The Civil Engineering PhD program reflects the very broad nature of the field, which encompasses the design, construction, and enhancement of the infrastructure of society. The Civil Engineering PhD program includes courses and research in structural analysis and design, geotechnical engineering and foundations, transportation planning and operations, traffic engineering, construction engineering, water resources engineering, and smart cities. The degree will prepare students for roles in consulting firms, civil and construction-related industries, academic institutions, and city, county, state and federal government agencies.
Faculty research interests include subsurface conditions and soil testing, geotechnical materials, soil and structural dynamics, intelligent transportation systems, traffic safety, nonlinear structural analysis, reinforced concrete, structural health monitoring, sensors and data analytics for infrastructure, construction engineering, hydraulic modeling, coastal ocean modeling, stormwater management, and watershed management.
The PhD in Civil Engineering is a research-oriented degree that requires course work combined with intensive research. The program requires a minimum of 72 credit hours beyond the bachelor's degree. Thirty of the 72 credit hours can be met with either a nonthesis or thesis MS in Civil Engineering. This leaves 42 credit hours, of which 18 credit hours must be Dissertation Research and a minimum of 15 credit hours must be formal course work. A maximum of 9 credit hours of Doctoral Research hours can be used in the doctoral program, which could be replaced by additional formal course work.
For students not having an MS degree who directly enter the PhD program (BS to PhD), there will be a minimum of 45 hours formal course work (i.e., 30 credit hours identical to the course work for a nonthesis MS in any of the Civil Engineering focus areas plus a minimum of 15 credit hours course work past the MS). In addition, these students can enroll for Doctoral Research credit hours during or after their first semester in the program. The 27 credit hours required in addition to the 45 credit hours course work will be 18 credit hours in Dissertation Research, and a maximum of 9 credit hours in Doctoral Research. Up to 9 credit hours of Doctoral Research can be replaced by additional formal course work subject to the approval of the PhD adviser and the advisory committee.
For both MS to PhD and BS to PhD students, the program of study must be developed with an advisory committee and meet with departmental approval at the beginning of the PhD program, at which time transfer credit will be evaluated on a course-by-course basis.
Total Credit Hours Required: 72 Credit Hours Minimum beyond the Bachelor's Degree 42 Credit Hours Minimum beyond the Master's Degree
This program has potential ties to professional licensure or certification in the field. For more information on how this program may prepare you in that regard, please view the licensure disclosure for the program.
Program Prerequisites
Master's or bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering or a closely related discipline. For interdisciplinary work faculty may recruit non-engineers at their discretion (see below).
Calculus 1 to 3 and Differential Equations requirements for application can be waived for interdisciplinary focus areas such as Smart Cities and other programs at the discretion of the recruiting faculty/major professor. However general applicants who do not have a faculty supporting their application are still required to meet the Calculus 1 to 3 and Differential Equations requirements to apply.
Application Requirements
Financial Information
Graduate students may receive financial assistance through fellowships, assistantships, tuition support, or loans. For more information, see the College of Graduate Studies Funding website, which describes the types of financial assistance available at UCF and provides general guidance in planning your graduate finances. The Financial Information section of the Graduate Catalog is another key resource.
Fellowship Information
Fellowships are awarded based on academic merit to highly qualified students. They are paid to students through the Office of Student Financial Assistance, based on instructions provided by the College of Graduate Studies. Fellowships are given to support a student's graduate study and do not have a work obligation. For more information, see UCF Graduate Fellowships, which includes descriptions of university fellowships and what you should do to be considered for a fellowship.
Elective Courses
- To be approved by a faculty adviser and the graduate coordinator.
- At least 27 credit hours of formal course work is required, exclusive of research and independent study. For students entering the program with a completed master's degree, at least 15 of the 27 credit hours (exclusive of independent study and research) must be taken at UCF after the master's program from approved formal courses. For students entering the program without a master's degree in Civil Engineering or a closely related discipline, at least 45 credit hours of formal course work are required.
- Doctoral Research (XXX 7919) - 9 credit hours maximum (more than 9 research credit hours can be taken, but only a maximum of 9 credit hours will be counted toward the program of study).
- Independent Study (XXX 6908) - 3 credit hours maximum
- No more than a total of 12 credit hours of doctoral research plus independent study will be included in a program of study.
- Directed Research (XXX 6918) is not permitted in a PhD program of study.
Students can choose among the following courses with the consent of the academic adviser. Students that have no MS degree should complete the core courses for the MS degree in the respective focus area. These focus areas are: Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Transportation Systems Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, and Smart Cities. For each one of these areas there is a suggested list of core courses.
