Special Courses

Information on Graduate Courses

CEE Course Matrix 

List of current, future and past CEE courses.
*Be sure to click on the right year at the bottom!

Catalog of Civil and Environmental Engineering (ECI) Courses

ECI 298: First Year Grad Student Seminar

ECI 298 is a 1 unit, S/U graded course offered in the fall quarter. The goal of this course is to equip Civil and Environmental Graduate Students with a toolset of information, resources, and contacts to ease the transition into graduate school, integrate into the UC Davis and CEE community, manage expectations, and succeed in their graduate program. The course brings in guest speakers from the department and across campus to cover topics such as: graduate student funding, GradPathways, Library resources, mentorship, mental health, imposter phenomena, student and faculty panels. 

Fall 2023 CRN to enroll: 29543

ECI 289 Course Offerings

ECI 289 course offerings are constantly evolving. These are typically specialty courses offered by faculty on a trial basis, that may or may not become permanent course offerings. Below is a list of recently offered or to-be-offered ECI 289 courses. The list may not be complete. When in doubt about when a 289 course will be offered or about course content for a particular offering, contact the instructor. You might also check the course matrix. Some non-CEE courses that are taught by CEE Graduate Group members that may be of interest are also included.

Enrolling in multiple 289's: if you want to enroll in two sections of ECI 289 with the same letter (example: two sections of ECI 289A), you will need to contact the CEE Graduate Program Coordinator to obtain a PTA for the second course. 

 
Spring 2024

  • CANCELLED: ECI 289C: MentoringUp!

  • CRN: CANCELLED

    Instructor: Chris Cappa (IOR), Elizabeth Sturdy

    Course Description: 

    This program develops the skills of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in navigating mentoring relationships with faculty. Students and scholars with positive mentoring relationships experience benefits to their well-being and achieve greater academic success. Program participants will receive mentoring resources to proactively manage their mentoring relationships, including tools to help clarify and articulate their goals, identify areas for additional mentorship, and increase confidence in research.

    The program consists of six sessions which mentees participate in as a cohort. These sessions will provide open dialogues around mentorship as well as a community of support. The sessions will include participants from across disciplines. A current graduate student and postdoctoral scholar will co-facilitate the program with the Director of Mentoring. Participants who attend the sessions receive a Mentoring Up certificate.

    MORE INFORMATION HERE

  • ECI 289D: Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis

  • CRN: 56771

    Instructor: Norm Abrahamson

    Course Description: Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis 

  • ECI 289E: Data-driven Analysis and Machine Learning Applications in Structural Engineering

  • CRN: 57461 (4 units)

    Instructor: John Bolander

    Course Description
    Engineering and the sciences depend on various types of models to understand processes and to perform design. Traditionally, these models have relied on accurate descriptions of the physical phenomena that govern the behaviors of interest. In recent times, however, attention has shifted from such physically-based models to ones that depend primarily on collected data. Provided sufficient data is available, data-driven models have proven to be effective, addressing some problems that are intractable using physically-based models.

    This course begins with relevant exploration of the subject of modeling, followed by fundamental coverage of selected topics within data science. The various approaches to machine learning (ML) are then surveyed with attention to their application ranges and dependencies on sufficient, appropriate data. Due attention will be given to the training and evaluation of ML models. As a prominent entry within the NumPy-based ecosystem for scientific computing, Scikit-Learn will be used as the ML framework for the course activities. As such, the course is not programming intensive. A hands-on approach will be adopted to learn from data, including data generated through some of the course exercises. Application areas are drawn from structural engineering and structural mechanics, with some emphasis on structural health diagnosis.

  • ECI 289H: Transit System Planning & Design

  • CRN: 56697 (4 units)

    Instructor: Kari Watkins

    Course Description
    Course provides students with a solid understanding of planning, design and operation of public transportation systems. Objectives include describing the evolution, benefits, and challenges of different transit modes; collecting and using data to measure transit performance; quantifying changes in capacity and reliability caused by changes in technology and right-of-way; scheduling vehicles and crews to maximize transit productivity; outlining the factors influencing transit ridership; understanding the role of fare technology; and discussing the future of transit.

  • ECI 289H: Trans Planning  (Intelligent Transportation Systems and Smart Mobility)

  • CRN: 57675 (4 units)

    Instructor: Michael Zhang

    Course Description
    This course introduces the basic concepts and ideas of intelligent transportation systems and smart mobility. Topics would include  the national ITS architecture, sensing technology and transportation data, traveler information and routing games, congestion pricing, connected and autonomous mobility, and evaluation methods of system performance. Other topics such as traffic safety, ride pooling, on-demand transit, and parking management can also be covered depending on students’ interests in each offering of the course.

 

Winter 2024

  • ECI 289D: Engineering Geology

  • CRN: 44539 (4 units)

    Instructor: Michael Gardner

    Course Description
    Identifying and understanding geological controls on engineering properties is an important and interesting aspect of geological and geotechnical engineering. In this course, students will learn how to apply the principles of geology in the evaluation of engineering design, construction, and natural hazards. Students will develop an appreciation of geologic setting, geologic processes, properties of geologic materials and their combined influence on the safety, constructability, economic feasibility,  environmental impact, and long term performance of natural features and engineered structures.
  • ECI 289H: Pavement Sustainability and Resilience for Planners, Engineers and Managers
  • CRN: 44584 (4 units)

    Instructor: John Harvey

    Short Course Description: Sources of environmental impacts from pavements (materials, , transportation, construction, use, end of life) at project and network levels, and potential strategies to reduce those impacts. Pavement life cycle assessment methods and use of eLCAP tool. Considerations of sustainability in procurement of pavement materials and structures. Integration of social vulnerability into impact and benefit analysis. Overview of climate change projections and down-scaling, considerations of sea level rise and extreme events. Climate change impacts on pavement and consideration of risks and responses. Review of current and changing state of practice and research for both sustainability and resilience, statutory and regulatory efforts, and discussion of potential future trends.  
 
