Introduction to Civil Engineering

This course introduces the Civil Engineering field, including contemporary issues, career opportunities, systematic design, problem solving, communication, and ethical/social issues. There will be lectures and design problems given by MU Civil Engineering faculty in each area as well as failure case studies and career advisement given by Civil industry representatives.

Civil Engineering Materials

This course covers civil engineering materials including concrete, metals, polymers, asphalt, and wood. The composition, fabrication, and deterioration of the materials will be discussed and class and physical and mechanical characteristics of the materials measured in the laboratory.

Structural Systems Design

This course covers the design of steel and reinforced concrete buildings. Topics include estimation of loads (gravity, wind, seismic), design of gravity and lateral force resisting systems, analysis techniques (uses of computers in design), and review of design codes (AISC, ACI, ASCE) pertinent to buildings. A major part of the course will be a design project in which student teams will conduct a complete structural design of an average building.

Introduction to Structural Dynamics

This course covers the theory of structural response to dynamic loads. Students will learn to mathematically describe the response of SDOF systems with and without damping to free vibration, harmonic, and arbitrary excitations. Students will learn to compute the dynamic response of structural components (like beams, walls, and columns) and structural systems under dynamic loads such as blast and earthquake excitations. Lumped and distributed mass systems including modal analysis of MDOF systems will be covered.