental Engineering I |
| CE 6910 | Pharmaceutical Waste: Environmental Impact and Management |
| CE 7170 | Advanced River Assessment and Restoration I |
| CE 7190 | Groundwater Modeling |
| CE 7220 | Industrial Waste Treatment |
| CE 7240 | Advanced Air Pollution Engineering |
| CE 7311 | Sustainability of Urban Environmental Systems |
| CE 7500 | Engineering Properties of Soils |
| CE 7580 | Environmental Remediation |
| CE 7990 | Directed Study |
| CE 7995 | Special Topics in Civil Engineering II |
| CE 7996 | Research |
| CE 8999 | Master's Thesis Research and Direction |
Students may also take up to 9 credits from electives (as approved by advisor), such as:
| CHE 7200 | Advanced Transport Phenomena |
| ME 5300 | Intermediate Fluid Mechanics |
| ME 7310 | Computational Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer |
| IE 6210 | Applied Engineering Statistics |
| IE 6270 | Engineering Experimental Design |
| BIO 5100 | Aquatic Ecology |
| MAT 5070 | Elementary Analysis |
| MAT 5770 | Mathematical Models in Operations Research |
| MAT 5870 | Methods of Optimization |