Civil Engineering

MSCE Program - Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Option

The MSCE Environmental and Water Resources Engineering option prepares graduates to work as practicing Environmental and Water Resources engineers.

Curriculum

The Environmental and Water Resources Engineering curriculum consists of 30 semester units of coursework. This coursework consists of required courses, elective courses, and a master's project, thesis, or a comprehensive examination as described below:

Required Courses (21 Units)

  • CE 5020 - Applied Probability Concepts (3)
  • CE 5200 - Environmental and Water Resources Seminar (1)
  • CE 5201 - Environmental and Water Resources Research Methods (2)
  • CE 5210 - Municipal Hydraulic Systems (3)
  • CE 5211 - Applied Hydrology (3)
  • CE 5230 - Bioresources and Bioenergy Recovery (3)
  • CE 5250 - Advanced Water Treatment (3)
  • CE 5260 - Advanced Wastewater Treatment (3)

Elective Courses (3-9 units)

Students who choose to do a master's project will need to complete 12 units of electives, while those who choose to do a master's thesis will need 9 units. Students who choose to take the comprehensive examination, will need to take 15 units of electives. Select these electives from the following list:

  • CE 5200 - Environmental Water Resources Seminar (1)
  • CE 5201 - Environmental Chemistry (3)
  • CE 5220 - Solid and Hazardous Waste Engineering (3)
  • CE 5241 - Environmental Remediation (3)
  • CE 5261 - Air Quality Engineering (3)
  • CE 5271 - Unit Operations and Processes in Environmental Engineering (2)
  • CE 5271L - Unit Operations and Processes in Environmental Engineering Laboratory (1)
  • CE 5280 - River Mechanics (3)
  • CE 5290 - Global Climate and Water Supply (3)
  • CE 5310 - GIS Applications in Civil Engineering (3)
  • CE 5990 - Special topics for Graduate Students (3)
  • Up to 6 units of approved coursework outside of EWR

Students can take up to 9 elective units. Up to 6 units could be outside the MSCE EWR program (contingent to approval from academic advisor*). Elective courses may include up to 6 units of 4000-level courses that are relevant to the program of study, as long as these or equivalent courses have not already been used for credit toward an undergraduate degree (contingent to approval from the academic advisor*).

* To strengthen engineering skills, admitted students that hold a non-engineering CE B.S. degree may be required by the academic advisor to limit their elective courses to College of Engineering MS qualifying courses. Deficiency courses do not count towards MSCE EWR degree credits. Deficiency courses need to be completed before enrolling in MSCE EWR program courses.

Master's Project, Thesis and Comprehensive Examination  

Each student must complete either a master's project (CE 6950 for a total of 3 units) or a master's thesis (CE 6960 for a total of 6 units) or take the comprehensive examination (CE6970 for a total of zero unit).

Program of Study

Each graduate student must meet with his or her academic advisor to develop a written course of study that outlines the specific courses the student will take to complete the MSCE degree. The approved program of study must be submitted before completing the first semester.

The following forms and information will be useful in preparing your program of study:

Academic Advisors

Initial academic advisers are assigned as based on the first letter of the student's last name.

Once you have selected a thesis or project adviser, that person will become your academic adviser.