Fall 2023
  • ECI 289D: Advanced topics in concrete pavement engineering and materials

  • CRN: 29448 (4 units)

    Instructor: Somayeh Nassiri

    Course Description: 

    In this course, we will discuss concrete materials for pavements and bridges, including current practice, state of knowledge, and future directions and needs. Strategies to reduce global warming potential through optimizing mixture design, using materials with lower embodied carbon, and enhancing the durability of concrete pavements will be covered. Some of the topics are listed below but will be adjusted to the extent possible to accommodate graduate students' areas of particular research. 

    - Environmental impacts of concrete materials and concrete pavements’ use life
    - Concrete materials and concrete pavements overview
    - Durability issues in concrete pavements
    - Cement production, hydration, hydration products
    - Supplementary cementitious materials, properties, evaluation, and their hydrates 
    - Tests of concrete and concrete properties
    - Concrete microstructure and drying shrinkage 
    - Optimization of concrete mix design, Performance engineered mix design 
    - Concrete mix design, production, and testing in the lab
    - Tour of a concrete batch plant facility or cement plant, if possible
    - Fiber reinforced concrete
    - Nanomaterials for concrete use
    - Recycling, carbonization

 
Spring 2023
  • ECI 289A: Water and Wastewater Treatment (ECI-243C)
  • CRN: 39632 (4 units)

    Instructor: Frank Loge

    Short Description: This course is a continuation of ECI-243B (ECI-243B is required as a prerequisite).  The principal objective of this class is to provide a comprehensive background in the analysis and design of biological wastewater treatment processes from both a theoretical and practical standpoint.  Topics will include: trickling filters; rotating biological contactors; hybrid processes; anaerobic and aerobic digestion; and biological nutrient removal.   
  • ECI 289A: D-Lab WASH
  • CRN: 39631 (4 units)

    Instructor: Heather Bischel

    Short Description: D-Lab is partnering with Civil & Environmental Engineering professor Heather Bischel to offer D-Lab WASH. The class applies D-Lab's design thinking to Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health challenges in low- & middle-income countries (LIMCs) and disadvantaged communities (DACs) in the United States. This course guides student learning on the design of appropriate technologies for WASH interventions that effectively control environmental and human health contaminants. Topics draw from engineering areas (water, waste and wastewater treatment, resource recovery, water supply, etc.), public health (water quality, exposure science, risk assessment, etc.), design and social science (health disparities, need finding, mixed methods, etc.). The course is projects based, working at the interface of engineering, public health and social science. The course aims to develop globally competencies of graduate students to ideate, design and implement environmentally, socially and economically sustainable technologies.
  • ECI 289C: Engineering Education II: DEI (ECI 295B)

  • CRN: 61795 (2 units)

    Instructor: Colleen Bronner

    Short Description: While dialogues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important in all areas of academia, they are sparse in engineering classrooms. Too often issues related to DEI are removed from engineering both in the designs engineers produce and in the way we educate future engineers. The purpose of this course is open graduate students minds to the implicit assumptions made in engineering classroom and academia in general, so that students can intentionally design educational spaces to be more inclusive and equity-focused.

    This course dives into dialogues around DEI in engineering education. Specific topics will include:
    - Current status of DEI in Engineering Education
    - History of engineering discipline and academic institutions with inequities and injustice
    - Implicit bias in engineering education and design
    - The harm of the “gate keeper” mentality
    - “Professionalism” as a way of erasing identity
    - Cultural competency and awareness
    - Strategies that are achieving success 

  • ECI 289G: Pavement Sustainability and Resilience for Planners, Engineers and Managers
  • CRN: 61782 (4 units)

    Instructor: John Harvey

    Short Course Description: Sources of environmental impacts from pavements (materials, , transportation, construction, use, end of life) at project and network levels, and potential strategies to reduce those impacts. Pavement life cycle assessment methods and use of eLCAP tool. Considerations of sustainability in procurement of pavement materials and structures. Integration of social vulnerability into impact and benefit analysis. Overview of climate change projections and down-scaling, considerations of sea level rise and extreme events. Climate change impacts on pavement and consideration of risks and responses. Review of current and changing state of practice and research for both sustainability and resilience, statutory and regulatory efforts, and discussion of potential future trends.  
  • ECI 289H: Transportation Planning (Sustainable Freight Transportation Systems)
  • CRN: 39645 (4 units)

    Instructor: Miguel Jaller

    Short Course Description: Goods movements or the freight transportation system is vital for our economy and our way of life. However, it has been traditionally understudied, and despite its great benefits, the system is also responsible for a great deal of externalities and environmental and social justice implications.. This course will provide, first, an overview of the basic logistics and freight concepts; second, will discuss the type of environmental and social impacts from today’s freight operations and the types of public and private interventions required to minimize the negative effects; and third, through a number of case studies, we will discuss modeling implications, and tools to design a sustainable freight system. For example, the course will introduce the students to modeling tools to estimate shopping demand, and the changes in shopping decisions; changes in consumer travel patterns; and to assess the trade-offs between facility location (from traditional warehousing and distribution centers to urban consolidation and micro hubs), vehicle and technology characteristics, the impacts of time-windows, and the use of crowd-shipping services. While the topics are related to freight, the methods introduced in the class can be applied to other transportation problems such as micromobility, automation, public transit, and fueling and charging infrastructure, among others. Moreover, the course will have a series of lectures devoted to developing basic skills on mathematical optimization to solve problems such as bin packing (used in vehicle loading, warehousing), facility location problems (used for sitting warehouse, distribution centers, manufacturing and other facilities, charging facilities), and vehicle routing problems (routing distribution). Although these could be complex topics in itself, the course will provide the conceptual basis and jump into practical implementation through easy-to-use tools.
  • ECI 289I: Topics in Computational Hydraulics
  • CRN: 62979 (4 units)

    Instructor: Bassam Younis

    Prerequisites: ECI 277A and demonstration of proficiency in FORTRAN

    Short Course Description: Development and application of finite-volume computer models for turbulent heat, mass and momentum transport in two dimensions. Implementation and validation of advanced models for the Reynolds stresses and the turbulent scalar fluxes. Application to wall-bounded and free turbulent shear flows.
 
