Transportation Engineering
and Civil Infrastructure Systems

Overview

Civil infrastructure systems involves the design, analysis and management of infrastructure that supports human activities, such as electric power, oil and gas, water and wastewater, communications, transportation and the buildings that make up urban and rural communities. These networks deliver essential services, provide shelter and support social interactions and economic development. They are society’s lifelines.

The field of civil infrastructure systems builds on and extends traditional civil engineering areas. Rather than focus on individual structural components or structures, civil infrastructure systems emphasizes how different structures behave together as a system that serves a community’s needs. Problems in this field typically involve a great deal of uncertainty, multiple and competing objectives, and sometimes numerous and conflicting constituencies. They are often spatial and dynamic. The technical aspects of infrastructure engineering must be understood in the social, economic, political and cultural context in which they exist. Technical aspects must also be considered over a long time horizon that includes not just design and construction, but also maintenance, operations, performance in natural disasters and other extreme events and destruction.

The transportation engineering program offers opportunities for study and research in the planning, design, operation, maintenance and management of transportation facilities and services. We emphasize a systems approach to understanding the interactions among transportation demand, mobility, socio-economic activities, environment, energy, and the quality of life. A variety of techniques and data are used including mathematical modeling and simulation, as well as many of the software tools currently used in the practice. Students take courses in travel demand forecasting; traffic engineering and modeling; logistics and freight transportation, intermodal urban transportation systems, asset management and rail systems.

Courses

Core Courses:

Modeling Infrastructure Systems (3 of the 4 listed)

Physical Infrastructure Systems

      • CIEG 601 – Introduction to Finite Element Method*
      • Two classes from Physical Infrastructure Systems suggested electives.

Transportation Systems (3 of the 4 listed)

      • CIEG 652 – Transportation Facilities Planning & Design
      • CIEG 653 – Roadway Geometric Design
      • CIEG 654 – Urban Transportation Planning
      • CIEG 663 – Traffic Engineering & Modeling

Suggested electives include:

Students pursuing any of the three topic areas of the Transportation Engineering and Civil Infrastructure Systems master’s degrees may choose from any of the four categories of electives listed below. Electives are categorized into groups for informational purposes only.

Physical Infrastructure Systems

  • CIEG 601 – Introduction to Finite Element Method*
  • CIEG 608 – Introduction to Bridge Design
  • CIEG 611 – Structural Dynamics Design
  • CIEG 612 – Advanced Mechanics of Materials
  • CIEG 614 – Railroad Geotechnical Engineering
  • CIEG 617 – Railroad Safety and Derailment Engineering
  • CIEG 618 – Introduction to Railroad Engineering*
  • CIEG 621 – Foundation Engineering
  • CIEG 642 – Advanced Data Analysis
  • CIEG 652 – Transportation Facilities Planning & Design
  • CIEG 653 – Roadway Geometric Design**
  • CIEG 654 – Urban Transportation Planning**
  • CIEG 655 – Civil Infrastructure Systems
  • CIEG 658 – Pavement Analysis & Design
  • CIEG 662 – Transportation Sustainability** (inactive)
  • CIEG 663 – Traffic Engineering & Modeling**
  • CIEG 686 – Engineering Project Management
  • UAPP 611 – Regional Watershed Management

Modeling and Tools

  • BUAD 621 – Decision Analytics and Visualization*
  • CIEG 642 – Advance Data Analysis
  • CIEG 675 – MATLAB for Engineering Analysis
  • GEOG 670 – Geographic Information Systems**
  • GEOG 671 – Advanced Geographic Information Systems
  • MAST 663 – Decision Tools for Policy Analysis
  • STAT 601 – Probability Theory for Operations Research
  • STAT 602 – Mathematical Statistics
  • STAT 608 – Statistical Research Methods*
  • STAT 609 – Regression and Experimental Design
  • STAT 611 – Regression Analysis*
  • UAPP 691 – Quantitative Analysis in Public and Nonprofit Sectors**

Social Science and Policy Analysis

Transportation          

  • CIEG 617 – Railroad Safety and Derailment Engineering
  • CIEG 618 – Introduction to Railroad Engineering
  • CIEG 621 – Foundation Engineering
  • CIEG 641 – Risk Analysis
  • CIEG 642 – Advance Data Analysis
  • CIEG 646 – Convex Optimization
  • CIEG 647 – Network Optimization
  • CIEG 655 – Civil Infrastructure Systems
  • CIEG 657 – Contemporary Topics in Transportation
  • CIEG 658 – Pavement Analysis & Design
  • CIEG 659 – Optimization in Design and Construction
  • CIEG 686 – Engineering Project Management
  • ECON 811 – Microeconomic Theory I
  • ECON 812 – Macroeconomic Theory I
  • GEOG 670 – Geographic Information Systems
  • GEOG 671 – Advanced Geographic Information Systems
  • MAST 663 – Decision Tools for Policy Analysis
  • MAST 672 – Cost Benefit Analysis
  • STAT 601 – Probability Theory for Operations Research
  • STAT 602 – Mathematical Statistics
  • STAT 608 – Statistical Research Methods
  • STAT 609 – Regression and Experimental Design
  • UAPP 701 – Public Policy
  • UAPP 707 – Public Policy Analysis

Note: *Online, **Evening

Additional Courses

Students without any computer programming or Computer Science background should take CISC 106CISC 181 or CISC 220. The College of Engineering also periodically offers courses in technical writing for graduate students. Students should strongly consider these courses when announcements are posted.

Faculty

Rachel Davidson – Natural disaster risk analysis

Shangjia Dong – Disasters, infrastructure systems

Ardeshir Faghri – Transportation systems engineering; computer methods in transportation and traffic engineering; intelligent transportation systems; transportation in developing countries

Earl “Rusty” Lee – Modeling interdependent infrastructure systems with emphasis on system design, vulnerability and resilience; Uses of travel demand models to support planning and operations; models for demand response signal corridors; impacts of major events on transportation systems; safety data visualization.

Haritha Malladi – Infrastructure, materials, sustainability, transportation

Sue McNeil – Transportation asset management, life-cycle costing, application of advanced technologies, economic analysis, condition assessment and deterioration modeling, decision support

Mark M. Nejad – Autonomous and connected vehicles, electric vehicles, sustainable transportation, interdependent infrastructure systems, operations research, network optimization, cloud computing, game theory

Dr. Allan Zarembski – Railroad engineering, Railroad safety, Railroad track mechanics, Derailment Engineering, Railroad maintenance and planning

 

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