Structural Engineering

[ graduate program | courses | faculty ]

STUDENT AFFAIRS
340 Structural and Materials Engineering Building (SME)
http://structures.ucsd.edu

All courses, faculty listings, and curricular and degree requirements described herein are subject to change or deletion without notice.

Structural engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the design, analysis, optimization, and monitoring of civil, mechanical, aerospace, geotechnical, maritime, and offshore structures. It requires knowledge and competence in the areas of materials and mechanics, applied across the range of individual components to entire structural systems.

Department Focus

The instructional and research programs of the department are grouped into four programmatic focus areas: civil structures, aerospace and composite structures, SHM/NDE (structural health monitoring/nondestructive evaluation), and geotechnical engineering. Both the undergraduate and graduate programs are characterized by strong interdisciplinary relationships with the Departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Bioengineering, Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, the Materials Science Program, and associated campus institutes such as the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Institute for Pure and Applied Physical Sciences, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials, California Space Institute, Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The program and curricula of the Department of Structural Engineering will educate and train engineers in a holistic approach to structural systems engineering by emphasizing and building on the commonality of engineering structures in materials, mechanics, analysis and design across the engineering disciplines of civil, aerospace, marine, and mechanical engineering.

Although structural engineering is traditionally viewed as an activity within civil engineering, in actuality many other engineering disciplines such as aerospace, marine (naval, offshore), and mechanical engineering contain well established discipline-specific structural systems and components. In all of the various engineering disciplines there exists a large commonality in the structural materials used, in the general principles of structural mechanics, in the overall design philosophy and criteria, and in the modeling and analysis tools employed for the numerical quantification and visualization of structural response. Particularly, small disciplinary differences in materials and computational tools are rapidly disappearing with the civil engineering community opening up to new structural materials developed and used to date primarily in the aerospace industry, and with computational developments which are less product specific but more geared toward a holistic structural systems design approach with interactive graphics, object-oriented database management and concurrent visualization and data processing. Developments in overall structural systems design are increasingly cross-disciplinary over many traditional engineering areas.

The Undergraduate Program

Degree and Program Options

The Department of Structural Engineering offers a unique engineering program leading to the bachelor of science degree in structural engineering. The BS in structural engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, http://www.abet.org. The BS programs require a minimum of 145 units, plus college general-education requirements in humanities and social sciences.

The structural engineering program of study has strong components in laboratory experimentation, numerical computation, and engineering design. Design is emphasized throughout the curricula by open-ended homework problems, by laboratory and computer courses that include student-initiated projects, and finally, by senior design project courses that involve teams of students working to solve engineering design problems brought in from industry. The structural engineering program is designed to prepare students receiving a bachelor’s degree for professional careers or for graduate education in their area of specialization. In addition, the program can also be taken by students who intend to use their undergraduate engineering education as preparation for postgraduate professional training in nontechnical fields such as business administration, law, or medicine.

Structural engineering is concerned with the design, analysis, optimization, and monitoring of civil, mechanical, aerospace, geotechnical, maritime, and offshore structures. Examples include but certainly aren’t limited to bridges, dams, buildings, aircraft, spacecraft, drones, ships, oil platforms, automobiles, and other transportation vehicles. This field requires a thorough knowledge of the behavior of solids (concrete, soils, rock, metals, plastics, and composite materials), fluid mechanics as it relates to structural loads, dynamics as it relates to structural response to time-dependent loads, mathematics for the generation of theoretical structural models and numerical analysis codes, and computer science for simulation purposes associated with computer-aided design, response analyses, and data acquisition. Basic understanding of materials behavior and structural performance is enhanced by laboratory courses involving static and dynamic stress failure tests of structural models, and response of structural systems. Within this area, students can specialize in (a) civil structures, (b) aerospace structures, (c) SHM/NDE, or (d) geotechnical engineering.

Major Requirements

Five major degree codes are available within the BS program in the department.