Winter 2023 
  • ECI 289A: Environmental Health Engineering
  • CRN: 45108 (4 units)

    Instructor: Heather Bischel

    Short Course Description: Human health and the environment are inextricably linked. This course focuses on identifying, evaluating, and addressing environmental factors that impact public health. Students will learn processes of hazard identification, exposure and dose-response assessments, and risk characterization to perform quantitative microbial risk assessments. Environmental exposures to and risks from harmful chemicals will also be addressed, though the primary focus is microbial risk assessment.
  • ECI 289C: Engineering Education II: DEI (ECI 295B)

  • CRN: 45102 (2 units)

    Instructor: Colleen Bronner

    Short Description: 

    I am offering a course in engineering education next quarter for those who have an interest in education or even just improving how we communicate to others. I was motivated to design this course because most of us (including professors) receive little guidance on how to teach effectively. This course is designed to introduce graduate engineering students to the discipline of engineering education at the higher education level. While it may help students in their role as TAs, it is not designed as a TA training course. This is the first part of a course series and provides an overview of a variety of topics.

    - Overview of Engineering Education
    - Background on how we learn (e.g. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Learning, Piaget’s theory, etc)
    - Who are we teaching in engineering? Why is there a lack of diversity and how do we get to know all our students?
    - DEI and STEM academic institutions
    - Inclusive and active learning strategies in STEM
    - ABET required skills and how to teach
    - Teaching effective teamwork in STEM
    - Designing equitable assessment in engineering
    - Changes at the institutional level in engineering education

  • ECI 289D: Advanced topics in concrete pavement engineering and materials
  • CRN: 45017 (4 units)

    Instructor: Somayeh Nassiri

    Short Description: Advances in concrete pavements engineering and materials, current and future needs. Strategies to reduce global warming potential through optimizing structural design and enhancing the durability of concrete pavements. Topics include structural design optimization strategies, mixture design optimization, implementation of performance-based specifications for concrete pavements, use of supplementary cementitious materials, fibers, nanomaterials, admixtures, and strategies to enhance concrete pavements' resilience against climate change.

 

Fall 2022 
  • ECI 289H: Transit Planning, Design and Operations
  • CRN: 53326 (4 units)

    Instructor: Kari Watkins

    Short Course Description: Course provides students with a solid understanding of planning, design and operation of public transportation systems. Objectives include describing the evolution, benefits, and challenges of different transit modes; collecting and using data to measure transit performance; quantifying changes in capacity and reliability caused by changes in technology and right-of-way; scheduling vehicles and crews to maximize transit productivity; outlining the factors influencing transit ridership; understanding the role of fare technology; and discussing the future of transit.
  • ECI 289I: Turbulent Scalar Transport in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer
  • CRN: 53095 (4 units)

    Instructor: Holly Oldroyd

    Short Course Description: Introduction to atmospheric boundary layer and thermodynamics, surface energy balance partitioning, equations of motion for the atmospheric boundary layer, turbulent scalar (e.g., heat, water vapor, pollution, etc.) transport equations for stratified flow, atmospheric stability, similarity relations, surface and mixed-layer modeling parameterizations, and field data analysis.

 

Spring 2022 
  • ECI 289A: "ECI 243C" - Continuation of ECI-243B
  • CRN: 61805 (4 units)

    Instructor: Frank Loge 

    Lecture-4 hour(s).  Prerequisite(s): ECI 243A and ECI 243B or by consent of instructor.  Open to graduate majors only.  Continuation of ECI-243B: biological phosphorous removal; denitrification processes; ponds, wetlands, and lagoons. In addition, an expanded focuses on the design of unit operations and processes for the joint optimization of water quality, energy efficiency and storage; electricity load shifting to accommodate larger quantities of renewable energy on the electric grid; and greenhouse gas emission reductions. 
  • ECI 289C: Engineering Education Research & Design
  • CANCELLED

    Instructor: Colleen Bronner

    Short Course Description: This course will build on material in the winter course, Introduction to Engineering Education. Students will design, pilot, and assess an engineering research or instructional project of their choosing. Course assessment will be based on discussion in course, weekly project-related assignments, and the final project.  You should consider this course if you are plan to teach as part of your career, design educational outreach or curricula activities, or simply want to improve your communication skills.
  • ECI 289H: Transportation Planning (Sustainable Freight Transportation Systems)
  • CRN: 39505 (4 units)

    Instructor: Miguel Jaller

    Short Course Description: Goods movements or the freight transportation system is vital for our economy and our way of life. However, it has been traditionally understudied, and despite its great benefits, the system is also responsible for a great deal of externalities and environmental and social justice implications.. This course will provide, first, an overview of the basic logistics and freight concepts; second, will discuss the type of environmental and social impacts from today’s freight operations and the types of public and private interventions required to minimize the negative effects; and third, through a number of case studies, we will discuss modeling implications, and tools to design a sustainable freight system. For example, the course will introduce the students to modeling tools to estimate shopping demand, and the changes in shopping decisions; changes in consumer travel patterns; and to assess the trade-offs between facility location (from traditional warehousing and distribution centers to urban consolidation and micro hubs), vehicle and technology characteristics, the impacts of time-windows, and the use of crowd-shipping services. While the topics are related to freight, the methods introduced in the class can be applied to other transportation problems such as micromobility, automation, public transit, and fueling and charging infrastructure, among others. Moreover, the course will have a series of lectures devoted to developing basic skills on mathematical optimization to solve problems such as bin packing (used in vehicle loading, warehousing), facility location problems (used for sitting warehouse, distribution centers, manufacturing and other facilities, charging facilities), and vehicle routing problems (routing distribution). Although these could be complex topics in itself, the course will provide the conceptual basis and jump into practical implementation through easy-to-use tools.
  • ECI 289I: Introduction to Turbulence

  • CRN: 39506 (4 units)

    Instructor: Prof. Holly Oldroyd

    Short Course Description: This course exposes students to fundamental theory, statistics, analysis tools and models for turbulence and turbulent flows.  The course objectives are geared toward students developing practical skills related to the study of turbulence (e.g., statistical analyses, time series analyses and basic turbulence modeling).

