Civil Engineering, BSCE < Northeastern University Academic Catalog

Civil engineers play a vital role in human progress and well-being worldwide. Conceptualizing, innovating, designing, and building sustainable infrastructure and environments is fundamental in helping society progress. Modern challenges, including engineering a resilient and sustainable urban infrastructure; establishing clean water and a clean environment; and advancing technologies in computing, sensing, and human health, are all part of the development of society.

Civil engineers design and construct buildings, bridges, tunnels, dams, and river systems. They also plan, design, construct, and manage highways, railroads, canals, and airports; regulate rivers and control floods; and design and build systems for water distribution and environmental protection.

With a broad range of applications, our civil engineering students have the opportunity to explore a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary tracks, including environmental and water systems, structural engineering, transportation engineering, geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, construction management, civil infrastructure security, environmental health, and sustainable resource engineering.

Our BS program in Civil Engineering is ABET accredited. Program educational outcomes can be found at the department's website.

Concentrations and course offerings may vary by campus and/or by program modality. Please consult with your advisor or admissions coach for the course availability each term at your campus or within your program modality.
Certain options within the program may be required at certain campuses or for certain program modalities. Please consult with your advisor or admissions coach for requirements at your campus or for your program modality.

Complete all courses listed below unless otherwise indicated. Also complete any corequisite labs, recitations, clinicals, or tools courses where specified and complete any additional courses needed beyond specific college and major requirements to satisfy graduation credit requirements.

Universitywide Requirements

All undergraduate students are required to complete the Universitywide Requirements.

NUpath Requirements

All undergraduate students are required to complete the NUpath Requirements.

NUpath requirements: Interpreting Culture (IC), Understanding Societies and Institutions (SI), Engaging Differences and Diversity (DD), and Integrating Knowledge and Skills Through Experience (EX) are not explicitly satisfied by required engineering coursework. Successful completion of a cooperative education experience fulfills the EX requirement. Students are responsible for satisfying unfulfilled NUpath requirements with general elective coursework.

Engineering Requirements

Course List
Code	Title	Hours
Required Engineering
CIVE 2221 and CIVE 2222	Statics and Solid Mechanics and Recitation for CIVE 2221	4
CIVE 2260 and CIVE 2261	Materials for the Built Environment and Lab for CIVE 2260	5
CIVE 2320 and CIVE 2321	Structural Analysis and Recitation for CIVE 2320	4
CIVE 2324	Concrete Structure Design	4
or CIVE 3425	Steel Structure Design
CIVE 2331	Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics	4
CIVE 2334	Environmental Engineering: Principles, Technology, and Sustainability	4
CIVE 2340 and CIVE 2341	Geotechnical Engineering and Lab for CIVE 2340	5
GE 3300	Energy Systems: Science, Technology, and Sustainability	4
Civil Engineering Project Elective
Complete one of the following:		4
CIVE 4534 and CIVE 4535	Water Treatment Systems Design and Lab for CIVE 4534
CIVE 4542	Foundation Engineering and Design
CIVE 4554	Highway Design
CIVE 5536	Hydrologic and Hydraulic Design
Senior Design Project
Complete one of the following:		5
CIVE 4765	Senior Design Project—Environmental
CIVE 4767	Senior Design Project—Structural
CIVE 4768	Senior Design Project—Transportation
Civil Engineering Technical Electives
Complete three of the following:		11-12
CIVE 2324	Concrete Structure Design
CIVE 3425	Steel Structure Design
CIVE 3435	Environmental Pollution: Fate and Transport
CIVE 4540	Resource Recovery and Waste Treatment Technologies Abroad
CIVE 4542	Foundation Engineering and Design
CIVE 4554	Highway Design
CIVE 4566	Design for Sustainable Transportation: Netherlands
CIVE 4575	Construction Management
CIVE 4777	Climate Hazards and Resilient Cities Abroad
CIVE 4780	Timber and Masonry Structures: Technology and Design Abroad
CIVE 5221	Construction Project Control and Organization
CIVE 5231	Alternative Project Delivery Systems in Construction
CIVE 5250	Organic Pollutants in the Environment
CIVE 5260	Environmental Fluid Mechanics
CIVE 5261	Dynamic Modeling for Environmental Investment and Policymaking
CIVE 5271	Solid and Hazardous Waste Management
CIVE 5275	Life Cycle Assessment of Materials, Products, and Infrastructure
CIVE 5280	Remote Sensing of the Environment
CIVE 5281	Coastal Dynamics and Design
CIVE 5300 and CIVE 5301	Environmental Sampling and Analysis and Lab for CIVE 5300
CIVE 5363	Climate Science, Engineering Adaptation, and Policy
CIVE 5373	Transportation Systems: Analysis and Planning
CIVE 5376	Traffic Engineering and Sustainable Urban Street Design
CIVE 5520	Structural Systems
CIVE 5522	Structural Systems Modeling
CIVE 5524	Vibration-Based Structural Health Monitoring
CIVE 5525	Prestressed Concrete Design
CIVE 5536	Hydrologic and Hydraulic Design
CIVE 5699	Special Topics in Civil Engineering
SBSY 5100	Sustainable Design and Technologies in Construction
SBSY 5200	Sustainable Engineering Systems for Buildings
SBSY 5250	Building Performance Simulation
SBSY 5300	Information Systems for Integrated Project Delivery
Supplemental Credit
2 semester hours from the following course count toward the engineering requirement:		2
GE 1501	Cornerstone of Engineering 1 ¹
3 semester hours from the following course count toward the engineering requirement:		3
GE 1502	Cornerstone of Engineering 2 ¹
1 semester hour from the following course counts toward the engineering requirement:		1
CIVE 3464	Probability and Engineering Economy for Civil Engineering

