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Registrar's Web Team
19 August 1997
Degrees Offered
Master of Science in Engineering
Doctor of Philosophy
The Department of Civil Engineering occupies eight floors in Ernest Cockrell Jr. Hall, which also houses the McKinney Engineering Library and computer facilities for use by civil engineering students. In addition, Academic Computing and Instructional Technology Services is available to students working on problems in any of the areas listed below. Laboratories are equipped and staffed to provide for both instruction and research.
Architectural engineering. The program and facilities in architectural engineering are described here.
Construction engineering and project management. The construction laboratories include a well-equipped computer cluster on the main campus and a high-bay laboratory for construction automation research at the J. J. Pickle Research Campus. The computer cluster is networked and connected to the World Wide Web. It includes Intel-based and Macintosh personal computers as well as UNIX workstations. A variety of output devices are available. Software includes 3D computer-assisted drafting and modeling packages, statistical packages, construction project management software, office suites, discrete modeling and simulation packages, and software developed through research. The automation laboratory at the J. J. Pickle Research Campus includes a large-scale hydraulic robot test bed, a large rectilinear manipulator, and many computer workstations; at any one time, several full-scale prototyping projects are underway. Facilities for education and research in construction engineering and project management also include time-lapse photography equipment and a methods improvement laboratory. Samples of many construction materials are available.
Several specially developed management programs are employed in graduate courses and for research. The University's Office of Planning Services conducts field trips to University buildings under construction and assists with graduate student research studies conducted with these sites.
Environmental and water resources engineering. The facilities of this concentration are equipped with instruments and analytical equipment that support state-of-the-art basic and applied research. Laboratories are located on campus and at the Center for Research in Water Resources and the Center for Energy Studies at the J. J. Pickle Research Campus.
Environmental research on campus focuses on water, wastewater, and hazardous waste treatment processes and air pollution problems. The laboratories are designed for physical, chemical, and biological analyses. Facilities include a clean room for metal and particulate analysis, four laboratories with temperature and humidity control, and numerous hoods for the safe handling of hazardous chemicals. The laboratories are equipped with a broad array of analytical instruments to measure virtually any type of pollutant; these include a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, high-pressure liquid chromatographs, an induced coupled argon plasma arc spectrophotometer, atomic absorption spectrometers, carbon analyzers, a phosphorescent and luminescent spectrophotometer, and a particle counter. Custom equipment may be fabricated in the department's instrument and machine shop. Analytical equipment available in other departments and research areas includes instruments for X-ray fluorescence, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), scanning electron microscopy, BET surface area, standard solid and soil characterization, and nuclear activation analysis.
The experimental facility for hydraulics and fluid mechanics at the Center for Research in Water Resources has instrumentation and data acquisition systems to support major laboratory and field studies, including several boats for sampling in rivers and bays. Permanent features include two central pumping and return systems, a two-hundred-foot outdoor flume with adjustable slope, and a seventy-five-foot tilting, glass-walled flume. Laboratory space is sufficient for large, specialized hydraulic studies. The center also houses several computers that are used for projects such as the integration of expert systems and geographic information systems and the application of the resulting technology.
Environmental engineering research facilities housed at the Center for Energy Studies include a major research laboratory on supercritical water oxidation, a pilot-scale packed tower for research on gas transfer in liquids, and instrumentation for air pollution control studies.
Geotechnical engineering. The Geotechnical Engineering Laboratories contain equipment for studying the static, dynamic, and geoenvironmental characteristics of soil and rock in both the laboratory and the field. Five general purpose laboratories in Ernest Cockrell Jr. Hall contain one-dimensional consolidation units of various types, permeability apparatus for saturated and unsaturated soils, direct shear apparatus, and triaxial shear equipment for both monotonic and cyclic loading. The geoenvironmental laboratory houses equipment for permeability tests with water and chemicals and specialized equipment for diffusion testing and chemical analyses.