The major code:

SE27. Structural Engineering

And four specializations:

SE28 (CS). Structural Engineering with a Specialization in Civil Structures (CS)

SE29 (AS). Structural Engineering with a Specialization in Aerospace Structures (AS)

SE30 (GE). Structural Engineering with a Specialization in Geotechnical Engineering (GE)

SE31 (SHM/NDE). Structural Engineering with a Specialization in Structural Health Monitoring/Non-destructive Evaluation (SHM/NDE)

Students will apply to the existing structural engineering (SE27) major and then will have the option to decide to switch to one of the specialization majors listed above by the end of the junior year. The initial enrollment in SE27 should provide students with time and information to help them decide whether they want to specialize and the freedom to decide in which area they would prefer to specialize. However, in order to prevent any impact on the time to degree, only a single selection of a specialization degree will be allowed. Students who do not wish to pursue a specialization are free to do so by remaining in the existing structural engineering major SE27.

Specific course requirements for the major are outlined in a table herein. In addition to the required technical courses specifically indicated, a suggested scheduling of general education courses (GE) is distributed in the curricula for students to use to meet college general education requirements. To graduate, students must maintain an overall GPA of at least 2.0, and the department requires at least a C– grade in each course required for the major. All courses required for the major must be taken for a letter grade. This includes all lower-division math and science courses as well as the technical electives (TE).

Deviations from the program of study must be approved by the Undergraduate Affairs Committee prior to taking alternative courses. In cases where a student needs to take a course outside UC San Diego, prior departmental approval is essential. TE courses are restricted to meet ABET standards. In addition, technical elective course selections must have departmental approval prior to taking the courses. Courses such as SE 195, SE 197 and SE 198 are not allowed as technical electives in meeting the upper-division major requirements. SE 199 can be used as a technical elective only under restrictive conditions. Policies regarding these conditions may be obtained from the department’s undergraduate advising office. Students with different academic preparations may vary the scheduling of lower-division courses such as math, physics and chemistry, but should consult the department prior to doing so. Deviations in scheduling lower-division structural engineering courses are discouraged due to scheduling constraints. A tentative schedule of course offerings is available from the department each spring quarter for the following academic year.

General Education/College Requirement

For graduation, each student must satisfy general-education course requirements determined by the student’s college, as well as the major requirements determined by the department. The seven colleges at UC San Diego require widely different general-education courses, and the number of such courses differs from one college to another. Each student should choose his or her college carefully, considering the special nature of the college and the breadth of general education.

The structural engineering program allows for thirteen general-education (GE) courses so that students can fulfill their college requirements. Students must develop a program that includes a total of at least twenty-four units in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, not including subjects such as accounting, industrial management, finance, or personnel administration. It should be noted, however, that some colleges may require more than, or less than, the thirteen GE courses indicated in the curriculum table. Students in colleges that require more than thirteen GE courses may take longer to graduate than the indicated four-year schedule. Students must consult with their college to determine which GE courses to take.

Professional Licensing

All students are encouraged to take the Engineering-in-Training (EIT) examination as the first step in becoming licensed as a professional engineer (PE). Students graduating from an accredited program can take the PE examination after EIT certification and two years of work experience. Please see the “professional licensing” tab on the department’s webpage.

For further information please contact your local Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists or visit http://bpelsg.ca.gov/.

Department of Structural Engineering Mission

Our mission is to advance the structural engineering profession through research, teaching, and service by integrating engineering mechanics theories, computational modeling simulations, experimental testing observations, and practical design concepts.

Department of Structural Engineering Vision

Our faculty and students aspire to be internationally renowned leaders in analyzing, designing, simulating, visualizing, optimizing, monitoring, and assessing the behavior and environmental interactions of structures and structural materials for a holistic perspective, including those used in civil, geotechnical, aerospace, naval, marine, energy, and biological applications.

Program Mission and Objectives

The BS in structural engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, http://www.abet.org. Accreditation is an assurance that the program meets established quality standards.

BS Structural Engineering Objectives

Program objectives represent graduates’ performance three to five years after completing the BS program. Graduates will:

Retain a strong grasp of engineering fundamentals and critical thinking skills that enable them to consistently and successfully apply structural engineering principles within their chosen career path.
Embrace a passion for lifelong learning, empowering them to continue with graduate education and/or embark on successful professional careers in industry leading to professional licensure and leadership positions.
Possess a broad set of multidisciplinary skills, including the inclination and ability to consider sustainability, resilience, and socioeconomic community needs to accomplish professional objectives in a rapidly changing technological world.
Have a clear understanding of ethical issues pertaining to engineering and adopt industry standards of ethical behavior.
Utilize strong communication and collaboration skills essential for professional practice.

