EXPLORE GRADUATE COURSES

Looking for graduate courses for the upcoming academic year? Explore new offerings, featured courses and special topics available to Civil, Environmental, Mining, and Petroleum Engineering students.

“Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was.”

Theodore von Kármán

Welcome to a new academic year with the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the School of Mining & Petroleum Engineering! We are thrilled to have you join our vibrant research and academic community as you transform complex engineering challenges into rigorous, defensible discoveries. Whether you are arriving with a clearly defined thesis topic or are just beginning to shape your research path, this year promises incredible opportunities for growth, collaboration, and innovation.

LIST OF COURSES

NEW COURSES

CIV E 779 – Introduction to Building Engineering

Why take this course?

Delve into the fundamentals of building engineering with a focus on how structural, envelope, mechanical, and electrical systems integrate. In this course, you will gain a working knowledge of essential Canadian compliance codes, including the NBC and NECB, and learn to navigate primary referenced industry standards such as CSA, ASTM, ANSI, and ULC.

Schedule: Tuesdays, 5:00-8:00 p.m.
(Evening course designed to accommodate students with daytime professional or research commitments.)

**Open to students from all specializations.

CIV E 709 – Infrastructure Systems and Resilience

Why take this course?

Examine the principles, methods, and real-world applications involved in building resilient physical infrastructure systems. This course covers emerging climate-related infrastructure challenges using data-driven, equity-centered, and management-informed approaches. You will integrate technical methods—including damage modeling, network analysis, geospatial analytics, and AI/ML—with socio-economic perspectives like community vulnerability and stakeholder decision-making. Through case studies and hands-on projects, you will analyze how infrastructure systems interact, respond, and recover under disruption and uncertainty, placing an emphasis on resilience-based planning and design as a foundation for long-term sustainability, equity, and risk reduction.

  • Construction Engineering
  • Fall 2026
  • Instructor: Yitong Li
  • Learn more

CIV E 709 – Embodied Intelligence for Construction Robotics

Why take this course?

This course focuses on the integration of robotics, artificial intelligence, sensing, and physical interaction in construction environments. You will explore how robotic systems can perceive their surroundings, reason about tasks, and adapt their actions through embodied interaction with the physical world. Emphasis is placed on developing intelligent and autonomous robotic solutions for complex, dynamic, and unstructured construction applications.

  • Construction Engineering
  • Winter 2027
  • Instructor: Qipei Mei
  • Learn more

CIV E 719 – Transportation Network Modelling and Optimization

Why take this course?

Unlock the power of network theory and operations research to design the future of sustainable, resilient, and health-centered transit systems. This course blends cutting-edge analytical tools (including graph theory, advanced routing algorithms, traffic assignment, and network optimization) with real-world applications in accessibility, climate hazard mitigation, energy efficiency, and equity. You will gain direct, hands-on experience utilizing Python-based network analytics in Google Colab. Best of all, you will collaborate directly with community partners to engineer impactful solutions for authentic, pressing transportation challenges.

  • Transportation Engineering
  • Winter 2027
  • Instructor: Huiying (Fizzy) Fan
  • Learn more

CIV E 779 – Performance-Based Design of Structural Systems

Why take this course?

This course introduces the principles and application of performance-based structural design. Students move beyond prescriptive member checks to define explicit performance objectives, characterize structural hazards, develop linear and nonlinear analytical models, evaluate structural response against acceptance criteria, and communicate performance-based design decisions. The course emphasizes performance-based seismic design and extends the framework to robustness, progressive collapse, alternate-path analysis, and performance-based wind design. Examples include concrete, steel, and timber structural systems.

  • Structural Engineering
  • Winter 2027
  • Instructor: Hossein Daneshvar
  • Learn more

PET E 540 – Unconventional Reservoir Engineering

Why take this course?

Classify and characterize the petrophysical properties of unconventional reservoirs. Analyse well testing and production data from fractured reservoir systems. Evaluate and implement advanced enhanced hydrocarbon recovery methods tailored for unconventional assets.