Suggested elective courses include:
Geotechnical Engineering
- CEG 5405 - Seepage in Soils 3 Credit Hours
- CEG 6065 - Soil Dynamics 3 Credit Hours
- CEG 6115 - Foundation Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- CEG 6317 - Advanced Geotechnical Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- CEG 6515 - Retaining Structures and Slope Stability 3 Credit Hours
- CEG 6610 - Smart Underground Structures: Tunnels and Shafts 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6170 - Boundary Element Methods in Civil Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- CGN 5506 - Advanced Pavement and Civil Engineering Materials 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 5835 - Pavement Engineering 3 Credit Hours
Structural Engineering
- CES 5144 - Matrix Methods for Structural Analysis 3 Credit Hours
- CES 5325 - Bridge Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- CES 5606 - Advanced Steel Structures 3 Credit Hours
- CES 5706 - Advanced Reinforced Concrete 3 Credit Hours
- CES 5821 - Masonry and Timber Design 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6010 - Structural Reliability 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6116 - Finite Element Structural Analysis 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6209 - Dynamics of Structures 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6220 - Wind and Earthquake Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6230 - Advanced Structural Mechanics 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6527 - Nonlinear Structural Analysis 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6715 - Prestressed Concrete Structures 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6840 - Composite Steel Concrete Structures 3 Credit Hours
Transportation Systems Engineering
- CGN 6655 - Regional Planning, Design, and Development 3 Credit Hours
- ESI 5219 - Engineering Statistics 3 Credit Hours
- STA 5206 - Statistical Analysis 3 Credit Hours or
- TTE 5204 - Traffic Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 5805 - Geometric Design of Transportation Systems 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 5835 - Pavement Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6205 - Highway Capacity 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6256 - Traffic Operations 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6270 - Intelligent Transportation Systems 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6275 - Connected and Autonomous Vehicles 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6315 - Traffic Safety Analysis 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6526 - Planning and Design of Airports 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6625 - Mass Transportation Systems 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6667 - Discrete Choice Modeling in Transportation 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 5125 - Groundwater Hydrology 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 5205 - Hydraulic Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 5515 - Numerical Methods in Civil and Environmental Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 5545 - Water Resources Engineering 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 5634 - Water Resources in a Changing Environment 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 5935 - Water First Seminar Series 0 Credit Hours
- CWR 5999 - Coastal Systems Analysis 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 6007 - Ecohydraulics 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 6102 - Advanced Hydrology 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 6126 - Groundwater Modeling 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 6235 - Open Channel Hydraulics 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 6236 - River Engineering and Sediment Transport 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 6535 - Modeling Water Resources Systems 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 6539 - Finite Elements in Surface Water Modeling 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 6606 - Stochastic River Network Hydro-Geomorphology 3 Credit Hours
- CWR 6660 - Water Policy, Planning and Governance 3 Credit Hours
Construction Engineering and Management
Students are also allowed to take courses from other specialization areas. Students can take courses from Civil Engineering or Environmental Engineering and other departments, including but not limited to Statistics, Mathematics, and Industrial, Mechanical, and/or Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science, with the consent of the academic adviser.
- CCE 5006 - Infrastructure Systems Management 3 Credit Hours
- CCE 5205 - Decision Support for Infrastructure Projects 3 Credit Hours
- CCE 5220 - Sustainable Infrastructure Systems 3 Credit Hours
- CCE 6036 - Advanced Construction Planning and Control 3 Credit Hours *
- CCE 6045 - Cost Analysis of Sustainable Infrastructure Systems 3 Credit Hours
- CCE 6211 - Design and Monitoring of Construction Processes 3 Credit Hours *
- CCE 6817 - Dynamics of Sustainable Systems 3 Credit Hours
Smart Cities
- CCE 5220 - Sustainable Infrastructure Systems 3 Credit Hours
- CEG 6610 - Smart Underground Structures: Tunnels and Shafts 3 Credit Hours
- CES 6876 - Smart City Built Infrastructure 3 Credit Hours
- CGN 5340 - Internet of Things: Applications in Smart Cities 3 Credit Hours
- CGN 5341 - Interdisciplinary Introduction to Smart Cities' Applications 3 Credit Hours
- CGN 5617 - Infrastructure Systems Optimization and Identification 3 Credit Hours
- CGN 6342 - Modeling Human Behavior with Emerging Data 3 Credit Hours
- CGN 6343 - Cyber-Physical Systems and Smart Cities 3 Credit Hours
- ENV 6128 - Smart Air Quality Monitoring and Air Pollution Control 3 Credit Hours
- ENV 6533 - Smart Water and Wastewater Management 3 Credit Hours
- STA 5703 - Data Mining Methodology I 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 5531 - Active Mobility and Technologies: Synergy and Challenges 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 5532 - Policy Aspects of Smart City Transportation 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6275 - Connected and Autonomous Vehicles 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6533 - Mobility in Smart Cities: Technologies and Application Areas 3 Credit Hours
- TTE 6608 - Algorithms and Models for Smart Cities 3 Credit Hours
Equipment Fee
Students in the Civil Engineering PhD program pay a $16 equipment fee each semester that they are enrolled. Part-time students pay $8 per semester.
Independent Learning
The Independent Learning Requirement is met by successful completion of the student's candidacy and dissertation defense examinations.