 

Winter 2022
  • ECI 289A: Environmental Health Engineering
  • CRN: 20765

    Instructor: Heather Bischel

    Short Course Description: Human health and the environment are inextricably linked. This course focuses on identifying, evaluating, and addressing environmental factors that impact public health. Students will learn processes of hazard identification, exposure and dose-response assessments, and risk characterization to perform quantitative microbial risk assessments. Environmental exposures to and risks from harmful chemicals will also be addressed, though the primary focus is microbial risk assessment.
  • ECI 289C: Introduction to Engineering Education I
  • CRN: 20767 (2 units in Winter)

    Instructor: Colleen Bronner

    The field of engineering education includes studying effective teaching and learning styles and techniques, structural barriers to equity and inclusion in engineering, course and lesson design. In this course, you will be introduced to and discuss a variety of topics in engineering education. Specific topics will include: student learning objectives, assessment of student knowledge, active learning strategies, collaborative learning (students working in teams), challenges to equity and inclusion in engineering and strategies to make engineering curriculum student-centered. You should consider this course if you are plan to teach as part of your career, design educational outreach or curricula activities, or simply want to improve your communication skills. Course assessment will be based on discussion in course, weekly reflection responses, and a final project. 
  • ECI 289I: Contaminant Fate & Transport in Porous Media
  • CRN: 45329

    Instructor: Veronica Morales

    Solute and colloid mass transport processes in environmental flows, with emphasis in porous media systems. Characterizing and quantifying physical processes of advection, diffusion/dispersion, as well as basic biogeochemical reactions. Colloid-facilitated transport in porous media. Analytical and numerical solutions to the reactive advection-dispersion equation in Eulerian and Lagrangian forms. 
Spring 2021
  • ECI 289A: Environmental Health Engineering
  • CRN: 39514

    Instructor: Heather Bischel

    Short Course Description: Human health and the environment are inextricably linked. This course focuses on identifying, evaluating, and addressing environmental factors that impact public health. Students will learn processes of hazard identification, exposure and dose-response assessments, and risk characterization to perform quantitative microbial risk assessments. Environmental exposures to and risks from harmful chemicals will also be addressed, though the primary focus is microbial risk assessment.
  • ECI 289C:  MS Plan II Capstone Project

  • CRN: 62832

    Enrollment Restriction:  Only for MS Plan II students planning to graduate this year (or by Winter 2022, i.e., if you will not be here in Spring 2022)

    Instructor:  Jasquelin Pena
    You must attend the first (virtual) class meeting if you plan to take the class
    Grading:  S/U

    Short Course Description: Last spring the environmental and water faculty initiated a new capstone project course for MS Plan II – 289C - to provide MS II students in the Environmental or Water Resources Engineering tracks a primary means to satisfy the required MS II capstone project degree requirement.  Students will develop and execute an independent project–typically literature based–of appropriate scale. Tasks will include topic development; mining the literature; strategies and best-practices for writing and oral communication, all facilitated by one-on-one faculty feedback . Each student will ultimately produce a written report and an associated presentation, which together satisfy the required “capstone project” as well as the “required demonstration of proficiency in public speaking and technical presentation”. 

  • ECI 289C: Continuation of ECI-243B
  • CRN: 62924 (4 units)

    Instructor: Frank Loge 

    Lecture-4 hour(s).  Prerequisite(s): ECI 243A and ECI 243B or by consent of instructor.  Open to graduate majors only.  Continuation of ECI-243B: biological phosphorous removal; denitrification processes; ponds, wetlands, and lagoons. In addition, an expanded focuses on the design of unit operations and processes for the joint optimization of water quality, energy efficiency and storage; electricity load shifting to accommodate larger quantities of renewable energy on the electric grid; and greenhouse gas emission reductions. 
  • ECI 289C: Engineering Education Research & Design
  • CRN: 62805 (2 units)

    Instructor: Colleen Bronner

    Short Course Description: This course will build on material in the winter course, Introduction to Engineering Education. Students will design, pilot, and assess an engineering research or instructional project of their choosing. Course assessment will be based on discussion in course, weekly project-related assignments, and the final project.  You should consider this course if you are plan to teach as part of your career, design educational outreach or curricula activities, or simply want to improve your communication skills.
  • ECI 289D: Geotechnical Professional Practice (part 3)
  • CRN: 39519 (2 unit in Spring)
    Prerequisite: ECI 289D with Prof. Boulanger in Fall and Winter

    Instructor: Ross Boulanger

    Short Course Description: Third part of a three course series designed to provide students with an understanding of various aspects of geotechnical professional practice that affect the delivery of technical solutions for geotechnical problems, including business and management practices, legal constraints, public policy and societal concerns, ethics, and professional development.  This series will also direct students through an independent research component culminating in a written report and oral presentation that fulfills the comprehensive examination requirement for the Master of Science Plan II program.
  • ECI 289E: Nonlinear Structural Analysis
  • CRN: 62118 (4 units)

    Instructor: Amit Kanvinde

    Short Course Description: The course will focus on the nonlinear response of framed structures, and the methods for computational simulation of such structures. Concepts of geometric and material nonlinearity in framed structures, and solution methods. The course will address applications of these concepts to structural design within modern performance assessment frameworks and software platforms. 
  • ECI 289H: Sustainable Freight Systems
  • CRN: 39526

    Instructor: Miguel Jaller

    Short Course Description: The lectures, expositions, assigned readings, and activities will provide the students with: An understanding of the fundamentals of last mile logistics and urban freight transportation systems from the public and private sector points of view; the knowledge to design sustainable logistics operations that maximize total social benefits; the techniques to improve last mile distribution, in light of omni-channel retailing; and the models and tools used to quantify the impacts of last mile distribution systems.
  • ECI 289I: Introduction to Turbulence

  • CRN: 39527

    Instructor: Prof. Holly Oldroyd

    Short Course Description: This course exposes students to fundamental theory, statistics, analysis tools and models for turbulence and turbulent flows.  The course objectives are geared toward students developing practical skills related to the study of turbulence (e.g., statistical analyses, time series analyses and basic turbulence modeling).

  •  ECI 289I: Application of Economics in Engineering

  • 1 unit

    “Consent of the instructor” is required, co-requisite ECI 268

    Instructor: Jay Lund

    Short Course Description: This class is an extension of ECI 268 so students can develop a more in-depth project related to the class. This will allow students to examine more details of the applications of economic ideas to engineering in their topics and fields of interest. 