Four additional special purpose laboratories are also located in Cockrell Hall. The soil dynamics laboratory contains several types of longitudinal and torsional resonant column devices. It is also equipped with several combined resonant column and cyclic torsional shear devices. A separate laboratory houses cyclic triaxial shear and cyclic simple shear equipment. The rock engineering laboratory contains equipment for the evaluation of point load, hardness, and abrasiveness indices, equipment for coring and sample preparation, and various compressive, tensile, and shear strength testing devices. A fourth laboratory contains a calibration chamber used in penetration and pile-driving experiments. Field equipment includes a wash-boring rig, field vane apparatus, Dutch cone equipment, flat plate dilatometer, pile load-test apparatus, permeability equipment, enhancement seismic recorders, and crosshole, downhole, and surface-wave seismic apparatuses.
Electronic instrumentation and microcomputer-based systems have been integrated into laboratory and field testing. Electronic equipment such as spectrum analyzers, analog and digital oscilloscopes, amplifiers, transducers, and an optical displacement follower are available in the laboratories. The soil dynamics, cyclic shear, rock engineering, and geoenvironmental laboratories have microcomputer-based test systems for use both in controlling experiments and in recording and reducing data. A MASSCOMP minicomputer and associated electronics have been installed in a truck for use in field testing; a large truck-mounted shaker is available for use as a dynamic field source. Additional large-scale facilities, including a 2.1-m cubical calibration chamber, are located at the J. J. Pickle Research Campus.
Significant research is also conducted in the area of numerical analysis. Programs under development include several finite element programs for seepage problems in saturated and unsaturated soils, finite difference and finite element programs for analyzing static and dynamic foundation performance, finite difference programs for one- and two-dimensional consolidation problems, and finite difference and finite element programs for wave propagation in soil, rock, and pavements.
Ocean engineering. Students interested in ocean engineering and in offshore structures may develop an appropriate course of study in consultation with the faculty. These programs are typically interdisciplinary, including work in hydrodynamics, structural analysis and dynamics, steel design, soils and foundations, and numerical methods. Students may also participate in the work of the Offshore Technology Research Center.
Structural engineering and construction materials. Most of the experimental studies in structural engineering are conducted in the Phil M. Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory, located at the J. J. Pickle Research Campus. Ferguson Laboratory is one of the largest, best-equipped structural research facilities in the world. Multistory structures and full-size multigirder bridge structures have been tested. The laboratory contains three test slabs, 40' x 80', 40' x 60', and 30' x 60'. One of the test floors surrounds a 600-kip universal test machine that permits testing full-size plate girders. In addition, a unique three-dimensional test facility consisting of a 44' x 32' test floor, combined with two perpendicular vertical walls, each nineteen feet high, permits three-dimensional loading. Fatigue testing capabilities permit study of full-size components under random amplitude and frequency to simulate actual service conditions. A number of closed-loop servocontrolled loading systems are available. Cables, such as those used in cable-stayed bridges, can be tested in fatigue up to loads of three million pounds in the cable testing facility. A materials-testing facility is also located in Ferguson Laboratory. Data acquisition systems are available that are suitable for static, dynamic, and fatigue loading programs. The systems are controlled by the laboratory's own computer systems. Direct access to the main University computer facility is also available.
At the J. J. Pickle Research Campus there is also a polymer concrete laboratory that has facilities for testing under a variety of conditions, including fatigue, creep, and controlled temperature.
Transportation engineering. The immediate proximity to the headquarters of governmental transportation agencies provides ready access to the facilities and records of these organizations by graduate students who are involved in planning, geometric design, and operation of airports, streets, and highways and of transit and nonmotorized transportation systems. The Center for Transportation Research administers an extensive cooperative research program with the Texas Department of Transportation and the United States Department of Transportation, as well as a spectrum of sponsored projects with other agencies.
Equipment for specialized and routine testing of materials used for constructing and maintaining transportation facilities is available. The bituminous materials laboratory includes constant temperature baths, ovens, aggregate handling facilities, mixers, compactors, and special viscometers.
Facilities are provided for studying traffic operations, including traffic volume counters, speed meters, motor-driven movie cameras, video cameras and recorders, projectors, portable delay recorders, and other special measuring and recording equipment.
The University's Cray supercomputers allow research on the analysis and design of large-scale transportation networks. State-of-the-art graphics workstations and microcomputers are available for teaching and research in computer-aided engineering and design. Hardware and software are also available to support research in artificial intelligence approaches to transportation and infrastructure system problems.