BS Structural Engineering Outcomes

Program outcomes are the expected knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of students at the time of completing the BS program:

An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics.
An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors.
An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences.
An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.
An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.
An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions.
An ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

Students in the four specialization degree codes will follow the same core course sequence as in the degree code SE27 given in the following table. The main difference among the four specialization major degree codes is the focus sequence courses taken in the junior and senior years and the capstone course(s) in the senior year: Students in the specialization SE29 (AS) will take the aerospace focus sequence and the SE 143A-B capstone courses; students in the specialization SE28 (CS) will take the civil engineering focus sequence and the SE 140A-B capstone courses; students in the specialization SE30 (GE) will take the geotechnical engineering focus sequence and the SE 140A-B capstone courses; and students in the specialization SE31 (SHM/NDE) will take the SHM/NDE focus sequence and the SE 165 as the capstone course. Students in the structural engineering major SE27 can choose any of the focus sequences and the corresponding capstone course(s). A list of the focus sequence courses, capstone courses, and technical electives for the five degree codes follows the table.

FALL	WINTER	SPRING
FIRST YEAR
MATH 20A	MATH 20B	MATH 20C
SE 1	GE/MATH 18	SE 3
CHEM 6A	PHYS 2A	PHYS 2B/2BL
GE¹	GE	GE/MATH 18
SOPHOMORE YEAR
MATH 20D	SE 9	MATH 20E
PHYS 2C/2CL	SE 110A	GE
SE 101A	SE 101B	SE 110B
GE	GE	SE 105
JUNIOR YEAR
SE 101C	SE 102	GE
SE 125	SE 115	SE 131A
SE 130A	FS²	SE 130B
GE	GE	FS
SENIOR YEAR
SE 131B	SE 140A/143A³	SE 140B/143B
FS	FS	GE
TE⁴	TE	GE
GE	GE	TE

¹In fulfilling the general-education requirements (GE), students must take a total of at least twenty-four units in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, not including subjects such as accounting, industrial management, finance, or personnel administration. Thirteen GE courses are listed here; individual college requirements may be higher or lower.

²Students must take one full focus sequence (FS) in: (a) civil structures, (b) aerospace structures, (c) SHM/NDE, or (d) geotechnical engineering. Students should note that not all focus sequence classes will be offered every year.

³Students must take one capstone design sequence (either 140A and 140B, or 143A and 143B) depending on their choice of focus sequence.

⁴Technical elective (TE) course must be an upper-division or graduate course in the engineering sciences, natural sciences, or mathematics, selected with prior approval of the department to meet ABET standards.

Civil Structures Focus Sequence Courses

SE 103. Conceptual Structural Design

SE 150A. Design of Steel Structures I

SE 151A. Design of Reinforced Concrete

SE 181. Geotechnical Engineering

Geotechnical Focus Sequence Courses

*Note: SE 151A has SE 103 as a prerequisite and SE 140A has SE 150A as a prerequisite. Students should plan to take SE 103 and SE 150A as TE classes their junior year.

SE 151A. Design of Reinforced Concrete

SE 181. Geotechnical Engineering

SE 182. Foundation Engineering

SE 184. Ground Improvement

Aerospace Focus Sequence Courses

SE 142. Mechanics and Design of Composite Structures

SE 160A. Aerospace Structural Mechanics I

SE 160B. Aerospace Structural Mechanics II

SE 171. Aerospace Structures Renewal

SHM/NDE Focus Sequence Courses

*Note: SE 165 is the capstone class for this sequence and students are required to take an additional TE.

