Grad Profiles - Carnegie Mellon Civil Engineering

Overview
Carnegie Mellon was first established in 1900 as the Carnegie Technical School through a gift from Andrew Carnegie. In 1912, the name of the school was changed to Carnegie Institute of Technology. Mellon Institute, founded in 1913 by A. W. and R. B. Mellon, merged with Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1967 to become Carnegie Mellon University. The University has an enrollment of about 8,500, approximately 3,300 of whom are engaged in graduate study. The teaching and research faculty numbers more than 1,300 members.

The graduate student body numbers 80. Of these, 66 are full-time students, and the majority receive some form of financial aid.

The Location and Community
Pittsburgh is a large metropolitan area of more than 2 million people. There is an unusually large concentration of research laboratories and software firms in the area. Located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is adjacent to Schenley Park, with athletic fields, an ice skating rink, and numerous trails. Oakland is also home to world-renowned medical and educational institutions, as well as the Carnegie Museum and Library.

Recreational opportunities abound. Approximately 40 miles east of Pittsburgh, the Laurel Highlands have ski slopes, white-water rafting, dedicated biking trails, and hiking trails.

Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
Graduate study in this highly ranked department is designed to provide opportunities for the development of professional engineering competence and scholarly achievement. The program emphasizes fundamental knowledge in civil and environmental engineering methodology and in related fields of computational mechanics, computer science, engineering, physical and social science, and management. The study programs are individually planned with faculty consultation; each student designs his or her program, drawing on the available strengths in the department and the University. The department has graduate programs in the following areas: environmental engineering, science, and management, including programs in green design, solid and hazardous waste, pollution prevention, and air-, water-, and soil-quality engineering; mechanics, materials, and computing, including applications in earthquake engineering, biomechanics, materials processing, solid and fluid mechanics, fracture mechanics, and optimal design; and advanced infrastructure systems, including computer-aided design, robotics, transportation systems, environmental systems, and project management. Dual-degree programs (e.g., with Architecture or the Graduate School of Industrial Administration) and programs aimed at practitioners who cannot pursue regular full-time study are available.

In addition to the traditional Ph.D. or M.S. in civil and environmental engineering, the following degrees are offered: Ph.D. or M.S. in civil and environmental engineering/engineering and public policy, civil engineering, engineering, and environmental management and science. The M.S. in civil and environmental engineering can usually be completed in two semesters of courses. The requirements for research M.S. students can usually be completed in three semesters plus a summer. After completion of the master's degree at Carnegie Mellon or elsewhere, students of superior ability are eligible for admission as candidates for the Ph.D. degree. Candidates normally complete one additional year of course work and two years of research.

Facilities & Resources
The Civil and Environmental Engineering Laboratories, located in a four-story wing adjacent to the department, encompass more than 12,000 square feet. Included are individual laboratories for research in water chemistry, aquatic microbiology, air-quality analysis, materials, soil mechanics, and structural mechanics. The environmental engineering facilities encompass 6,000 square feet and include a water chemistry research laboratory, a trace metals clean laboratory, a fully equipped geoenvironmental laboratory, and a microbiology laboratory. Analytical facilities are available for characterization of samples for both major and trace constituents in air, water, and soil samples. The laboratories also have a complement of structural testing equipment, including a closed-loop 100,000-pound MTS system. All full-time graduate students are assigned an office with a desk, filing space, and shared computing equipment.

Computing resources within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering include more than eighty general-purpose multimedia PCs, various systems dedicated to research, and numerous privately owned PCs and laptops. Departmental machines are shared throughout the faculty, staff, and student offices, along with an undergraduate computer cluster. Upon successful completion of the Ph.D. qualifying exam, Ph.D. candidates are issued a personal desktop or laptop computer. The computing infrastructure includes printers distributed throughout the department, high-speed networks, and various specialized equipment and peripherals. General computing services include file, print, e-mail, and Web servers. All equipment in the department is connected to the campus network and campus file systems, providing connections to other University computing facilities (including Computing Services, the School of Computer Science, and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center) and the Internet. Both wireless and direct Ethernet connections are available for networking.

Expenses and Aid
The cost of tuition is $34,000 for the academic year. The cost of books and supplies is estimated at $1,900 for the academic year.

Financial Aid:
Many graduate students are financially supported by research appointments, which are normally made for nine months, from the first of September to the end of May. Separate appointments for research in the summer are common for graduate students in residence. A few students enter research programs in the summer before beginning graduate study in September. In addition to taking a full program of graduate courses, a graduate assistant is usually expected to devote 20 hours per week in research activities and 6?8 hours per week one semester per year as a teaching assistant. This activity is considered to be an integral part of graduate education. M.S. scholarships are available on a competitive basis.

Housing/Living Expenses:
Most graduate students in the department live within walking or biking distance of the campus. Rental units are inexpensive compared to cities such as Cambridge, Massachusetts, or Berkeley, California, and can be located through the Carnegie Mellon University Housing Office's Off-Campus Housing Referral System. Food and lodging costs for the academic year is estimated at $17,700.

