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Online Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering (MS)

Civil Engineering

Tickle College of Engineering

Program Overview

Are you ready to advance your career as a civil engineer? The University of Tennessee, Knoxville offers an online master's degree program in Civil Engineering in three concentration areas to meet the high demand for highly qualified Civil Engineers. Whether you aspire to work in the public sector, transportation engineering, or geotechnical engineering, we can help you achieve your goals.

At Tickle College of Engineering, you can access a flexible selection of courses through our fully online learning experience.

Credit Hours

30

Cost Per Credit Hour*

In-State $861

Out-of-State $936

Testing Requirements

No GRE for Domestic Applicants

Admission Terms

Fall, Spring, Summer

*Cost per credit hour is an estimate based on maintenance and university fees. Some programs may have additional course fees. Please contact your department for additional information on any related fees, and visit Tuition and Fees in Detail at One Stop.

student smiling while working engineering lab

Advance Your Civil Engineering Career With a Masters Degree

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UT offers a master’s degree in Civil Engineering in three concentration areas to meet the high demand for highly qualified Civil Engineers. The program is available 100% online via Distance Education (DE). A wide selection of graduate courses is offered for DE students; courses in this program are delivered asynchronous & synchronous and posted online for students’ access at their convenience.

Public Works Engineering Concentration

The MS program in Public Works Engineering offers a flexible selection of courses to help Engineers who work in the public sector gain technical knowledge in their areas of interest.

Geotechnical & Materials Engineering Concentration

MS in Geotechnical and Materials Engineering offers design courses that will enhance students’ knowledge in Advanced Soil Mechanics, Advanced Foundations and Earth Retaining Structures, Slope stability analysis, Soil Stabilization, and finite element applications in Geotechnical Engineering.

Transportation & Infrastructure Engineering Concentration

MS in Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering prepares graduates to meet the engineering market with emphasis on transportation safety, Traffic Engineering, transportation policy and economics, pavement design, and Projects cost estimate and scheduling.

Licensure

There is a high market need for Civil Engineers with MS degrees to work as design engineers and there is excellent professional development growth for those who earn MS degrees. The MS degree will help you to pass the professional engineer (PE) license exam and will open opportunities for you to work as a geotechnical or transportation Engineer.

Accredited

Our graduate program is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) commission.

Advance your career in civil engineering today to become part of the solution for tomorrow!

Featured Courses – Public Works Engineering Concentration

Students who choose the Public Works Engineering concentration will take courses such as the following:

CE 558: Transportation Planning Models

Transportation planning process and travel patterns, data collection, trip generation, trip distribution, mode split, and traffic assignment. Applications of travel demand modeling. Proposing transportation alternatives and evaluation. Social, economic, and environmental impacts of transportation. Innovative travel demand modeling techniques. 

CE 554: Public Transit Planning & Operations

Characteristics of transit modes – conventional, informal, and paratransit; operational design of transit services: route planning and scheduling; cost analysis; traveler behavior; performance evaluation; data collection methods; organization and financing. 

CE 551: Traffic Engineering: Characteristics

Characteristics of human, vehicle, and roadway in transportation system; microscopic and macroscopic traffic models; elements of transportation/highway safety. 

CE 553: Geometric Design and Layout of Roadways & Community Facilities

Functional and geometric design and rural and urban roads of all classes; subdivision layout; configuration of urban roads of all classes; techniques for access control; freeway interchanges and street intersections; and parking. 

two engineers working on computer component

Featured Courses – Geotechnical & Materials Engineering Concentration

Students who choose the Geotechnical and Materials Engineering concentration will take courses such as the following:

CE 521: Pavement Design

Empirical and theoretical based methods of pavement design and analysis, strengthening existing pavements, pavement distress and economical design alternatives.

CE 532: Soil Slope Stability Analysis

Principles of limiting equilibrium, infinite slopes, design of soil slopes using Swedish circle method, Ordinary method of slices, Bishop methods, Spencer method, Chen and Morgenstern method, and an introduction to other slope stability methods. Influence of drawdown and seepage on slope stability, slope stabilization techniques, slope monitoring methods, and introduction to rock slope stability.

CE 535: Advanced Foundations & Retaining Structures

Site investigation and characterization, analysis and design of deep foundations, sheet piles, retaining structures for bridge abutments and deep excavation, and deep foundations in rock and liquefiable soils. Approaches include allowable working stress, load and resistance factor design, and the use of modern numerical modeling tools.

CE 530: Advanced Soil Mechanics

Implications of surface charge for fine-grained soils. Force balance and effective stress. Shear strength and stress-strain behavior of sands and clays. Stresses in a soil mass, stress paths, and stress-strain relationships. Capillarity, unsaturated soil, one- and two-dimensional flow for anisotropic and stratified soils, consolidation theory, drained and undrained behavior.

Featured Courses – Transportation & Infrastructure Engineering Concentration

Students who choose the Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering concentration will take courses such as the following:

CE 551: Traffic Engineering Characteristics

Characteristics of human, vehicle, and roadway in transportation system; microscopic and macroscopic traffic models; elements of transportation/highway safety.

CE 553: Geometric Design & Layout of Roadways & Community Facilities

Functional and geometric design and rural and urban roads of all classes; subdivision layout; configuration of urban roads of all classes; techniques for access control; freeway interchanges and street intersections; and parking.

ENVE 525: Soil Erosion & Sediment Yield

Theory of soil erosion and sediment yield processes from disturbed land; methods and computer models for estimating sediment yield. Erosion and sediment control theory and management practices. Local and state regulations.

CE 565: Structural Dynamics

Analysis of free and forced vibrations, and transient response of structures having many degrees of freedom; elastoplastic behavior considered for structural systems; earthquake design and response of structures.

students working in shop

Program Concentrations in Civil Engineering

The following three concentrations are available in the MS Civil Engineering program at UT.

Geotechnical & Materials Engineering

The geotechnical engineer is responsible for the subsurface investigation and the analysis of soil properties which provide the basis of the foundation design. The materials engineer must be familiar with the properties of construction and structural materials so that an economic use of resources can be included in the design process.

Public Works Engineering

A public works engineer is trained as a broad-based civil engineer able to confront the diversity of public issues facing the modern American city, including the deterioration of civil engineering infrastructure, such as bridges, roads, waterlines, and public buildings.

Transportation & Infrastructure Engineering

A transportation engineer is concerned with the safe and efficient movement of both people and goods, which includes designing and maintaining all types of transportation facilities, such as highways and streets, mass transit systems, railroads and airfields, and ports and harbors.

Ready to Reach the Next Level in Civil Engineering?

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