SE 163. Nondestructive Evaluation

SE 164. Sensors/Data Acquisition for Structural Engineering

SE 167. Signal Processing

SE 168. Structural System Testing and Model Correlation

Civil Structures/Geotechnical Capstone Courses

SE 140A. Design of Civil Structures I

SE 140B. Design of Civil Structures II

Aerospace Structures Capstone Courses

SE 143A. Aerospace Structural Design I

SE 143B. Aerospace Structural Design II

Technical Electives (three courses)

ENG 100D/100L.* TIES program (six units)

SE 103. Conceptual Structural Design

SE 132. Machine Learning for Structural Engineering

SE 142. Design of Composites Structures

SE 150A. Design of Steel Structures

SE 150B. Design of Steel Structures II

SE 151A. Design of Reinforced Concrete

SE 151B. Design of Prestressed Concrete

SE 154. Design of Timber

SE 160A-B. Aerospace Structural Design

SE 163. Nondestructive Evaluation and Design

SE 164. Sensors and Data Acquisition

SE 165. Structural Health Monitoring

SE 167. Signal Processing and Spectral Analysis for Structural Engineering

SE 168. Structural System Testing and Model Correlation

SE 171. Aerospace Structures Repair

SE 180. Earthquake Engineering

SE 181. Geotechnical Engineering

SE 182. Foundation Engineering

SE 184. Ground Improvement

SE 200–289** Graduate Courses

MAE 101B. Advanced Fluid Mechanics

MAE 101C. Heat Transfer

MAE 104. Aerodynamics

MAE 105. Introduction of Mathematical Physics

MAE 110. Thermodynamics

MAE 118. Introduction to Energy Systems

MAE 119. Introduction to Renewable Energy

MAE 120. Introduction to Nuclear Energy

MAE 122. Flow and Transport in the Environment

MAE 124. Environmental Challenges: Science and Solutions

MAE 143A. Signals and Systems

MAE 143B. Linear Control

MAE 145. Introduction to Robotic Planning and Estimation

MAE 149. Sensor Networks

MAE 160. Mechanical Behavior of Materials

MAE 165. Fatigue and Failure Analysis of Engineering Components

MAE 166. Nanomaterials

MAE 167. Wave Dynamics of Materials

MAE 180A. Spacecraft Guidance I

MAE 181. Space Mission Analysis and Design

MAE 184. Flight Simulation Techniques

USP 100–191*** Upper-Division USP Courses

* ENG 100D and one ENG 100L course must be taken together for a total of six units to count as one technical elective. TIES can only be used for a total of one TE. Please send the SE adviser a note via the VAC if you complete these so your degree audit can be updated.

** Students wishing to take graduate courses must have a minimum 3.0 overall GPA and obtain instructor approval prior to enrolling. Graduate students will have priority enrollment. You may not count a graduate course as a TE if you took the undergraduate equivalent and vice versa (i.e., SE 160A/SE 260A, SE 160B/SE 260B, SE 163/263, SE 164/264, SE 165/SE 265, SE168/SE 268, SE 171/SE 262, SE 182/SE 242, SE 184/SE 247).

***Students are able to take ONE upper-division USP course as a TE.

All technical elective courses must be taken for a letter grade and only grades of C– or better count for the major.

Policies and Procedures for Structural Engineering Undergraduate Students

Admission to the Major

Effective fall 2015, admission will be limited to the major (BS structural engineering) for all incoming first-year students and transfers.

New first-year students will be selected according to the UC San Diego Office of Undergraduate Admissions Holistic Review scores, taking into consideration the number of slots available in the Department of Structural Engineering. Students who meet the UC San Diego admission criteria will be admitted into their chosen capped major, starting with the student having the highest holistic review score, until the admission target number is reached. Students will be notified directly by the Office of Admissions and Relations with Schools whether they have been admitted into their chosen capped major. All potential first-year students must indicate on the UC application if they wish to major in structural engineering.

First-year students who applied but were not admitted directly from high school into the structural engineering major will be admitted into the major indicated as their second choice on the UC application (providing it is an “open” major).