Library. In addition to the Perry-Castaneda Library and libraries in physics and mathematics, geology, life sciences, and chemistry, a complete library of books, periodicals, and society proceedings in civil engineering is housed in the McKinney Engineering Library.
Civil engineering majors may specialize in architectural engineering, construction engineering and project management, construction materials, environmental and water resources engineering, geotechnical engineering, ocean engineering, structural engineering, or transportation engineering. In addition, the Department of Civil Engineering offers the Master of Science in Engineering with a major in environmental health engineering; this program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology as an advanced program. The requirements for both majors (civil engineering and environmental health engineering) are given under the heading "Degree Requirements" below.
A Bachelor of Science degree from a program in engineering accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology is the general prerequisite for admission to a graduate program in civil engineering. An applicant whose training does not meet this prerequisite may be accepted but will be required to pass a sequence of courses stipulated by the Graduate Studies Committee that will make up the deficiencies in undergraduate preparation. A list of the required courses is available from the graduate adviser.
Degree Requirements
Full-time students, and both teaching and research assistants, are required to register for nine semester hours of coursework, including special problems, seminar, thesis, and dissertation courses, during each long-session semester.
Master of Science in Engineering
Requirements for the thirty-semester-hour plan with thesis, in addition to the general requirements for the master's degree, are a major in civil engineering consisting of eighteen to twenty-four semester hours, including the thesis course, and a minor of six to twelve semester hours outside the area of concentration. Included in the major and minor must be at least eighteen semester hours in engineering. The courses selected must be logically related and the individual program must be approved by the graduate adviser.
A thirty-three-hour and a thirty-six-hour degree plan are also available. The thirty-three-hour plan includes a report prepared in Civil Engineering 398R according to procedures set by the Graduate School; the thirty-six-hour plan includes a report prepared in Civil Engineering 398D according to procedures set by the Graduate Studies Committee. Both plans provide for more coursework in both the major and the minor.
Majors for the master's degree may be chosen in any area or combination of areas listed under "Areas of Study" above.
Doctor of Philosophy
To be admitted to candidacy, the student must pass a preliminary (qualifying) examination administered by a committee, appointed by the graduate adviser, of at least three members of the civil engineering faculty, two of whom may be in the major area. This examination must be taken before the student registers for the second semester beyond the Master of Science in Engineering degree. The student must also submit a Program of Work that is approved by the chairman of the civil engineering Graduate Studies Committee and the graduate dean. All students must demonstrate proficiency in English.
When the student has been admitted to candidacy, a dissertation committee is appointed by the graduate dean. When most of the coursework is completed, the dissertation committee administers a comprehensive examination in the major.
The defense of the dissertation is the final examination of the Doctor of Philosophy degree program. This examination is scheduled after the members of the dissertation committee have received a final draft of the dissertation that has been approved by the supervising professor.
Master of Science in Engineering/Master of Public Affairs
The Department of Civil Engineering and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs offer a joint program leading to the degrees of Master of Science in Engineering and Master of Public Affairs. The program is designed to prepare qualified students for careers at any level of government and in public policy-related areas of the engineering profession.
The program is structured so that students can earn the degrees simultaneously. Students must complete the core courses in both programs, including at least thirty semester hours to be counted toward the civil engineering major and at least thirty-six hours to be counted toward the major in public affairs. In general, at least two years are required to complete the joint program.
A student seeking admission to a joint degree program must apply through the Graduate and International Admissions Center. He or she must be accepted by each individual program in order to be admitted to the joint program. Like all other graduate applicants, the student is responsible for submitting any additional information required by the Graduate Studies Committee for each program.
Campus address: Ernest Cockrell Jr. Hall (ECJ) 4.200, Phone (512) 471-4921,
Fax (512) 471-0592
Mailing address: Graduate Program in Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1076
E-mail: grad@mail.ce.utexas.edu
URL: http://www.ce.utexas.edu/
Chapter Four
Graduate Catalog
Contents
Chapter 1: Graduate Study
Chapter 2: Admission and Registration
Chapter 3: Degree Requirements
Chapter 4: Fields of Study
Chapter 5: Members of Graduate Studies Committees
Appendix: Course Abbreviations
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