Winter 2021
  • ECI 289C: Introduction to Engineering Education I
  • CRN: 20630 (2 units in Winter)

    Instructor: Colleen Bronner

    The field of engineering education includes studying effective teaching and learning styles and techniques, structural barriers to equity and inclusion in engineering, course and lesson design. In this course, you will be introduced to and discuss a variety of topics in engineering education. Specific topics will include: student learning objectives, assessment of student knowledge, active learning strategies, collaborative learning (students working in teams), challenges to equity and inclusion in engineering and strategies to make engineering curriculum student-centered. You should consider this course if you are plan to teach as part of your career, design educational outreach or curricula activities, or simply want to improve your communication skills. Course assessment will be based on discussion in course, weekly reflection responses, and a final project. 
  • ECI 289D: Geotechnical Professional Practice (part 2)
  • CRN: 20632 (1 unit in Winter)
    Prerequisite: ECI 289D with Prof. Boulanger in Fall

    Instructor: Ross Boulanger

    Short Course Description: Second part of a three course series designed to provide students with an understanding of various aspects of geotechnical professional practice that affect the delivery of technical solutions for geotechnical problems, including business and management practices, legal constraints, public policy and societal concerns, ethics, and professional development.  This series will also direct students through an independent research component culminating in a written report and oral presentation that fulfills the comprehensive examination requirement for the Master of Science Plan II program.
  • ECI 289I: Underwater Spatial Analysis

  • Instructor: Alexander Forrest

    Short Course Description: In rivers, lakes and oceans, flows are modified locally by the existing topography or bathymetry (be it the natural conditions or built infrastructure). Marine survey techniques have been developed through the field of hydrography and are commonly used in ocean / estuarine settings. Increasingly, these techniques have also been used in lakes and smaller water bodies as well. This course aims to introduce emerging mapping and remote sensing technologies that can be used to map freshwater resources in any context. Focusing on underwater technologies and a review of the fundamentals will allow key concepts to be analyzed and applied to other natural and man-made systems not covered in the course. The ability to map and observe small and large scale changes in both lakes and oceans enables water resource engineers to predict how these systems will change through both internal and external forcings.

Fall 2020
  • ECI 289D: Geotechnical Professional Practice (part 1)
  • CRN: 29332 (1 unit in Fall)

    Instructor: Ross Boulanger

    Short Course Description: First part of a three course series designed to provide students with an understanding of various aspects of geotechnical professional practice that affect the delivery of technical solutions for geotechnical problems, including business and management practices, legal constraints, public policy and societal concerns, ethics, and professional development.  This series will also direct students through an independent research component culminating in a written report and oral presentation that fulfills the comprehensive examination requirement for the Master of Science Plan II program.
  • ECI 289I: Transport and Fate of Contaminants in Porous Media

  • CRN: 29339

    Instructor: Veronica Morales

    Short Course Description: Solute and colloid mass transport processes in porous media. Characterizing and quantifying physical processes of advection, diffusion/dispersion, as well as basic biogeochemical reactions. Colloid-facilitated transport in porous media. Analytical and numerical solutions to the reactive advection-dispersion equation in Eulerian and Lagrangian forms.

  • ECI 289I: Turbulent Scalar Transport in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer
  • CRN: 29340

    Instructor: Prof. Holly Oldroyd

    Short Course Description: Introduction to atmospheric boundary layer and thermodynamics, surface energy balance partitioning, equations of motion for the atmospheric boundary layer, turbulent scalar (e.g., heat, water vapor, pollution, etc.) transport equations for stratified flow, atmospheric stability, similarity relations, surface and mixed-layer modeling parameterizations, and field data analysis.
Spring 2020
  • ECI 289A: A Path to Zero Waste
  • CRN: 61392

    Instructor: Heather Bischel

    Short course description: Global demand for water, energy, and food continues to increase, while many available resources remain finite. Modern and innovative approaches to water and waste management consider environmental impacts and opportunities to recover energy, water, and nutrients. This course will introduce alternative water and wastewater management strategies being developed and implemented to reduce and reuse waste resources. The course is project-based with student teams focusing on a client-centered design challenge.
  • ECI 289A: D-Lab WaSH 
  • CRN: 61393

    Instructor: Maureen Kinyua 

    Short course description: Through lectures, labs and client-focused hands-on projects, students will understand the concepts behind and develop a feasibility assessment for water and wastewater systems/technologies. Projects for this year include water reuse and intensification of wastewater treatment for local and national clients: not-for-profit organizations (e.g., International Rescue Committee), wastewater utilities (e.g., DC Water and HRSD), and private engineering consultants (e.g., HDR). This multifaceted authentic audience approach serves as an academic, intellectual and career networking experience for students. Visit us for more information: https://piet.ucdavis.edu/d-lab-wash/ or email mnkinyua@ucdavis.edu  
  • ECI 289C: Engineering Education Research & Design 
  • CRN: Coming soon (2 units in Spring)
    Prerequisite: ECI 289C with Prof. Bronner in Winter

    Instructor: Colleen Bronner

    Short Course Description: This course will build on material in the winter course, Introduction to Engineering Education. Students will design, pilot, and assess an engineering research or instructional project of their choosing. Course assessment will be based on discussion in course, weekly project-related assignments, and the final project.  You should consider this course if you are plan to teach as part of your career, design educational outreach or curricula activities, or simply want to improve your communication skills.
  • ECI 289C:  MS Plan II Capstone Project

  • CRN: 84299

    Enrollment Restriction:  Only for MS Plan II students planning to graduate this year (or by Winter 2021, i.e., if you will not be here in Spring 2021)

    Instructor:  Prof. Frank Loge
    Location/Time:  T & Th, 4:10 to 6 pm, 1007 Ghausi Hall
    You must attend the first (virtual) class meeting on Tuesday March 31 if you plan to take the class
    Grading:  S/U

    Short Course Description: Last spring the environmental and water faculty initiated a new capstone project course for MS Plan II – 289C - to provide MS II students in the Environmental or Water Resources Engineering tracks a primary means to satisfy the required MS II capstone project degree requirement.  Students will develop and execute an independent project–typically literature based–of appropriate scale. Tasks will include topic development; mining the literature; strategies and best-practices for writing and oral communication, all facilitated by one-on-one faculty feedback . Each student will ultimately produce a written report and an associated presentation, which together satisfy the required “capstone project” as well as the “required demonstration of proficiency in public speaking and technical presentation”. 

