Choose Your Path - Three Study Tracks
Graduate students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department can choose from three engineering study tracks:
and two tracks within Environmental Engineering:
These study tracks encompass a core set of courses that parallel the research interests of our faculty. For a full listing of departmental graduate courses, read more.
Study Track Basics
Students must satisfy specific course requirements for each the chosen study track in addition to the required courses for a M.S./Ph.D. degree. Students should perceive their coursework not only as a preparation for the needs of their specific research but also as a foundation for their further professional growth in the years to come. The combination of departmental courses and track-specific core courses will greatly enhance that growth. For more information, read degrees & certificates. See also all departmental graduate courses.
Admitted students with academic backgrounds outside of civil and environmental engineering may need to take some CEE undergraduate level courses in order to be prepared for graduate level coursework. Some of these courses may be counted towards the M.S. or Ph.D. degree requirements. Please consult with the Director of Graduate Studies.
Each track is associated with a sequence of core courses that must be satisfactorily completed by the student and is supported by graduate faculty members who are committed to teach the core courses on a regular basis. The tracks and their accompanying courses are given in the table below. Each student must take at least one course in each of the principal areas in addition to the two departmental core courses, CE 200 and CE 202. Note that these classes alone do not satisfy the overall course requirements for a degree, only the track-specific requirements.
Students may request that their Qualifying Exam Committee (QEC) grant a waiver for a departmental or track core course requirement. They must document previous knowledge of the content of the core course. The documentation submitted to their QEC may include, but is not limited to: prior course work, evidenced by course outlines, textbooks used, and course descriptions from official bulletins or catalogs. The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) must approve the waiver in writing.
STUDY TRACK: Materials, Structures and Geosystems
Graduate study in materials, structures and geosystems engineering is highly interdisciplinary and offers students tremendous flexibility in crafting a graduate program that suits individual interests. Students can take advantage of research and courses taught not only within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering but also in other engineering departments, and Duke's other professional schools and institutes. For example, students can select from course andresearch opportunities within the strong nonlinear dynamics/adaptive control, fluid dynamics and aerodynamics, thermal science and materials science programs of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science.
Typical areas of study within this track include engineering mechanics, computational mechanics, geomaterials and environmental geomechanics, engineering and environmental geophysics, and structural engineering.
STUDY TRACK - Environmental Engineering: Environmental Process Engineering or Hydrology and Fluid Dynamics
Graduate study in environmental engineering is highly interdisciplinary and offers students tremendous flexibility in crafting a graduate program that suits individual interests. Inaddition to courses offered within the Pratt School of Engineering, students may take courses from Duke's professional schools and institutes including the Nicholas School for the Environment and Earth Sciences, the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, and the Sanford Institute of Public Policy.
Within the M.S./Ph.D. course and research opportunities offered for Duke graduate environmental engineering students, there are two tracks of study encompassing water resource engineering, hydrology, environmental fluid dynamics, and chemical and biological aspects of pollution ofwater, atmosphere, and soil, among others.
Graduate Study Tracks in Environmental Engineering