How to Apply
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering research brochure and application material can be accessed through the departmental Web site listed below. Applications and complete credentials should be received by February 1 for the fall semester and by September 30 for the spring semester to ensure timely review for financial aid.

Who to Contact
Graduate Program Administrator
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-3890

E-mail: ce-admissions@cmu.edu

Faculty and Research Programs
• Amit Acharya, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994. Phenomenological plasticity, slip- and dislocation-based crystal plasticity, general continuum mechanics; computational methods for constitutive modeling of nonlinear materials, theoretical and computational techniques for multiscale modeling.

• Peter J. Adams, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Caltech, 2001. Air quality assessment, including effects of aerosols on cloud properties, interactions of sulfate nitrate ozone, and integrated assessment of climate change with aerosol and ozone forcings.

• Burcu H. Akinci, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Stanford, 2000. Computer-aided engineering, computer-integrated construction, utilization of emerging technologies at construction sites, information modeling in A/E/C product and process modeling.

• Jacobo Bielak, Professor; Ph.D., Caltech, 1971. Applied and computational mechanics, earthquake engineering and engineering seismology.

• Jared Cohon, Professor and President, Carnegie Mellon University; Ph.D., MIT, 1973. Multiobjective decision making, water resources.

• Cliff I. Davidson, Professor; Ph.D., Caltech, 1977. Transport of anthropogenic aerosols from source to sink, pollutants in remote areas, use of the glacial record to understand historical air pollution trends, indoor air pollution modeling and measurement, atmospheric deposition.

• David A. Dzombak, Professor; Ph.D., MIT, 1986. Environmental engineering, geochemistry and groundwater pollution, physicochemical processes in natural aquatic systems and in water/wastewater treatment.

• Susan Finger, Associate Professor; Ph.D., MIT, 1981. Computer-aided design, representation languages for designs, integration of design and manufacturing concerns, collaborative learning in design.

• James Garrett, Professor; Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon, 1986. Advanced infrastructure systems, sensor systems applications in civil engineering, wearable/mobile computing applications in civil engineering, and advanced computer-based decision support.

• Omar Ghattas, Professor; Ph.D., Duke, 1988. Computational and applied mechanics, optimal design and control, inverse problems, parallel scientific computing, biomechanics, applied numerical algorithms.

• Chris T. Hendrickson, Duquesne Light Company Professor and Head; Ph.D., MIT, 1978. Civil systems, project management and finance, product and process design for the environment, computer applications in engineering planning and management.

• Gregory V. Lowry, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Stanford, 2000. Environmental engineering; fate, transport, and treatment of organic contaminants; use of nanomaterials for subsurface DNAPL remediation; sediment remediation.

• H. Scott Matthews, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering/Engineering and Public Policy; Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon, 1999. Energy and electricity management of built and digital infrastructure, life-cycle assessment of products and processes, application of sensing to built and natural environment, infrastructure management.

• Irving J. Oppenheim, Professor of Civil Engineering and Architecture; Ph.D., Cambridge, 1972. Structural mechanics, robotics, MEMS devices, ultrasonics, structural health monitoring.

• Daniel R. Rehak, Professor; Ph.D., Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1981. Computer applications in civil engineering, design of computer-aided engineering systems, alternative hardware and software environments for computer applications, educational systems.

• Mitchell J. Small, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering/Engineering and Public Policy and Associate Head of Engineering and Public Policy; Ph.D., Michigan, 1982. Environmental engineering; mathematical modeling of surface water, groundwater, and air quality; probabilistic methods and uncertainty; analysis, exposure, and risk assessment.

• Hoon Sohn, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Stanford, 1999. Structural health monitoring and damage detection, smart materials and structures, active sensing, system identification, signal processing, statistical pattern recognition.

• Lucio Soibelman, Associate Professor; Ph.D., MIT, 1998. Use of information technology for economic development and construction management, process integration during the development of large-scale engineering systems, information logistics, artificial intelligence, data mining, knowledge discovery, image reasoning, text mining, machine learning, data modeling, data integration, data fusion, multireasoning mechanisms.

• Jeanne M. VanBriesen, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Northwestern, 1998. Environmental engineering, environmental biotechnology, environmental microbiology, and biogeochemical processes.

• Advanced Infrastructure Systems. Emerging information and communication technologies (ICT) for planning, design, construction, facility/infrastructure management, and environmental monitoring, so as to improve the sustainability, efficiency, maintainability, durability, and overall performance of these systems.

• Environmental Engineering, Science, and Management. Air quality, environmental management, green design, water quality, and biotechnology.

• Mechanics, Materials, and Computing. Fluid and structural applications in a variety of application areas, theoretical and computational dislocation mechanics, material length scale effects in crystal plasticity, and coarse-graining of nonlinear evolutionary systems.