  • ECI 289D: Geotechnical Professional Practice (part 3)
  • CRN: 83865 (2 unit in Spring)
    Prerequisite: ECI 289D with Prof. Boulanger in Fall and Winter

    Instructor: Ross Boulanger

    Short Course Description: Third part of a three course series designed to provide students with an understanding of various aspects of geotechnical professional practice that affect the delivery of technical solutions for geotechnical problems, including business and management practices, legal constraints, public policy and societal concerns, ethics, and professional development.  This series will also direct students through an independent research component culminating in a written report and oral presentation that fulfills the comprehensive examination requirement for the Master of Science Plan II program.
  • ECI 289H: Sustainable Freight Transportation Systems

  • CRN: 83867

    Instructor: Miguel Jaller

    Short Course Description: 

    The lectures, expositions, assigned readings, and activities will provide the students with: An understanding of the fundamentals of last mile logistics and urban freight transportation systems from the public and private sector points of view; the knowledge to design sustainable logistics operations that maximize total social benefits; the techniques to improve last mile distribution, in light of omni-channel retailing; and the models and tools used to quantify the impacts of last mile distribution systems.

  • ECI 289I: Introduction to Turbulence

  • CRN: 61404

    Instructor: Prof. Holly Oldroyd

    Short Course Description: This course exposes students to fundamental theory, statistics, analysis tools and models for turbulence and turbulent flows.  The course objectives are geared toward students developing practical skills related to the study of turbulence (e.g., statistical analyses, time series analyses and basic turbulence modeling).

Winter 2020
  • ECI 289A: Environmental Health Engineering
  • CRN: 52593

    Instructor: Heather Bischel

    Short Course Description: Human health and the environment are inextricably linked. This course focuses on identifying, evaluating, and addressing environmental factors that impact public health. Students will learn processes of hazard identification, exposure and dose-response assessments, and risk characterization to perform quantitative microbial risk assessments. Environmental exposures to and risks from harmful chemicals will also be addressed, though the primary focus is microbial risk assessment.
  • ECI 289A: Water Reuse System Design

  • CRN: Space is limited, admission with instructor’s permission. Application form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeplC7PZNmjaNcm1otqbGQ-f1fVODTyDIfUKW1jxcshPg0g2A/viewform
    (4 units)
    T/TH 1:00 - 2:50pm

    Instructor: Maureen Kinyua

    Short Course Description: This client focused, project-based course is designed to engage students in an actual consulting experience using a structured, mentored approach. Students will apply basic engineering and social science tools to design and evaluate a water reuse system.

    Client: International Rescue Committee

    The aim of IRC’s New Roots program in Sacramento is to expand refugee and immigrant farmer access to food safety education and training. The specific goal of this project is to design, monitor and test a pilot water filtration system at the IRC farm in West Sacramento to ensure its compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA ) as well as its water treatment efficiency and socio-cultural friendliness.

  • ECI 289C: Introduction to Engineering Education
  • CRN: 77441 (2 units in Winter)

    Instructor: Colleen Bronner

    The field of engineering education includes studying effective teaching and learning styles and techniques, structural barriers to equity and inclusion in engineering, course and lesson design. In this course, you will be introduced to and discuss a variety of topics in engineering education. Specific topics will include: student learning objectives, assessment of student knowledge, active learning strategies, collaborative learning (students working in teams), challenges to equity and inclusion in engineering and strategies to make engineering curriculum student-centered. You should consider this course if you are plan to teach as part of your career, design educational outreach or curricula activities, or simply want to improve your communication skills. Course assessment will be based on discussion in course, weekly reflection responses, and a final project. 
  • ECI 289D: Geotechnical Professional Practice (part 2)
  • CRN: 76580 (1 unit in Winter)
    Prerequisite: ECI 289D with Prof. Boulanger in Fall

    Instructor: Ross Boulanger

    Short Course Description: Second part of a three course series designed to provide students with an understanding of various aspects of geotechnical professional practice that affect the delivery of technical solutions for geotechnical problems, including business and management practices, legal constraints, public policy and societal concerns, ethics, and professional development.  This series will also direct students through an independent research component culminating in a written report and oral presentation that fulfills the comprehensive examination requirement for the Master of Science Plan II program.
  • ECI 289E: Structural Reliability
  • CRN: 76922 (4 units)

    Instructor: Michele Barbato

    Short Course Description:This course will cover: (1) a short review of probability theory (random events, random variables, probability distributions, conditional probability, joint probability distributions, functions of single and multiple random variables); (2) structural component reliability analysis (exact solutions, FORM, SORM); (3) structural system reliability analysis (series systems, parallel systems, general systems); (4) simulation methods (Monte Carlo simulation, variance reduction techniques); and (5) probabilistic codified design (inverse reliability problem, probabilistic design, reliability-based design). Specific applications to earthquake engineering and wind engineering will also be discussed.

    Pre-requisites: It is highly recommended but not required that students have taken a graduate/undergraduate level course in Matrix and/or Indeterminate Structural Analysis and an undergraduate course in Probability Theory.

    Course time: MW 12:10 - 2:00pm; Academic Surge 2212
  • ECI 289I: Stochastic Models for Particle Transport
  • CRN: By instructor consent (2 units)
    Thursdays 10am - 12pm

    Instructor: Veronica Morales

    Short Course Description: This short course covers select topics of reactive mixing in random walks, and the fundamentals of Continuous Time Random Walks as modeling frameworks for anomalous transport phenomena. Specific topics covered include: Plume discretization; Origin and force balance of Brownian motion; Equations of motion; Diffusive walks in 1D, 2D, 3D; Well mixed and poorly mixed reactive systems; Random walks with variable space/time jumps;  Random walks with drift; Continuum equations for CTRW; Travel time distributions; Implementation of Weizmann Institute toolbox; Spatial Markov Models for CTRW.
Fall 2019
  • ECI 289D: Geotechnical Professional Practice (part 1)
  • CRN: By Instructor Consent (1 unit in Fall)

