MSOE to Offer Civil Engineering Degree
| Published: 10/17/2010 |
|
“Our new freshman-to-master’s degree in civil engineering is ahead of the curve in terms of civil engineering education,” said Dr. Hermann Viets, president of MSOE. “Graduates will be highly sought-after by industry and government and well-prepared for professional engineering licensure if they so choose. This program is unique in the state of Wisconsin, and provides a tremendous value to our students.”
“The knowledge expected of a civil engineering graduate in the 21st century can no longer be acquired in the traditional four-year undergraduate engineering curriculum,” said Dr. Frank Mahuta, civil engineering program director at MSOE. “MSOE’s new five-year civil engineering program has been built from the ground up to satisfy the new American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Body of Knowledge requirements and to prepare our graduates for entry into professional practice.”
Unique Features of the Program
• Graduates of the five-year program will meet the future professional engineering licensure requirements for education proposed by ASCE and NCEES (the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying).
• 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
• Students may choose to specialize in one of three technical areas within civil engineering: structural engineering, environmental engineering or water resources engineering
• Alternatively, students may opt for the general civil engineering track, which allows them to take courses from all three technical areas as well as courses from MSOE’s nationally-renowned construction management program
• A four-year option leading to a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering will be available to students who enter the five-year program but are not prepared for graduate studies. Conversely, individuals who have an ABET-accredited bachelor’s degree in civil engineering may apply for admission to the civil program at the graduate level.
The Curriculum
The curriculum for the civil engineering program has been developed from the ground up to meet or exceed the new ASCE Body of Knowledge requirements. Whereas traditional four-year civil engineering programs have historically focused on the technical skills required of civil engineers, these new requirements call for civil engineers to be proficient in both technical and professional skills. Examples of professional skills required by the Body of Knowledge include familiarity with issues of public policy, business and public administration, globalization, leadership, and teamwork. These new educational requirements are addressed within the framework of MSOE’s five-year program.
The core requirements for the program are designed to provide exposure to the seven major technical 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:
• Structural engineering: Equips graduates to design the structures associated with buildings, bridges, dams and other infrastructure elements
• 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, management of solid and hazardous wastes, and 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, stormwater conveyance systems, and the design of groundwater wells for potable water production.
Because MSOE operates under a quarter rather than a semester system, it can offer more courses within the curriculum. This places MSOE graduates at an advantage, given the multidisciplinary nature of the civil engineering field and the need for a mastery of a variety of subjects and curricular areas.
Both the four-year bachelor’s degree program and the five-year freshman-to-master’s degree program are designed to meet or exceed ABET accreditation standards. Currently, there are no ABET-accredited, master’s-level civil engineering programs in Wisconsin, making MSOE’s program unique in the area.