Bridge Engineering Degree
Bridge Engineering Degree
(OP)
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.
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.





RE: Bridge Engineering Degree
RE: Bridge Engineering Degree
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RE: Bridge Engineering Degree
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Bridge Engineering Degree
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.
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RE: Bridge Engineering Degree
RE: Bridge Engineering Degree
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!
RE: Bridge Engineering Degree
RE: Bridge Engineering Degree
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.
RE: Bridge Engineering Degree
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.
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"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.