    Instructor: Ross Boulanger

    Short Course Description: First part of a three course series designed to provide students with an understanding of various aspects of geotechnical professional practice that affect the delivery of technical solutions for geotechnical problems, including business and management practices, legal constraints, public policy and societal concerns, ethics, and professional development.  This series will also direct students through an independent research component culminating in a written report and oral presentation that fulfills the comprehensive examination requirement for the Master of Science Plan II program.
  • ECI 289I: Turbulent Scalar Transport in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer
  • CRN: 39298

    Instructor: Prof. Holly Oldroyd

    Short Course Description: Introduction to atmospheric boundary layer and thermodynamics, surface energy balance partitioning, equations of motion for the atmospheric boundary layer, turbulent scalar (e.g., heat, water vapor, pollution, etc.) transport equations for stratified flow, atmospheric stability, similarity relations, surface and mixed-layer modeling parameterizations, and field data analysis.
  • ECI 289I: Transport and Fate of Contaminants in Porous Media

  • CRN: 39297

    Instructor: Veronica Morales, Janis Patino Higuita

    Short Course Description: Solute and colloid mass transport processes in porous media. Characterizing and quantifying physical processes of advection, diffusion/dispersion, as well as basic biogeochemical reactions. Colloid-facilitated transport in porous media. Analytical and numerical solutions to the reactive advection-dispersion equation in Eulerian and Lagrangian forms.

Spring 2019
  • ECI 289A: Alternative Water and Waste Management Systems

  • CRN: 69257

    Instructor: Wenting Li

    Short Course Description: This course will introduce alternative water and wastewater management strategies needed when traditional means and methods are inadequate. A series of guest speakers will describe innovative engineering strategies being implemented to address challenging environmental conditions and opportunities in sustainability. Students will engage in discussion with practitioners, experts and peer researchers and take several field trips to local sites. Field trips include stormwater management facilities, a solid waste landfill, and food waste management facilities.

  • ECI 289A: Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Underdeveloped Communities

  • CRN: 69258

    Instructor: Maureen Njoki Kinyua

    Short Course Description: This 4-unit course will provide students fundamental knowledge on how to design, operate and maintain appropriate technologies to control environmental pollutants found in developing regions and smaller communities in North America. Topics will draw from engineering areas (water, waste and wastewater treatment, water supply etc), public health (water and air quality) and social science (gender disparity, mixed methods etc). Understanding the importance of the inter-relationship between engineering, public health and social science will serve to develop the globally competency of graduate students as they design and implement environmentally, socially and economically sustainable technologies. The course design project will involve water, sanitation and hygiene technologies for use in schools in Kenya.

    Pre-requisites: Students must have taken a microbiology and/or chemistry course.

  • ECI 289C: Projects for Environmental/Water Resources

  • CRN: 69259

    Instructor: Christopher Cappa

    Short Course Description: Provide MS II students in the Environmental or Water Resources Engineering tracks a primary means to satisfy the required MS II Project degree requirement. May also be of interest to MS I and PhD students who are developing their theses or dissertation prospectus. Students will develop and execute an independent project–typically literature-based–of appropriate scale. Discussion topics may include: project development; mining the literature; strategies and best-practices for writing and oral communication. Strong peer-to-peer interaction will be encouraged through various activities. Students will ultimately produce a written report and an associated presentation, which together constitute the “project.” MS II students should typically sign up for 4 units. Grading: S/U.

  • ECI 289E: Random Vibrations

  • CRN: 92638

    Instructor: Michele Barbato

    Short Course Description: (1) A short review of probability theory (random events, random variables, probability distributions, conditional probability, joint probability distributions, functions of single and multiple random variables); (2) The basis of stochastic processes and random fields (definition, description in time and frequency domain, stationarity, ergodicity, fundamentals of mean square calculus, multivariate processes); (3) Classical random vibrations, i.e., description of the stochastic response of linear elastic structural systems subject to stochastic excitations (stochastic response of single- and multi-degree-of-freedom systems, time and frequency domain approaches, state space approach); and (4) Reliability-based structural design of random systems (random failure mechanisms, level crossings, first-excursion failure probability, fatigue failure probability). Specific applications to earthquake engineering and wind engineering will also be discussed.

    Pre-requisites: Students must have taken a graduate level course in (deterministic) Structural Dynamics.

  • ECI 289I: Introduction to Turbulence

  • CRN: 69273

    Instructor: Prof. Holly Oldroyd

    Short Course Description: This course exposes students to fundamental theory, statistics, analysis tools and models for turbulence and turbulent flows.  The course objectives are geared toward students developing practical skills related to the study of turbulence (e.g., statistical analyses, time series analyses and basic turbulence modeling).

Winter 2019
  • ECI 289A: Technical Writer’s Workshop in a Research Setting

  • Instructor: Frank Loge

    Short Course Description: Participants engage in a professional writing critique “circle” submitting writings from their own past or present, professional or academic research activities. A supporting curriculum emphasizes “big picture” writing skills such as organization, flow, and communication of key ideas. Writers will learn to give and receive feedback verbally, make a writing plan, brush off old skills such as outlining, and experiment with new process strategies. Instructor and facilitator act as coach and resource, presenting bite-sized skill-building topics. Course emphasizes peer review, process over end product, dynamic skills application, and excerpts from authentic writings for practice exercises. While sessions may touch on research or technical skills, this course does not explicitly address research development or ideation.

  • ECI 289I: Underwater Spatial Analysis

  • Instructor: Alexander Forrest

    Short Course Description: In rivers, lakes and oceans, flows are modified locally by the existing topography or bathymetry (be it the natural conditions or built infrastructure). Marine survey techniques have been developed through the field of hydrography and are commonly used in ocean / estuarine settings. Increasingly, these techniques have also been used in lakes and smaller water bodies as well. This course aims to introduce emerging mapping and remote sensing technologies that can be used to map freshwater resources in any context. Focusing on underwater technologies and a review of the fundamentals will allow key concepts to be analyzed and applied to other natural and man-made systems not covered in the course. The ability to map and observe small and large scale changes in both lakes and oceans enables water resource engineers to predict how these systems will change through both internal and external forcings.

  • ECI 289E: Designing Materials for Sustainability

  • (Pending approval as ECI 239)

    Instructor: Sabbie Miller

    Short Course Description: Material selection and design play a large role in the environmental impacts associated with the built environment. This is an interdisciplinary course that combines material mechanics and life cycle assessment to use both in the design of “greener” materials. This course covers topics pertaining to the selection of engineered material constituents and processing techniques and discusses altering mechanical properties and microstructure as well as the influence the environmental impacts.

