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BS Environmental Systems Engineering

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Environmental Systems Engineering Major

The Environmental Systems Engineering major prepares students to apply sustainable design, strategies, and practices into natural and built systems including infrastructure, ranging from buildings and energy systems to water resources and coastal regions.

Students in the Environmental Systems Engineering major learn about environmental systems through coursework that is multidisciplinary in nature, combining math, science, and engineering fundamentals with tools and skills that are essential for an engineer. Students choose one of four focus areas for in-depth study of sustainable design and management: coastal systems, energy systems, freshwater systems, or urban systems. The program equips students to take on the complex challenges of the 21st century using sustainable approaches involving natural and built environments in the private, public, and non-profit sectors.

Objectives and Outcomes

This major prepares students to:

● design and manage more sustainable and equitable solutions for societyʼs needs in the face of population growth, climate change, and natural hazards;

● think critically and innovatively about how to achieve a more sustainable future in the provision and management of water, energy, buildings, and infrastructure for both society and the natural environment to flourish;

● develop the design, technical, communication, and modeling skills needed to address a range of current and future environmental systems engineering problems.

The Curriculum: A Focus on Sustainability

Students complete a foundation of coursework in math, science, engineering, and communication skills followed by an in-depth focus in one of four areas:

Sustainable Coastal Systems focuses on the impacts of the interactions between urban areas and coastal waters. Study areas include coastal engineering, biological and chemical processes and contaminants in the marine environment, and issues in coastal planning and policy.

Sustainable Energy Systems focuses on designing renewable energy systems to address urban area challenges. Coursework includes optimization of renewable energy systems, the impacts of energy use on climate and urban air pollutants, and equity in rapid energy technology transitions.

Sustainable Freshwater Systems focuses on incorporating sustainability into the design, management, and protection of water supply systems. Areas of study include water resources, water treatment processes, and aquatic chemistry and biology, and design principles for urban waterways.

Sustainable Urban Systems focuses on sustainability in the constructed urban environment. Areas of study include sustainable design and construction practices, building energy supply and demand, urban infrastructure, and sustainable cities.

Careers

Students with a degree in Environmental Systems Engineering are prepared for a wide variety of careers. Graduates may work in careers in urban infrastructure design and renewal, as consulting engineers, or work with utilities and agencies focused on incorporating sustainable practices to meet climate goals. Our graduates also pursue careers working for NGOs and foundations focusing on solving environmental challenges.

Graduate Study

The Environmental Systems Engineering major prepares students for graduate work across a diverse spectrum of fields, including civil and environmental engineering, sustainability science and practice, city and regional planning, business, and law. Students are also prepared for graduate study in scientific fields such as hydrology, oceanography, epidemiology, and energy science.

How can students explore EnvSE as a major?

Students can easily explore the EnvSE major early on, via selected IntroSems which can count towards the major. In addition, the class “Introduction to Environmental Systems Engineering” (CEE 1), offers interested students an opportunity to explore the EnvSE major out in the real world. CEE 1 involves field trips for example to the San Francisco Transbay Terminal, the Ox Mountain landfill gas to energy facility, and the Palo Alto wastewater treatment and reclamation plant, with CEE faculty members serving as tour guides. A bike field trip follows an urban waterway to estuaries in the South Bay, allowing students to see, up close, the urban policy, planning, and flooding issues faced by our local cities.

What’s the difference between this major and the Civil Engineering major?

  • Professional Considerations: The Civil Engineering B.S. degree is ABET-accredited, while the Environmental Systems Engineering major is not.
    • A degree accredited by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) is a first step toward a professional engineering license. In California, you must accrue 6 years of work experience under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer before being allowed to take the licensing exam. An ABET-accredited B.S. degree counts as 4 years of this required work experience. Earning a M.S. degree from a department (like our CEE Dept.) that offers an ABET-accredited B.S. degree will give you credit for a total of 5 years of work experience in California, regardless of whether or not your B.S. degree is ABET-accredited. This policy regarding the M.S. degree can be found in the official document issued by the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists, titled “Board Rules and Regulations Relating to the Practices of Professional Engineering...” (PDF, see p. 20, item (b)(4) for policy, and p. 2, item (h) for definition of term).
    • If you envision a career providing, supervising, or managing professional engineering services (e.g., engineering design, investigations), you will likely need to become a licensed professional engineer and should aim, via your chosen B.S. and/or M.S. (coterm) degrees, to earn ABET credit for 4-5 years of work experience.
  • Pragmatic Considerations: The Civil Engineering major (116 units) provides a structured curriculum that ensures both depth and breadth across different areas specified by ABET. The Environmental Systems Engineering major (96 units) offers more flexibility in choosing courses while also providing an ability to focus on a specific topic area.

Requirements for the major are provided in the Handbook for Undergraduate Engineering Programs