2022-2023 Undergraduate and Graduate Bulletin (with addenda) 
    
    Dec 04, 2024  
2022-2023 Undergraduate and Graduate Bulletin (with addenda)

Urban Infrastructure Systems, M.S.


With the fast growth of urban population local governments, public service agencies, and urban utilities presently face increasing public demand for greater reliability, safety, affordability and resiliency of the aging urban infrastructure systems. These systems have to be continuously adapted and upgraded (often with technology-driven solutions) to efficiently support the essential public services, urban development and economic growth.

The infrastructure systems support a variety of urban sectors, including transportation, energy & water supply, sanitation & wastewater management, public buildings, district heating, public health & safety, waste management, telecommunication and other essential services. Their sustainable development engages a wide variety of public and private sector stakeholders and greatly depends on a broad range of institutional, environmental, economic, societal and operational factors. Such factors include public policy objectives, land use and geo-physical system characteristics, regulatory requirements, environmental issues, availability of renewable resources, customers’ awareness and culture, management capabilities, and other operational state variables. With rising societal concerns with regard to climate change impact, environmental sustainability and economic viability of the fast-growing urban centers, both Government and Industry presently face increasing needs for innovative capabilities of dynamic monitoring and “smart” system control to effectively meet the challenge of upgrading the aging urban infrastructure systems.

Facing these urban sustainability challenges, recent developments of Information Technology based “smart” infrastructure monitoring and control capabilities have been increasingly integrated in operation system optimization, early incident detection and proactive mitigation, for upgrading the operational efficiency, safety and service quality of the infrastructure systems. These innovative solutions are currently driving a significant paradigm shift from reactive to preemptive engineering and management of these urban systems, across the wide array of public service sectors that they support. The infrastructure industry development goal is to provide the engineers and managers of the urban systems with upgraded decision making capabilities to better cope with the growing environmental risks, economic constraints, and complex operational uncertainties and effectively respond to the growing societal demand.

The interdisciplinary MS Program in Urban Infrastructure Systems targets the development of a broad understanding of the infrastructure management challenges facing metropolitan governments and urban utilities. Cutting across different disciplines of engineering, infrastructure financing, environmental policy and planning, the program is focused on the needs and methodologies for integrating policy decision making, intelligent technology solutions, and risk-based system analysis in urban infrastructure systems management to effectively meet the emerging challenges of sustainable urban developments. Following five core courses, students may select an area of specialization in a specific urban sector, as indicated in the list of proposed majors. They are also required to complete a 3-credit Capstone project or a 6-credit Master Thesis.

With specialized faculty members from Government, Industry and Academia, the program is designed for professionals, with both engineering and non-engineering backgrounds, who are involved and/or interested in the fast growing interdisciplinary field of urban systems management and career opportunities with government agencies, public and private sector utilities, and service industries across the wide array of the metropolitan sectors.

To accomplish these objectives the program includes:

  • Core courses (5 courses, 3 credits each) related to challenges of infrastructure management strategies across the sectors.
  • Majors (3 to 4 courses, 3 credits each) related to infrastructure management strategies for selected urban sectors, including: Urban Transportation Planning & Management, Urban Water Supply & Environmental Systems management, Smart Building & Energy Supply, Urban Construction Engineering & Management and Infrastructure Systems Planning & Management.
  • Interdisciplinary Capstone Project (3 credits) or MS Research Thesis (6 credits) on a selected topic.

Requirements for the Master of Science


Note:


1 Core courses can be substituted by other selected courses upon approval of the academic advisor. 

2 Course is part of the Exec 21  program; special requirements (see Construction Management  Program) or permission of adviser required.

Minor, Technical and Free Electives:


Each minor area of study includes: (1) three minor courses, required for the minor; and (2) two to three technical electives, available to all program students.

Students may elect not to take a specified minor area. They may, instead, take five or six technical electives from the approved list in any specified area. The number of technical electives is influenced by whether the student elects to do a 3-credit case study report or a 6-credit MS thesis, as described in a later section.

Minor Areas of Concentration


  • Transportation Systems Management (TSM)
  • Construction Management (CM)
  • Environmental Systems Management (ESM)
  • Civil Infrastructure Systems Management (CISM)

Because of course content, students selecting the CISM minor should hold a BS in Civil Engineering or the equivalent.

Approved Technical Electives in Transportation

Note:

Additional electives may be approved by the adviser.

Minor in Construction Management


 Required in Minor:

Note:

2 Course is part of the Exec 21  program; special requirements (see Construction Management  Program) or permission of adviser required.

Note:

Additional electives may be approved by the adviser.

2 Course is part of the Exec 21 program; special requirements (see Construction Management   Program) or permission of adviser required.

Minor in Environmental Systems Management


Credits required in the minor:

Approved Technical Electives in Environmental Studies:

Note:

Additional electives may be approved by the adviser.

Minor in Civil Infrastructure Systems Management


Recommended courses which can be substituted upon approval of the academic advisor:

Approved Technical Electives in Infrastructure Systems:

Note:

Additional electives may be approved by the adviser.

Capstone Experience


Students fulfill the requirement for a meaningful Capstone experience by completing an independent case study in urban infrastructure systems (3 credits) or a master’s thesis on a topic of independent study (6 credits).

All course descriptions for Urban Infrastructure Systems are found in the Civil Engineering section of this catalog.

Sample Study Plan


Here a generic outline of the program.

1st Semester Credits 2nd Semester Credits
Core Course 1 3 Core Course 4 3
Core Course 2 3 Core Course 5 3
Core Course 3 3 Minor Concentration Course 1 3
3rd Semester Credits 4th Semester Credits
Minor Concentration Course 2 3 Capstone Course 3
Minor Concentration Course 3 3    
Minor Concentration Course 4 3