Fall 2018
  • ECI 289A: Synergies Between Environmental Engineering and Water Policy

  • Instructor: Hannah Safford

    Short Course Description: How can engineers and policymakers learn from each other and work together to address pressing environmental challenges? We will explore this question through priority topics related to water quality, availability, treatment, and reuse. Objectives include: 1) build skills in developing engineering solutions to water-policy problems; 2) consider how to best account for real-world constraints—including political constraints, regulatory constraints, and constraints imposed by public understanding and opinion—in engineering research; 3) develop strategies for effectively communicating complex scientific and policy topics to diverse audiences.

  • ECI 289I: Evolutionary Algorithms

  • Instructor: Prof. Jon Herman

    Short Course Description: Global optimization methods for engineering problems with noisy, discontinuous, or multimodal objective functions. Representation, variation, and selection operators. Convergence assessment and hypothesis testing. Multi-objective methods. Application to binary and real-valued optimization problems such as model calibration, shortest path, and scheduling problems. Prerequisite – Programming (Python, Matlab, or R)

  • ECI 289I: Turbulent Scalar Transport in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer

  • Instructor: Prof. Holly Oldroyd

    Short Course Description: Introduction to atmospheric boundary layer and thermodynamics, surface energy balance partitioning, equations of motion for the atmospheric boundary layer, turbulent scalar (e.g., heat, water vapor, pollution, etc.) transport equations for stratified flow, atmospheric stability, similarity relations, surface and mixed-layer modeling parameterizations, and field data analysis.

Every Fall Quarter
  • ECI 289I: Transport and Fate of Contaminants in Porous Media

  • Instructor: Veronica Morales

    Short Course Description: Solute and colloid mass transport processes in porous media. Characterizing and quantifying physical processes of advection, diffusion/dispersion, as well as basic biogeochemical reactions. Colloid-facilitated transport in porous media. Analytical and numerical solutions to the reactive advection-dispersion equation in Eulerian and Lagrangian forms. 

Spring 2018
  • ECI 289D: Geotechnical Engineering

  • Instructor: Patrick Lucia

    Short Course Description: The goal of the course is to 1) Provide students with an understanding of how technical knowledge is incorporated into the business world to meet the requirements of professional registration, ethics, the economics of consulting, the Standard of Care, risk management practices, and the demands of business and professional development and 2) Increase the students proficiency in applying critical thinking in solving real world geotechnical problems by the process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion.

  • ECI 289I: Colloids in Soil and Water (**COURSE IS NOW ECI 261)

  • Instructor: Veronica Morales

    Short Course Description: The course covers select topics regarding colloid occurrence, properties, behavior in different environments, and transport mechanisms in water and soils. Particular attention is paid to their role in water contamination. 

Winter/Spring 2018 (Two-Part Series)
  • ECI 289C: Engineering Education

  • Instructor: Prof. Colleen Bronner

    Short Course Description: This course provides an overview of Engineering Education to students interested in teaching engineering and designing outreach education modules to communicate their research. Content covers student learning objectives, Bloom’s taxonomy, strategies for engaging students, evidence-based teaching methods (e.g., active learning methods, problem-based learning), facilitating professional skills, and incorporating diversity and inclusion in learning activities. A sequential laboratory course, offered in Spring 2018, will provide students the opportunity to apply knowledge by developing lesson plans and activities relating to their research area.

Winter 2018
  • ECI 289C: Seismic Hazard Analysis

  • Instructor: Prof. Norm Abrahamson

    Short Course Description: Deterministic and probabilistic approaches for seismic hazard analysis. Separation of uncertainty into aleatory variability and epistemic uncertainty. Seismic source and ground motion characterization and hazard computation. Near-fault effects on ground motions. Site-specific hazard using regionalized and non-ergodic ground-motion models. Treatment of uncertainty in design ground motions. Development of time histories for dynamic analyses of structures and seismic risk computation, including selection of ground motion parameters for estimating structural response, development of fragility curves, and methods for risk calculations.

  • ECI 289C: Sustainable Freight Transportation Systems

  • Instructor: Prof. Miguel Jaller

    Short Course Description: The course discusses freight transportation systems with specific emphasis on urban operations, economics, management, and planning with the aim of achieving a more sustainable system. Moreover, the course will focus on city logistics strategies with national and international examples.

  • HYD 289: Principles of HEC Software

  • Instructor: Prof. Sam Sandoval

    Short Course Description: Ten water resource software programs will be introduced in this course, and workshops will be assigned for seven of the ten software programs: HEC-DSS, HEC-SSP, HEC-HMS, HEC-ResSim, HEC-RAS, HEC-FIA and HEC-RTS

Fall 2017
  • ECI 289B: Underwater Spatial Analysis

  • Instructor: Prof. Alex Forrest

    Short Course Description: In rivers, lakes and oceans, flows are modified locally by the existing topography or bathymetry (be it the natural conditions or built infrastructure). Marine survey techniques have been developed through the field of hydrography and are commonly used in ocean / estuarine settings. Increasingly, these techniques have also been used in lakes and smaller water bodies as well. This course aims to introduce emerging mapping and remote sensing technologies that can be used to map freshwater resources in any context. Focusing on underwater technologies and a review of the fundamentals will allow key concepts to be analyzed and applied to other natural and man-made systems not covered in the course. The ability to map and observe small and large scale changes in both lakes and oceans enables water resource engineers to predict how these systems will change through both internal and external forcings.

  • TTP 289: Pavement for Managers

  • Instructor: Prof. John Harvey

    Short Course Description: Concepts and knowledge needed by planners and managers to understand pavements. Includes basic understanding of materials, design, construction, maintenance and rehabilitation and end-of-life, and how these influence costs, environmental impacts and societal impacts. Discussions of asset management, pavement finance, new types of pavement for different purposes (permeable pavement for stormwater management, pavements with lower tire/pavement noise, pavements and bicycle ride comfort, etc). How to communicate pavement issues with decision-makers. Discussion of alternatives to current approaches for providing pavement functionality (different materials and structures).