Supporting Courses: Mathematics/Science

Complete all Mathematics/Science courses with a minimum of 30 semester hours.

Course List
Code	Title	Hours
Required Mathematics/Science
CHEM 1151 and CHEM 1153	General Chemistry for Engineers and Recitation for CHEM 1151	4
MATH 1341	Calculus 1 for Science and Engineering	4
MATH 1342	Calculus 2 for Science and Engineering	4
MATH 2321	Calculus 3 for Science and Engineering	4
MATH 2341	Differential Equations and Linear Algebra for Engineering	4
Complete one of the following:		5
PHYS 1151 and PHYS 1152 and PHYS 1153	Physics for Engineering 1 and Lab for PHYS 1151 and Interactive Learning Seminar for PHYS 1151
PHYS 1161 and PHYS 1162 and PHYS 1163	Physics 1 and Lab for PHYS 1161 and Recitation for PHYS 1161
Science Elective
Complete one of the following:		4-5
BIOL 1111 and BIOL 1112	General Biology 1 and Lab for BIOL 1111
BIOL 1141	Microbes and Society
BIOL 1143	Biology and Society
CHEM 2311 and CHEM 2312 and CHEM 2319	Organic Chemistry 1 and Lab for CHEM 2311 and Recitation for CHEM 2311
CHEM 3410	Environmental Geochemistry
EEMB 1101 and EEMB 1102	Foundations in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Lab for EEMB 1101
EEMB 2302 and EEMB 2303	Ecology and Lab for EEMB 2302
ENVR 1200	Dynamic Earth
ENVR 2200	Earth's Changing Cycles
ENVR 2515	Sustainable Development
ENVR 3125	Global Oceanic Change
ENVR 3200	Water Resources
ENVR 3600	Oceanography
ENVR 5201	Geologic Field Seminar
ENVR 5350	Sustainable Energy and Climate Solutions
PHYS 1111	Introduction to Astronomy
PHYS 1125	Introduction to Network Science: From the Human Cell to Facebook
PHYS 1132	Energy, Environment, and Society
PHYS 1155 and PHYS 1156	Physics for Engineering 2 and Lab for PHYS 1155
PHYS 4623	Medical Physics
Supplemental Credit
3 semester hours from the following course count toward the mathematics/science requirement:		3
CIVE 3464	Probability and Engineering Economy for Civil Engineering
1 semester hour from the following course counts toward the mathematics/science requirement:		1
GE 1501	Cornerstone of Engineering 1 ¹

