Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering

The PhDCE Program requires the completion of 54 credit hours distributed between taught courses (eight courses for a total of 24 CHs) and compulsory requirements (another 30 CHs), distributed as follows:

1. General Elective Courses: Courses that provide general knowledge shared by all students in the program.
2. Technical Elective Courses: courses that provide advanced knowledge in the student specialization.
3. Major Elective Courses: courses that students can choose based on their interests or the recommendation of the dissertation supervisor.
4. Major Compulsory Requirements: other requirements that all students must complete.

Except for the Major Compulsory Requirements, all taught courses are elective courses where the student can select courses from a specified list based on his/her specialization and interest. The distribution of the total credit hours for the different types of requirements is as follows:

 

Program Components

 

The details of the different types of requirements are described in the following sub-sections.

 

General Elective Courses (9 Credit Hours): The student should take any three out of the following four courses:

 

List of General Elective Courses

 

Technical Elective Courses (9 Credit Hours): The student should take any three courses from the following list, preferably from the same domain. Subject to the approval of the Program Coordinator, a student can be allowed to replace one course from this list by taking that course from the above list of General Elective Courses.

 

List of Technical Elective Courses

 

Major Elective Courses (6 Credit Hours): The student should take any two courses with a total of six credit hours. The student should select appropriate courses to extend his/her knowledge of a particular civil engineering area or acquire additional knowledge necessary for the chosen research topic. Typically, the student would refer to his/her dissertation supervisor (or the Graduate Coordinator if a dissertation supervisor is yet to be selected) to assist in selecting the appropriate elective courses. The elective courses are selected from anyone (or combination) of the following:

1. PhD Graduate level courses offered by the CEE Department from the above lists.
2. PhD Graduate level courses from outside the CEE Department, subject to department approval and following the recommendation of the dissertation supervisor (or the Graduate Coordinator if a dissertation supervisor is yet to be selected).

 

Major Compulsory Requirements (30 Credit Hours): The student must successfully complete the following requirements:

 

Major Compulsory Requirements

 

• 3.2.1.

Study Plan: Course Distribution

The following is a typical semester-by-semester study plan for the PhDCE Program:

 

Typical Study Plan

Year 1
Fall Semester (9 credit hours)	Spring Semester (9 credit hours)
General Elective Course 1 (3 credits) General Elective Course 2 (3 credits) Technical Elective Course 1 (3 credits)	General Elective Course 3 (3 credits) Technical Elective Course 2 (3 credits) Major Elective Course 1 (3 credits)
Year 2
Fall Semester (6 credit hours)	Spring Semester (6 credit hours)
Technical Elective Course 3 (3 credits) Major Elective Course 2 (3 credits) PhD Qualifying Exam (0 credit)	PhD Seminar (0 credit) Directed Studies in CE (3 credits) PhD Dissertation (3 credits)
Year 3
Fall Semester (6 credit hours)	Spring Semester (6 credit hours)
PhD Dissertation (6 credits)	PhD Dissertation (6 credits)
Year 4
Fall Semester (6 credit hours)	Spring Semester (6 credit hours)
PhD Dissertation (6 credits)	PhD Dissertation (6 credits)

 

 

Program Requirements (For Students Joining Before Spring 2023-2024):

The PhDCE Program requires successful completion of courses and a research dissertation. In total, the program requires completion of 46 credit hours. It consists of 25 credit hours of graduate-level courses in addition to 21 credit hours that include qualifying exam (0 credits), dissertation proposal (3 credits), and dissertation (18 credits). The program is subject to applicable regulations regarding graduate studies at the University of Sharjah.

The courses in the curriculum cover four sets of requirements:

1. Core Courses (courses taken by all students in the program);
2. Specialized Courses (courses taken by students in their respective specialization tracks in the program);
3. Elective Courses (courses taken by students from a list/basket of courses); and
4. Compulsory Courses (these include Directed Studies in CE, PhD Seminar, PhD Qualifying Exam, PhD Dissertation Proposal, and PhD Dissertation)

 

 

 
Core Courses (12 Credit Hours)
Students must take the following core courses shown in the table below. These courses provide students with advanced mathematical and analytical techniques needed to build fundamentals for the other advanced courses and research in their area of specialization.
 

