Courses
The Construction Engineering and Management program offers classes within the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. The courses are offered to help you prepare for a successful career in the engineering and construction industry. Courses focus on the integration of engineering and construction offering diverse topics that cover both construction engineering (e.g., site layout, equipment selection, formwork design, etc.) and construction management (e.g., scheduling, estimating, contracts, risk and decision support, etc.). Blending this rigorous civil or architectural engineering core curriculum with a wide variety of construction-related courses will prepare you for success in the civil engineering, architectural engineering, and construction sectors.
Course Numbering and Notes
- 1000 - 2000 courses are usually intended for lower-division students (freshmen and sophomores)
- 3000 - 4000 courses are intended for upper-division students (juniors and seniors). These courses cannot be taken for credit towards MS or PhD degrees.
- 5000-level courses usually require graduate-student status, but may be open to qualified undergraduates with instructor consent.
- Courses at the 6000, 7000 and the 8000 level are usually open only to graduate students.
- AREN is the abbreviation for Architectural Engineering, while CVEN indicates a Civil Engineering course
CVEN 5006 (3 credits). Construction Engineering & Management Fundamentals: Provides an overview of the construction industry to establish a foundation for subsequent graduate courses in construction engineering and management. Students will be exposed to projects of varying funding sources, contracts, scope and complexity. Project phases will be established including planning, funding, design, construction, turnover, operation and maintenance. The course focuses on fundamental construction cost estimating, scheduling, delivery systems, contractual relationships, key contract clauses, risk allocation, building materials/systems and project controls. Special attention will be paid to emerging technologies and industry trends.
CVEN 5206 (3 credits). Design Development: Investigates the interrelationship between design decisions and building costs, and the impact of each major building system and building trade on project budgets, and schedules. Gives students the opportunity to prepare technical, marketing, and financial packages for investors as well as regulatory and financial institutions. Culminates with detailed presentations of student-developed project prospectuses.
CVEN 5226 (3 credits). Safety and Quality: Comprehensively studies safety in the construction industry. The course extensively focuses on advanced safety management issues such as accident causation theory, economic modeling, safety risk quantification and analysis, design for safety, precursor analysis, hazard recognition, and emerging technologies. Skills developed in this course will prepare graduate students to be effective quality and safety managers on dynamic and complex projects.
CVEN 5246 (3 credits). Legal Aspects of Construction: Applies law in engineering practice; contracts, construction contract documents, construction specification writing, agency, partnership, and property; types of construction contracts; and legal responsibilities and ethical requirements of the professional engineer.
CVEN 5276 (3 credits). Engineering Risk and Decision Analysis: Investigates the fundamental principles and techniques of risk and decision analysis. It applies these principles in project-level decisions in which risk or uncertainty play a central role. It applies risk and decision tools including Monte Carlo analyses, influence diagrams, and various types of multi-criteria decision analyses. The course culminates in a larger term project.
CVEN 5346 (3 credits). Managing Construction Engineering Projects and Organizations: Explores organizational and managerial issues and concerns facing executives in engineering and construction organizations. Through readings, case studies, simulation exercises, and projects, students are introduced to and apply concepts of strategy, core competencies, vision, innovation, team dynamics, interpersonal influence, organizational design issues, and global projects to engineering and construction organizations.
CVEN 5836 (1-3 credits). Special Topics for Seniors/Grads: Supervised study of special topics of interest to students under instructor guidance. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours.
CVEN 5836 (3 credits). Building Information Modeling for Capital Projects: Focuses on building information modeling (BIM) for buildings-type projects. Students will gain knowledge on the implementation of BIM throughout a building’s lifecycle, from planning and design through construction and operations. This project-based course covers topics including setting up projects for success, model-based cost estimating, and design coordination.
CVEN 5836 (3 credits). Infrastructure Asset Management: This course focuses on the fundamentals of infrastructure asset management, which combines engineering principles and economic theory to facilitate a more organized and logical approach to decision-making. A framework for asset management is discussed in detail, including asset valuation, maintenance needs assessment, and performance monitoring and prediction. Other topics covered in the course include: decision support systems, life cycle cost analysis and optimization, data analysis, and sustainability. Although the concepts introduced in this course are applicable to different infrastructure systems, special emphasis is given to transportation projects.
AREN 2050 (3 credits). Building Systems and Materials: To investigate the broad subject of building materials, building assembly details, systems and methods of building construction. Students will explore codes and classifications, construction contracts types, foundations, wood, steel, concrete, masonry, cladding, doors and windows, interiors, finishes, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, life safety and conveyance systems. Upon completion of the course students will have a foundational understanding of building systems and the process required to construct a building.
AREN 4506 (3 credits). Preconstruction Estimating and Scheduling: Provides an overview of pre-construction scheduling and estimating for construction and engineering projects. Students will be introduced to project management methods with an emphasis on the techniques used to plan, estimate and schedule the project. Students will apply lecture and reading material to textbook and provided problems, use computer programs, including P6 and RS Means, and schedule and estimate a project.
AREN 4606 (3 credits). Project Execution and Control: In this course students will explore the execution side of construction and engineering in an applied setting. Topics include site logistics, delivery systems, payment systems, risk management, schedule and cost tracking and control, progress measurement and earned value. A significant portion of the course will focus on contracts and contract administration. Students will develop a working understanding of the various types of contracts, key contract provisions, how to evaluate contract risk, ethical requirements, most importantly explore effective contract administration. Through class lessons, group dialog and case studies students will develop confidence in their ability to perform on a job site in a complex construction setting.
CVEN 3246 (3 credits). Introduction to Construction: Broad view of concerns, activities, and objectives of people involved in construction: the owner, architect/engineer, contractor, labor, and inspector. Interactive gaming situation relates these people to the construction contract, plans/specifications, estimates/bids, scheduling, law, engineering economics, and financial management.
CVEN 3256 (3 credits). Construction Equipment and Methods: Integrated study of construction equipment, methods, and economics. Topics include equipment productivity, equipment selection, and construction engineering design within economic constraints. Examples include earthmoving, concrete formwork, and temporary construction.