  • Petroleum Engineering
  • Fall 2026
  • Instructor: Hassan Dehghanpour & Amin Alinejad
  • Learn more

FEATURED COURSES

CIV E 789 – Concrete Materials: Composition, Performance, and Applications

Why take this course?

Go beyond theory to understand concrete through the lens of real world practice. Gain advanced knowledge and practical tools to solve today’s engineering challenges.

Schedule: Thursdays, 5:00-8:00 p.m.
(Evening course designed to accommodate students with daytime professional or research commitments.)

**Open to students from all specializations.

CIV E 789 – Sensing Techniques & Data Analytics for Engineering Systems

Why take this course?

This course received the Alberta Course (Re)Design Award and follows the full structural health monitoring workflow, from designing a sensing plan to turning raw sensor data into engineering decisions. It connects core engineering fundamentals in mathematics, statistics, and dynamics with modern, data-driven methods: time- and frequency-domain analysis, feature engineering, statistical and machine-learning anomaly detection, and finite element model updating. The work is hands-on and built around a Python project, and although the examples come from bridge monitoring, the skills transfer to any field that relies on sensor data.

  • Fall 2026
  • Instructor: Mohamed Talebi Kalaleh
  • Learn more

**Open to students from all specializations.

CIV E 719 – Advanced Pavement Management Systems

Why take this course?

Master the data-driven strategies shaping the future of roadway infrastructure. This course delivers an advanced, in-depth dive into modern pavement management systems (PMS), focusing on the lifecycle optimization, maintenance planning, and sustainable rehabilitation of asphalt pavement networks. You will bridge the gap between office-based analytics and field-based engineering by working with real-world datasets and practical case studies to evaluate pavement condition, predict performance and design cost-effective rehabilitation and maintenance strategies. Cap off the semester by choosing your own advanced research topic and delivering a professional term presentation, sharpening the high-level analytical, decision-making and communication skills required to solve real-world infrastructure challenges.

  • Transportation Engineering
  • Winter 2027
  • Instructor: Leila Hashemian
  • Learn more

OPEN TO STUDENTS ACROSS MULTIPLE SPECIALIZATIONS

CIV E 668 – Fundamentals of Building Physics

Why take this course?

Master the essentials of building engineering to design sustainable and resource-efficient built environments. This course covers heat, moisture, and air transfer, exploring how internal and external factors influence indoor environments. Learn to effectively simulate building performance and indoor environmental quality, and therefore optimize real-world building operations.

CIV E 779 – Machine Learning for Engineers

Why take this course?

Unlock the fundamentals of machine learning and learn to implement powerful algorithms using Python. Designed specifically for engineers, this course teaches you how to directly apply machine learning techniques to solve complex engineering problems. Beyond the core foundations, you will build the skills needed to independently explore, evaluate, and adapt to the latest advancements in this rapidly evolving field.

CIV E 789 – Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Career Development in the AEC Industry

Why take this course?

Learn how innovation becomes real-world impact in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. This course equips future leaders with the skills to identify opportunities, evaluate emerging technologies, develop business and commercialization strategies, and lead innovation within startups, established organizations, and the broader construction ecosystem. Learn from real-world case studies and industry leaders while building the skills needed to drive innovation throughout your career.

Schedule: Tuesdays, 5:00-8:00 p.m.
(Evening course designed to accommodate students with daytime professional or research commitments.)

CIV E 789 – Risk Management Principles and Tools

Why take this course?

Master the essentials of risk management and safety engineering in industrial and organizational settings. This course bridges the gap between technical and occupational safety, equipping you with hands-on risk assessment methodologies and insights into organizational safety cultures.

  • Fall 2026
  • Instructor: Renato Macciotta & Lisa White
  • Learn more

Schedule: Thursdays, 5:00-8:00 p.m.
(Evening course designed to accommodate students with daytime professional or research commitments.)

CIV E 789 – Research Methods

Why take this course?

Whether you already have a defined thesis topic or are starting completely from scratch, this project-based course provides a structured roadmap to mastering research in Civil Engineering disciplines. You will be guided step-by-step through the entire research lifecycle: from identifying knowledge gaps and formulating defensible questions to designing robust methodologies and effectively communicating your findings.