Course No.	Course Title	Credits	Prerequisite
0401702	Probability and Reliability in Civil Engineering	3	1440281 or equivalent
0401703	Life Cycle Assessment	3	None
0401704	Soft Computing Applications in CE	3	None
0401705	Design and Analysis of Experiments	3	1440281 or equivalent

 

Specialized Courses (6 Credit Hours)
The PhDCE Program comprised of three major tracks (i.e., general specializations): Structural Systems Engineering, Infrastructure Systems Engineering, and Construction Engineering and Management. Under these general specializations, there are areas of concentration where the student has the option to choose one of these concentration areas under his/her major track, as follows:

1. Structural Systems Engineering Track, with the following concentration areas:

1. Structural and Materials Engineering
2. Geotechnical Engineering

    

1. Infrastructure Systems Engineering Track, with the following concentration areas:

1. Environmental and Water Resources Engineering
2. Transportation and Pavement Engineering

    

1. Construction Engineering and Management Track

 

The specialized courses consist of two courses worth six (6) credit hours. The students must select from the following three lists of courses under the three tracks shown below
 
Courses in the structural systems engineering track

Course No.	Structural and Materials Engineering Concentration Courses	Credits
0401711	Bridge Engineering	3
0401712	Sustainable Construction Materials	3
0401713	Fracture Mechanics of Materials & Structures	3
Course No.	Geotechnical Engineering Concentration Courses	Credits
0401751	Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering	3
0401752	Theoretical & Computational Soil Mechanics	3
0401753	Unsaturated Soil Mechanics	3
0401754	Advanced Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory	3
0401755	Advanced Foundation Engineering	3

 
Courses in the infrastructure systems engineering track

Course No.	Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Concentration Courses	Credits
0401741	Coastal Processes and Management	3
0401742	Climate Change Science and Impacts on Water Management	3
0401743	Groundwater Hydrology	3
0401744	Integrated Water Resources Management	3
0401761	Experimental Research in Environmental Engineering	3
0401762	Membrane and Desalination Technologies	3
0401763	Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring	3
0401764	Air Quality Engineering	3
0401765	Nanomaterials in water and wastewater treatment	3
Course No.	Transportation and Pavement Engineering Concentration Courses	Credits
0401721	Traffic Flow Theory	3
0401722	Transportation Systems Analysis	3
0401723	Transportation Data Analysis	3
0401771	Advanced Airport Pavement Design	3
0401772	Pavement Performance and Management Systems	3
0401773	Modeling of Asphalt Materials	3

 
Courses in the construction engineering and management track

Course No.	Construction Engineering and Management Concentration Courses	Credits
0401731	Advanced Construction Law and Contracts	3
0401732	Infrastructure Maintenance and Management	3
0401733	Computer Integrated Construction Engineering Systems	3
0401734	Lean Construction Principles and Management	3

 
The student can select any course related to his/her track. However, for the student to qualify for a concentration area under a particular track, he/she should complete the two specialized courses in the desired area of concentration in addition to completing the dissertation in the same area of concentration.

Elective Courses (6 Credit Hours)
The number of elective courses to be completed consists of two courses with a total of 6 credit hours. The students should select appropriate courses to extend their knowledge of a particular civil engineering area or acquire additional knowledge necessary for the chosen research topic. Typically, the student would refer to his/her dissertation supervisor (or the Graduate Coordinator if a dissertation supervisor is yet to be selected) to assist in selecting the appropriate elective courses. The elective courses are selected from any one (or combination) of the following:

 

1. Graduate course(s) offered by the CEE Department
2. Graduate-level courses from outside the CEE Department subject to department approval and following the recommendation of the dissertation supervisor (or the Graduate Coordinator if a dissertation supervisor is yet to be selected)

Compulsory Courses (22 Credit Hours)
A student in the PhDCE Program must successfully complete the following requirements:

Course No.	Course Title	Credits	Prerequisite
0401700	PhD Seminar	0	0401701 Directed Studies in CE
0401701	Directed Studies in CE	1	None
0401800	PhD Qualifying Examination	0	0401701 Directed Studies in CE (Pre/Co) and completion of all core and specialized courses
0401801	PhD Dissertation Proposal	3	0401800 PhD Qualifying Examination
0401802	PhD Dissertation	18	0401801 PhD Dissertation Proposal

 

 

Study Plan: Course Distribution

 

Year 1
Fall Semester (9 credit hours)	Spring Semester (9 credit hours)
Core course 1 (3 credits) Core course 2 (3 credits) Specialized course 1 (3 credits)	1. Core course 3 (3 credits) 2. Core course 4 (3 credits) 3. Specialized course 2 (3 credits)
Year 2
Fall Semester (4 credit hours)	Spring Semester (6 credit hours)
Directed Studies in CE (1 credit) PhD Qualifying Exam (0 credits) Elective Course 1 (3 credits)	Elective Course 2 (3 credits) PhD Dissertation Proposal (3 credits) PhD Seminar (0 credits)
Year 3
Fall Semester (6 credit hours)	Spring Semester (6 credit hours)
1. PhD Dissertation (6 credits)	1. PhD Dissertation (6 credits)
Year 4
Fall Semester (3 credit hours)	Spring Semester (3 credit hours)
1. PhD Dissertation (3 credits)	1. PhD Dissertation (3 credits)