Supporting Course

Course List
Code	Title	Hours
Economics
ECON 1115	Principles of Macroeconomics	4
or ECON 1116	Principles of Microeconomics

Professional Development

Course List
Code	Title	Hours
Professional Development
GE 1000	First-Year Seminar	1
ENCP 2000	Introduction to Engineering Co-op Education	1
ENCP 3000	Professional Issues in Engineering	1
Additional Required Courses
1 semester hour from the following course counts toward the professional development requirement:		1
GE 1501	Cornerstone of Engineering 1 ¹
1 semester hour from the following course counts toward the professional development requirement:		1
GE 1502	Cornerstone of Engineering 2 ¹

¹: Students can substitute Engineering Design (GE 1110) and Engineering Problem Solving and Computation (GE 1111) for Cornerstone of Engineering 1 (GE 1501) and Cornerstone of Engineering 2 (GE 1502) .

Writing Requirements

Course List
Code	Title	Hours
A grade of C or higher is required:
ENGW 1111	First-Year Writing	4
ENGW 3302	Advanced Writing in the Technical Professions	4
or ENGW 3315	Interdisciplinary Advanced Writing in the Disciplines

Required General Electives

Course List
Code	Title	Hours
Complete 24 SH of academic, nonremedial, nonrepetitive courses.		24

Major GPA Requirement

2.000 minimum GPA required in CIVE coursework

Program Requirement

134 total semester hours required

Sample Plan of Study

Four Years, Two Co-ops in Summer 2/Fall

Year 1
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CHEM 1151 (ND)	4	GE 1502 (ER)	4	CIVE 2221	4	General Elective	4
CHEM 1153	0	MATH 1342 (FQ)	4	CIVE 2222	0	General Elective	4
ENGW 1111 (WF)	4	PHYS 1151 (ND)	3	MATH 2321 (FQ)	4
GE 1000	1	PHYS 1152 (AD)	1
GE 1501	4	PHYS 1153	1
MATH 1341 (FQ)	4	General Elective	4
	17		17		8		8
Year 2
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CIVE 2260	4	CIVE 2320	4	CIVE 2324	4	Co-op	0
CIVE 2261 (AD)	1	CIVE 2321	0	General Elective	4
CIVE 2334	4	CIVE 2331	4
ECON 1115 or 1116 (SI, AD)	4	CIVE 2340 and CIVE 2341	5
MATH 2341	4	ENCP 2000	1
		General Elective	4
	17		18		8		0
Year 3
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
Co-op	0	CIVE 3464	4	ENGW 3302 or 3315 (WD)	4	Co-op	0
		GE 3300	4	General Elective	4
		Civil Project Elective (WI)	4
		Civil Tech. Elective	3
	0		15		8		0
Year 4
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours
Co-op	0	CIVE 4765, 4767, or 4768 (EI, CE, WI)	5
		ENCP 3000	1
		Civil Tech. Elective	4
		Civil Tech. Elective	4
		Science Elective	4
	0		18
Total Hours: 134

Four Years, Two Co-ops in Spring/Summer 1

Year 1
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CHEM 1151 (ND)	4	GE 1502 (ER)	4	CIVE 2221	4	General Elective	4
CHEM 1153	0	MATH 1342 (FQ)	4	CIVE 2222	0	General Elective	4
ENGW 1111 (WF)	4	PHYS 1151 (ND)	3	MATH 2321 (FQ)	4
GE 1000	1	PHYS 1152 (AD)	1
GE 1501	4	PHYS 1153	1
MATH 1341 (FQ)	4	General Elective	4
	17		17		8		8
Year 2
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CIVE 2260	4	Co-op	0	Co-op	0	General Elective	4
CIVE 2261 (AD)	1					General Elective	4
CIVE 2320	4
CIVE 2321	0
CIVE 2334	4
ENCP 2000	1
MATH 2341	4
	18		0		0		8
Year 3
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CIVE 2324	4	Co-op	0	Co-op	0	CIVE 2340	4
CIVE 2331	4					CIVE 2341	1
ECON 1115 or 1116 (SI, AD)	4					ENGW 3302 or 3315 (WD)	4
GE 3300	4
	16		0		0		9
Year 4
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours
ENCP 3000	1	CIVE 4765, 4767, or 4768 (EI, CE, WI)	5
CIVE 3464	4	Civil Tech. Elective	4
Civil Project Elective (WI)	4	Civil Tech. Elective	4
Civil Tech. Elective	3	General Elective	4
Science Elective	4
	16		17
Total Hours: 134

