Program Director:

Dr. Francis Mahuta
Office: CC-60D
Phone: (414) 277-7599
Fax: (414) 277-7415
Email: mahuta@msoe.edu

Civil engineers are responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of the infrastructure necessary to support civilized society. MSOE’s five-year, freshman-to-master’s civil engineering degree program satisfies the new Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21^st Century requirements developed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). These new requirements call for civil engineers to be proficient in both technical and professional skills, including familiarity with issues of business and public administration, public policy, globalization, leadership and teamwork. Satisfying these requirements will also equip students to meet the proposed new licensing requirements developed by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, which call for a minimum of a master’s degree or equivalent as a prerequisite for professional engineering licensure.

MSOE students will be able to specialize in one of the following three civil engineering disciplines: structural engineering, environmental engineering and water resources engineering. In addition, students may also choose to take elective course work from MSOE’s nationally-renowned construction management program. Alternatively, students may choose to use their technical electives to pursue a minor in a field such as mathematics, chemistry or physics.

Program Educational Objectives

Program objectives are broad statements that describe the career and professional accomplishments that the civil engineering (CVE) program is preparing the graduates to achieve. The program objectives of MSOE’s CVE program are as follows:

• Graduates who choose to pursue registration as a professional engineer can, after attaining the required years of work experience stipulated by their state licensing board, achieve that distinction.
• Graduates will pursue opportunities to advance their professional skills through lifelong learning.
• Graduates will demonstrate a commitment to their profession by participating in one or more professional societies in their area of technical specialization.
• Graduates will apply the principles of sustainable design in their profession.

Student Outcomes

Student outcomes are narrower statements that describe what students are expected to know and be able to do by the time of graduation. The student outcomes of the CVE program are as follows:

• Solve problems in the mathematics and sciences areas listed below, and apply this knowledge to solve well-defined civil engineering problems:
  • Mathematics: calculus through differential equations, probability and statistics
  • Natural sciences: calculus-based physics, general and organic chemistry and one additional area of natural science
  • Engineering sciences: statics, mechanics of materials, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, materials science
  • Probability and statistics
• Understand the importance of the humanities and social sciences to the practice of civil engineering
• Conduct experiments and analyze the experimental results in more than one area of civil engineering according to established procedures, as well as design experiments to meet a need, conduct the experiments, and analyze and explain the resulting data
• Formulate and solve an ill-defined civil engineering problem by selecting and applying appropriate techniques and tools
• Design a civil engineering system or process to meet desired needs while taking into account realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, constructability and sustainability
• Analyze and solve well-defined civil engineering problems in at least four technical areas within civil engineering
• Analyze and design a complex system or process in one technical area within civil engineering
• Explain key concepts and processes applicable to the following subject areas:
  • Project management
  • Business management and leadership
  • Business/construction law and public policy
  • Globalization
• Organize and deliver effective verbal, written, virtual and graphical communications
• Function effectively as a member of a project team
• List attitudes supportive of the professional practice of civil engineering
• Demonstrate the ability for self-directed learning
• Apply standards of professional and ethical responsibility to determine an appropriate course of action

Specialties

At MSOE, civil engineering course work provides a broad-based education touching on each of the traditional areas within the civil engineering field: structural engineering, environmental engineering, water resources engineering, transportation, construction, surveying and geotechnical engineering. Students will then gain in-depth proficiency and design skills in one of these three areas:

Environmental Engineering

Equips graduates to design systems for the production of potable water, the treatment, disposal, and reuse of wastewater, air-permitting and air-pollution control, the management of solid and hazardous wastes and the remediation of contaminated groundwater and subsurface soils.

Water Resources Engineering

Equips graduates to design systems to manage our natural water resources, including potable water distribution systems, wastewater collection systems, storm water conveyance systems, and the design of groundwater wells for potable water production.

Structural Engineering

Equips graduates to design the structures associated with buildings, bridges, dams and other infrastructure elements.

The MSOE Advantage

• MSOE is the first and only university in the state of Wisconsin to offer a five-year, freshman-to-master’s degree in civil engineering.
• With years of experience practicing what they teach, the professors at MSOE make phenomenal instructors and even better mentors.
• The laboratories in which you learn the ins and outs of your profession are industry standard and so are the computer programs you will use.
• MSOE is the only university in the state of Wisconsin to offer degrees in civil engineering, architectural engineering and construction management, giving students more choices with respect to potential career paths .
• Additionally, the program offers the benefits of longstanding partnerships with business and industry leaders, as well as a comprehensive focus on student support.