Princeton University

Among the 36 courses, there must be at least eight (8) departmental courses at the 300 level or above, excluding the Senior Thesis, CEE 478.

The math and basic science requirements are the same for all departments within the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). Many of these requirements are scheduled during the freshman year.  The CEE Core Courses (Engineering Science Requirements) and Engineering Design Courses vary across the programs of study. All students in the program must take these courses. At least four Program Electives must be taken to complete the technical portion of the student's academic program. These refer to a coherent sequence of engineering, science, economics, and/or mathematics courses within each program. A maximum of one 200-level course may be chosen as a Program Elective. Each student selects and schedules courses in consultation with his/her academic advisor and the Departmental Representative.

The Senior Thesis, CEE 478, is a year long research project that is required of all CEE students. It is considered by many Princeton graduates to be one of the most fulfilling academic activities of their four years.  The thesis process requires independent work, regular consultation with one's advisor, submission of two progress reports during the fall semester, submission of the final thesis in April, and an oral presentation in the first week of May. (See the departmental Senior Thesis Guide for complete details). Students may select from a wide variety of subjects of their own choice or suggested by the faculty. A list of the senior thesis titles from previous years is available for viewing on the CEE web site. For administrative reasons, students do not sign up for Senior Thesis in the fall, but instead only sign up in the spring.  The thesis counts as two courses in the spring term of senior year and is graded on this basis. In view of the SEAS requirement that each student take at least four courses in any given term, seniors must take at least three courses, in addition to the thesis, each term senior year (regardless of the total number of courses the student has taken).

In some instances, an exceptional student may wish to design his/her own program, pulling together related courses from several departments.  Such a program is normally designed in conjunction with the academic advisor, and must be approved by the student's academic advisor and the Departmental Representative. Whenever a program is designed that includes one or more Program Elective not on the approved list of courses, the student must complete the Green Program Proposal Form.  This form may be obtained from the Departmental Representative.

Prior to graduation, the department will calculate each senior student's departmental grade point average for determination of honors. To graduate, a student's departmental GPA must be 2.0 or greater.  The guidelines the CEE department uses to define the departmental courses included in the GPA calculation are as follows:

-     All 300-level and above core courses, design courses, and program electives, taken junior or senior year, plus
-     Any 300-level and above courses (core, design or program) taken freshman or sophomore year that raise the student's GPA.
-    If more than 4 Program Electives are taken, the lowest grade of the Program Electives will be dropped.

Note that "300 level and above courses" means all such courses and not just CEE courses. It should also be noted that the CEE department does not use the Registrar's definition of departmental courses to compute the departmental GPA. The Registrar requires that graduates have taken at least eight departmental courses at the 300 level or above, excluding the Senior Thesis, CEE 478. This requirement is automatically met by following the CEE undergraduate program guidelines. In the fall of the senior year, students will be asked to demonstrate that they will have met this requirement. The eight to twelve departmental courses that are listed on the Registrar's form are not used for computation of departmental GPA. Although the senior thesis, CEE 478, cannot count toward a student's eight departmentals, it is counted in the departmental GPA (where it is counted as two courses).  Also, while one 200-level course may be included among the Program Electives, no 200-level courses are counted in the departmental GPA. Finally, Core Courses, Design Courses, and Program Electives may not be taken on a Pass/D/Fail basis.  Passing grades must be received in all of these courses.

 

Qualified students in the Department have access to several unique laboratories used by both students and faculty.  The Engineering Computing Facility, supports a range of interactive computer graphics hardware and software.  It includes Silicon Graphics workstations, as well as other graphics support and animation devices. The workstations combine color graphics with powerful UNIX-based general-purpose computing.  Students may also take advantage of the PC-based computer clusters maintained by OIT, of which there are several in the E-Quad.

The laboratories of CEE include teaching labs in mechanics, materials, and environmental engineering. Individual faculty members have developed specialized laboratories for research that are used by graduate students, and undergraduates doing junior projects or senior theses.  With the introduction of CEE 375/376, those labs are now available to undergraduates at any level doing individual research projects under the supervision of a faculty member. The mechanics and materials lab provides facilities for fabrication of concrete, a computer-controlled testing system for measuring the strength and toughness of building materials, a tri-axial testing facility for soil, and a network of computers for simulating and analyzing experiments.  The department also supports an environmental quality laboratory, where selected aspects of the chemistry and microbiology of water supplies are studied.  An active area of interest is the contamination and cleanup of groundwater.  Available equipment includes gas and liquid chromatography with a variety of detectors for very sensitive measurements of chemicals in environmental samples, as well as microscopes, incubators and environmental chambers for culturing aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms.  Equipment is also available in the Geology Department for independent work.