Five Years, Three Co-ops in Summer 2/Fall

Year 1
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CHEM 1151 (ND)	4	GE 1502 (ER)	4	Vacation		Vacation
CHEM 1153	0	MATH 1342 (FQ)	4
ENGW 1111 (WF)	4	PHYS 1151 (ND)	3
GE 1000	1	PHYS 1152 (AD)	1
GE 1501	4	PHYS 1153	1
MATH 1341 (FQ)	4	General Elective	4
	17		17		0		0
Year 2
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CIVE 2221	4	CIVE 2260	4	Vacation		Co-op	0
CIVE 2222	0	CIVE 2261 (AD)	1
CIVE 2334	4	CIVE 2320	4
ECON 1115 or 1116 (AD, SI)	4	CIVE 2321	0
MATH 2321 (FQ)	4	ENCP 2000	1
		GE 3300	4
		MATH 2341	4
	16		18		0		0
Year 3
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
Co-op	0	CIVE 2331	4	CIVE 2324	4	Co-op	0
		CIVE 2340	4	General Elective	4
		CIVE 2341	1
		Civil Tech. Elective	4
		Science Elective	4
	0		17		8		0
Year 4
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
Co-op	0	CIVE 3464	4	General Elective	4	Co-op	0
		ENCP 3000	1	General Elective	4
		ENGW 3302 or 3315 (WD)	4
		Civil Project Elective (WI)	4
		Civil Tech. Elective	3
	0		16		8		0
Year 5
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours
Co-op	0	CIVE 4765, 4767, or 4768 (EI, CE, WI)	5
		Civil Tech. Elective	4
		General Elective	4
		General Elective	4
	0		17
Total Hours: 134

Five Years, Three Co-ops in Spring/Summer 1

Year 1
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CHEM 1151 (ND)	4	GE 1502 (ER)	4	Vacation		Vacation
CHEM 1153	0	MATH 1342 (FQ)	4
ENGW 1111 (WF)	4	PHYS 1151 (ND)	3
GE 1000	1	PHYS 1152 (AD)	1
GE 1501	4	PHYS 1153	1
MATH 1341 (FQ)	4	General Elective	4
	17		17		0		0
Year 2
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CIVE 2221	4	Co-op	0	Co-op	0	Vacation
CIVE 2222	0
CIVE 2260	4
CIVE 2261 (AD)	1
CIVE 2334	4
ENCP 2000	1
MATH 2321 (FQ)	4
	18		0		0		0
Year 3
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CIVE 2320	4	Co-op	0	Co-op	0	CIVE 2340	4
CIVE 2321	0					CIVE 2341	1
CIVE 2331	4					MATH 2341	4
ECON 1115 or 1116 (AD, SI)	4
GE 3300	4
	16		0		0		9
Year 4
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
CIVE 2324	4	Co-op	0	Co-op	0	General Elective	4
ENCP 3000	1					General Elective	4
ENGW 3302 or 3315 (WD)	4
Civil Tech. Elective	3
Science Elective	4
	16		0		0		8
Year 5
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours
CIVE 3464	4	CIVE 4765, 4767, or 4768 (EI, CE, WI)	5
Civil Project Elective (WI)	4	Civil Tech. Elective	4
Civil Tech. Elective	4	General Elective	4
General Elective	4	General Elective	4
	16		17
Total Hours: 134

Academic Catalog 2024-2025

Civil Engineering, BSCE