2011-2012 Bulletin – PDF - SEAS Bulletin - Columbia University

Program Objectives
In developing and continually updating
our program to achieve the stated
mission of the department, we seek to
achieve the following objectives:
1. To provide a firm foundation in the
basic math, science, and engineering
sciences that underlie all technological
development so our graduates will be
well equipped to adapt to changing
technology in the profession.
2. To provide the broad and
fundamental technical base needed
by graduates who will enter the
profession through the increasingly
common path of a specialized M.S.,
but also provide suitable preparation
to those who choose to enter the
professional workforce with a B.S. to
develop specialized expertise by way
of apprenticeship.
3. To provide the breadth and choices in
our programs that can accommodate
and foster not only students with
differing technical objectives, but also
those who will use their technical
background to follow other career
paths.
4. To provide a basis for effective
writing and communication as well
as a background to foster awareness
of societal issues.
Engineering Mechanics
The prerequisites for this program are
the courses listed in the First Year–
Sophomore Program (see above), or
their equivalents, with the provision that
ENME E3105: Mechanics be taken
in the sophomore year and that the
student have obtained a grade of B or
better.
Civil Engineering
The prerequisites for this program
are the courses listed in the First
Year–Sophomore Program or their
equivalents. The civil engineering
program offers three areas of
concentration: civil engineering and
construction management, geotechnical
engineering or structural engineering,
and water resources/environmental
engineering. An optional minor can be
selected in architecture, education,
economics, and any of the engineering
departments in the School. In the junior
and senior years, 18 credits of technical
electives are allocated.
The department offers a first-year
design course, CIEN E1201: The art of
structural design, which all students are
required to take in the spring semester
of the first year or later. An equivalent
course could be substituted for E1201.
Minor in Architecture
Civil engineering program students may
want to consider a minor in architecture
(see page 190).
Graduate Programs
The Department of Civil Engineering
and Engineering Mechanics offers
graduate programs leading to the
degree of Master of Science (M.S.), the
professional degrees Civil Engineer and
Mechanics Engineer and the degrees
of Doctor of Engineering Science (Eng.
Sc.D.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).
These programs are flexible and may
involve concentrations in structures,
construction engineering, reliability and
random processes, soil mechanics,
fluid mechanics, hydrogeology,
continuum mechanics, finite element
methods, computational mechanics,
experimental mechanics, vibrations
and dynamics, earthquake engineering,
or any combination thereof, such as
fluid-structure interaction. The Graduate
Record Examination (GRE) is required
for admission to the department.
Civil Engineering
By selecting technical electives, students
may focus on one of several areas of
concentration or prepare for future
endeavors such as architecture. Some
typical concentrations are:
• Structural engineering: applications
to steel and concrete buildings,
bridges, and other structures
• Geotechnical engineering: soil
mechanics, foundation engineering,
tunneling, and geodisasters
• Construction engineering and
management: capital facility planning
and financing, strategic management,
managing engineering and
construction processes, construction
industry law, construction techniques,
managing civil infrastructure systems,
civil engineering and construction
entrepreneurship
• Environmental engineering and
water resources: transport of
water-borne substances, hydrology,
sediment transport, hydrogeology,
and geoenvironmental design of
containment systems
Engineering Mechanics
Programs in engineering mechanics
offer comprehensive training in the
principles of applied mathematics
and continuum mechanics and in the
application of these principles to the
solution of engineering problems. The
emphasis is on basic principles, enabling
students to choose from among a wide
range of technical areas. Students may
work on problems in such disciplines as
systems analysis, acoustics, and stress
analysis, and in fields as diverse as
transportation, environmental, structural,
nuclear, and aerospace engineering.
Program areas include:
• Continuum mechanics: solid and
fluid mechanics, theories of elastic
and inelastic behavior, and damage
mechanics
• Vibrations: nonlinear and random
vibrations; dynamics of continuous
media, of structures and rigid bodies,
and of combined systems, such as
fluid-structure interaction; active,
passive, and hybrid control systems
for structures under seismic loading;
dynamic soil-structure interaction
effects on the seismic response of
structures
• Random processes and reliability:
problems in design against failure
under earthquake, wind, and wave
loadings; noise, and turbulent flows;
analysis of structures with random
properties
• Fluid mechanics: turbulent flows,
two-phase flows, fluid-structure
interaction, fluid-soil interaction, flow in
porous media, computational methods
for flow and transport processes, and
flow and transport in fractured rock
under mechanical loading
• Computational mechanics: finite
element and boundary element
techniques, symbolic computation,
and bioengineering applications
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engineering 2011–2012