Bridge Engineering Degree

[gnault]

I have been working in bridge design for the past 4+ years and am contemplating going back to school to get my Master's degree. I have been searching for schools that offer a Master's degree in bridge engineering specifically as opposed to the more general Master's degree in civil engineering with an emphasis in structures. However, I have only found two universities that offer such a degree:

1. The University of Surrey in Guildford, England
2. The University at Buffalo in Buffalo, NY

Is anyone familiar with either of the two schools above; and if so any thoughts on them?

Does anyone know of any other schools that offer a similar degree? Or perhaps a curriculum/program that offers several bridge related courses?

Lastly, any thoughts as to pros/cons to getting a Master's in Bridge Engineering as opposed to a more general Structural Engineering degree?

Thanks for your input.

 

[bridgebuster]

SUNY Buffalo has had a good reputation for many years. Two of my colleagues went there; both are pretty bright. It's also the home to the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research.

 

[GregLocock]

Surrey (wherever that is) strikes no particular bells rep wise, but to my surprise they aren't out for the count.

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?s=Civil+Engineering

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[MikeHalloran]

This is not a good time in history to be specialized.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Qshake]

Au Contraire MikeHalloran - If you must specialize in something, specialize in infrastructure....it's saved my butt many a time.

Back to the original post....I've only recently seen information coming from SUNY on bridge engineering degrees. Incidentally the center was renamed from National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research to the Multi-Disciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research for many years. This has expanded it's scope to include other disasters and research into Blast.

There are universities in the US well noted for emphasis in bridges. For example, Iowa State University has a good many researchers involved in bridge related research and they tend to get this material into their coursework. That makes for bridge savvy students upon graduation. Others instituitions with reknown bridge researchers include the University of Illinois, University of Washington at Seattle, University of Wyoming, University of Nevada at Reno, Missouri University of Science and Technology, University of California at San Diego, Georgia Tech, and many others.

One method to check universities without having to do broad internet searches is to check out the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering...look at the bibliographies and or year end reviewers for names of researchers. Look them up.

While those universities offer course content in bridges and work their bridge research into other courses, none have official degrees in bridge engineering that I'm aware of.

Regards,
Qshake

Eng-Tips Forums:Real Solutions for Real Problems Really Quick.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Mizzou - U of MO at Columbia, MO was doing quite a bit of bridge work back in the 1970's - when I graduated. Not sure about now!!

 

[gnault]

Thank you all for your input. If I may ask one more question...

I have reviewed the bridge engineering curriculum at the two schools mentioned above (University of Surrey and University at Buffalo) and have found the offered classes to be fairly different between the two schools. For instance, the University of Buffalo offers several classes focusing on seismic bridge design whereas the University of Surrey does not offer any (this is just one example of many).

Since the two programs cover different aspects of bridge engineering, is there any advantage to obtaining a Master's degree from BOTH Universities? The programs are only one year long each, so it wouldn't take that much time...although I'm sure the cost will add up.

Anyways, I'm mainly concerned if it will be "pointless" to have the same degree from two different Universities, albeit the topics studied at each University will be fairly different.

Any constructive thoughts on this is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[francesca]

Choose your postgrad university on the quality and specific areas of research of the faculty and not the name of the degree. A MSCE (Structural) is much more valuable if it's from a reputable university and you have publications with a preeminent bridge engineering professor than a MSBE, or whatever you call a masters in bridge engineering. I'm trying to think which university has a good professor who specializes in Bridge Information Modeling (BIM for bridges) - that would be where I would lay my hat if I were into bridge design. He's at SUNY - Buffalo.

http://www.civil.buffalo.edu/people/interactive-people-search/name:stuart-chen/

 

[umrce]

I wouldn't worry about getting a specific degree in Bridge Engineering but I think you need to decide what is best for you. I thought the same thing when I started looking for Structural Engineering degrees. There aren't many of those either. There are a lot of MSCE degrees with a structural emphasis (as I got). That being said, if you want to be an icon designer that only does monster bridges then specializing might be a good idea. If you just like bridges and are looking for work in a specific part of the country then any program with a good reputation would suffice.

Speaking from personal experience, I graduated two years ago with a MSCE from a small local university that has a good local reputation and haven't looked back. I work for a structural firm that currently has the majority of our workload coming from the local public sector being bridge design but I get to dabble a little in building design as well so I have gotten to establish diversity in my experience. I'm not looking for fame and fortune (nothing wrong in doing so), so this gives me the opportunity to be flexible and stay in my area (hopefully) should I be let go or should the markets fluctuate (as they always do) and hopefully I would not have to move my family. You can never plan for the future, only be prepared as best you can for it.

Finally, as I'm sure you already know, I can tell you that while the courses you take will provide you a basis of concept and understanding of the fundamentals; you could do what I did, not have a single course in bridge design, and as long as you understand what you learned in school and work under a good licensed engineer you'll learn how to apply those concepts you'll learn in school to the real world. They're all structures with foundations, columns, beams, walls, and slabs, that have to be designed to be safely and economically to the satisfaction of your client. So just find a good school that will pay you to go there not the other way around and you're set.

 

[a7x1984]

I generally agree with MikeHalloran when it comes to being "flexible/agile" in an ever-changing job market. Obviously, you do not want to have paper thin knowledge of many specializations. That is super risky and makes you look like a pretentious engineer.

If you think there is a SUSTAINABLE demand somewhere for that specialty, you are confident of your abilities, and you plan on enjoying that niche for the duration of your career, go for it.

Personally, I would only specialize in that if I was in a 'tenured' position at a quality and busy DOT agency. They may not pay the same as a niche in the private market, but their fringe benefits and career stability are great. If you specialize in bridge, I recommend the remedial/evaluation niche. New bridges may not always be going up in huge quantities, but old ones will most certainly be retrofitted many, many times over. For that, I recommend Purdue or Lehigh University. Lehigh, I know, has advanced testing facilities and advanced courses in bridge engineering.

http://www4.lehigh.edu/Media/Website Resources/PDF/academics/Lehigh University 2010-2011.pdf

"Structural engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand into shapes we cannot..."...ah...screw it, we don't know what the heck we are doing.