New transfer students will be selected by the UC San Diego Office of Undergraduate Admissions based on the students’ community college GPA and taking into consideration the number of slots available in the Department of Structural Engineering. Additionally, transfer students should have completed courses equivalent to UC San Diego’s MATH 18, MATH 20A-D; PHYS 2A-C, 2BL, 2CL; and CHEM 6A. Students who meet the UC San Diego admission criteria will be admitted into their chosen capped major, starting with the student having the highest community college GPA, until the admission target number is reached. Transfer students who have excelled in their community college courses, especially courses in math, physics, and chemistry, will have the strongest advantage. These students will be notified directly by the Office of Admissions and Relations with Schools whether they have been admitted into their chosen capped major. All potential transfer students must indicate on the UC application if they wish to major in structural engineering.

Transfer students who applied but were not admitted directly from community college into the structural engineering major will be admitted into the major indicated as their second choice on the UC application (providing it is an “open” major).

Continuing Students

Effective summer 2024, students will be able to use the major/minor tool on TritonLink to switch to SE and should NOT use the capped major tool.

UC San Diego students that have questions about transitioning to the SE major are encouraged to reach out to the SE undergraduate adviser early in their planning to ensure they are on track to be as successful as possible once in the program.

Transfer Students

Requirements for a structural engineering major, or into structural engineering courses, are the same for transfer students as they are for continuing students. Accordingly, when planning their program, transfer students should be mindful of lower-division prerequisite course requirements, as well as for meeting collegiate requirements.

Students who have taken equivalent courses elsewhere may request to have transfer credits apply toward the department’s major requirements. This is accomplished by submitting a petition for transfer credits together with a course syllabus from the institution where the course(s) were taken. These documents are reviewed for approval by the Structural Engineering Undergraduate Affairs Committee chair.

SE 1, SE 3, and SE 9 must be taken by all students majoring in structural engineering. Transfer students who have taken a course equivalent to SE 101A prior to entering UC San Diego may take an additional technical elective in place of SE 1.

Petition instructions are available on the undergraduate policies and procedures page on the structural engineering website.

Academic Advising

Upon arrival, students should make an appointment with the structural engineering undergraduate advising office to plan a program of study. The program plan may be revised in subsequent years, but revisions involving curricular requirements require approval by an undergraduate adviser or the Undergraduate Affairs Committee. Because some courses and/or curricular changes may be made every year, it is imperative that students consult with the department’s undergraduate advising office and their assigned faculty adviser on an annual basis.

Many structural engineering courses are offered only once a year and therefore should be taken in the recommended sequence. If courses are taken out of sequence, it may not always be possible to enroll in subsequent courses as desired or needed. If this occurs, students should seek immediate department advice. When a student deviates from the sequence of courses specified for the curriculum in this catalog, it may be impossible to complete the structural engineering major within the normal four-year period. Students should refer to the four-year plan and course prerequisite map on the department website at http://se.ucsd.edu/academics/undergraduate-program/undergraduate-advising/undergraduate-four-year-plan.

In addition to the advising available through the structural engineering undergraduate advising office, programmatic or technical advice may be obtained from structural engineering faculty members. A specific structural engineering faculty adviser is assigned to each structural engineering student. All structural engineering students are encouraged to meet with their faculty adviser at least once a year.

Program Alterations/Exceptions to Requirements

Variations from, or exceptions to, any program or course requirements are possible only if a petition is approved by the structural engineering Undergraduate Affairs Committee chair before the courses in question are taken. Petition instructions are available on the undergraduate policies and procedures page on the structural engineering website and must be processed through the structural engineering undergraduate advising office.

Independent Study

Structural engineering students may take SE 199, Independent Study for Undergraduates, under the guidance of a structural engineering faculty member. Normally, this course is taken as an elective on a P/NP basis. Under restrictive conditions, however, it may be used to satisfy one upper-division technical elective course requirement for the major. Students interested in taking an SE 199 course must identify a faculty member with whom they wish to work and propose a research or study topic. After obtaining the faculty member’s concurrence on the topic and scope of the study, the student must submit an Easy request (easy.ucsd.edu). Students who are interested in having the course count as a technical elective requirement must take the course(s) for a total of four units and must also submit a petition. The petition must be completed, approved, and processed prior to the beginning of the quarter in which the course is to be taken. This should not be done during the add/drop period. Detailed policy in this regard and the required forms may be obtained from the structural engineering undergraduate advising office.