CIV E 789 – GIS Applications in Engineering

Why take this course?

Discover how to leverage Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to solve complex, real-world challenges in natural resources management, engineering, urban planning, and environmental sciences. Equip yourself with the spatial analysis skills needed to drive sustainable resource management across diverse industries.

OTHER COURSES

CIV E 709 – Smart Digital Construction Systems

Why take this course?

This course explores Lean Construction 4.0, bridging production management theory with smart digital technologies (AI, IoT, and cyber-physical systems). Adopting a holistic, human-centered design approach, students will learn to strategically design practical pathways to transform AECO organizations. Assessment includes weekly online lectures/tutorials, readings, assignments, a final project, and mid-term/final exams.

CIV E 719 – Sustainable and Resilient Transportation

Why take this course?

Gain a comprehensive introduction and overview of transportation sustainability, resilience, and equity, exploring their crucial connections to advanced engineering design, policy, and land use. Survey current and emerging strategies to reduce transportation impacts on climate change, pollution, and environmental degradation by examining public transit, shared mobility, walking, cycling, intelligent transportation systems, freight/logistics, and pricing. Focus on strategies to safely protect infrastructure and populations from natural and man-made hazards through resilient infrastructure, street and community design, evacuations, disaster responses, and recovery mechanisms. Develop written and oral communication skills, prepare for a diverse range of transportation engineering professions, and explore emerging and innovative engineering strategies and ideas.

CIV E 729 – Mass Transfer in Environmental Engineering

Why take this course?

Explore the principles and applications of mass transfer in atmosphere, rivers and lakes, and environmental treatment processes. This course delivers deep insights into molecular diffusion, convective mass transfer, film and penetration theories, and mass transfer coefficients. Gain practical expertise in modeling interphase transport (gas–liquid, liquid–solid), adsorption, reactive transport, biodegradation, and transport in porous media. Additionally, explore residence time distributions, membrane processes, and the engineering design and scale-up of environmental unit operations—all reinforced through engaging lectures, problem sets, hands-on lab or field exercises, and a dedicated design project component.

CIV E 729 – Air Quality Modeling

Why take this course?

Learn the principles and applications of air quality modelling. Examine pollutant life cycles, atmospheric transport, deposition, boundary-layer meteorology, chemical transport models, receptor models, and data-driven approaches. Apply Python-based modelling, AERMOD, PMF, and introductory machine learning tools to build, run, evaluate, and interpret air quality models. Use modelling results to assess emissions, dispersion, source contributions, uncertainty, and air quality management scenarios.

CIV E 779 – Structural Reliability

Why take this course?

This course aims to cover both the theoretical, computational, and practical aspects of modern structural reliability and risk analysis. Its goal is to help the students understand the underlying concepts and theories in probability-based performance assessment and probabilistic codified design as well as some advanced probabilistic methods in engineering. The main type of problem to be solved in this course is to calculate the probability of violating a limit-state or performance level for a structural system associated with various source of uncertainties. Thus, this course is primarily designed for graduate students, who are interested in seeking for a deeper understanding of design standards or codes with a probabilistic basis, conducting research on solving various engineering problems in the face of uncertainty, seeking a career path in the field of the risk engineering to deal with various sources of uncertainty/randomness.

CIV E 779 – Fundamentals of Structural Steel Connection Design

Why take this course?

Learn the fundamentals of structural steel connection design in Canada, emphasizing industry standards and best practices. Explore common fabrication methods used in steel construction to understand their real-world applications and limitations. Through case studies and practical exercises, learn to evaluate different steel-to-steel connection options while balancing structural performance,
fabrication feasibility, and constructability constraints. Develop a robust foundation in the analysis and design of steel connections using first principles and established methods, reinforcing your fundamental engineering concepts.

  • Winter 2027
  • Instructor: Dean Anderson
  • Learn more

Looking for additional courses?

View the Full 2026 – 2027 Graduate Course Offerings

Contact us:

Associate Dean
Graduate Studies:
ad.ceegrad@ualberta.ca


Graduate Program Advisors:
crgradvis@ualberta.ca


Reception phone number:
780-492-4235