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Natasha Andrade (center), associate chair for undergraduate programs, led the committee that developed the new curriculum.
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In a move designed to offer students more choice and better prepare them for the team-based environments found in industry, the University of Maryland’s (UMD) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has overhauled its curriculum, with changes in effect this school year.
The revamped curriculum, drawn up by a faculty committee under the leadership of Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs Natasha Andrade, significantly boosts the amount of project-based learning provided to undergraduate students as they progress towards their degrees. It also eliminates separate tracks that previously channeled students into different subdivisions of the field, and allows students more flexibility in choosing electives.
Beginning in the first semester of junior year, each student now takes at least one project-based course per semester, focusing on areas such as engineering economics and project management, transportation systems, and environmental and water management. Many existing courses have been restructured, making them more project-centered, while also incorporating skills such as communications, planning, and budgeting, which can be crucial to success.
These project-based experiences culminate in the senior capstone design course, which has been expanded from one to two semesters. As Andrade explains, the expanded schedule allows students to dive deeper and accomplish more. “They have a lot more time to live their project, modify their proposals if needed, or make revisions to their designs. It also improves our ability to measure and assess their progress, since we’ll be observing it over an entire school year,” she said.
In drawing up the new curriculum, Andrade and her colleagues also set out to provide more flexibility to students in choosing electives. Under the new system, they can take a combination of technical electives, broader STEM electives, and open electives, with the latter encompassing fields such as economics, business, or architecture. By contrast, the past curriculum limited students to technical electives.
“We want students to be able to customize their degrees while still meeting rigorous ABET standards,” Andrade said, adding that the availability of STEM and open electives allows students to connect their engineering education to broader societal concerns.
Perhaps the most dramatic change, however, is the elimination of the three-track system that was previously used in the department. In that model, students had to choose from a trio of specialized areas: transportation engineering and project management, environmental and water resources, or geotechnical and structural engineering.
A key disadvantage to the system was that it created silos within the department, with limited interaction among students across the different tracks. The department’s current strategic plan calls for eliminating this silo effect, in part because engineering has become more interdisciplinary and workplaces don’t adhere to such rigid divisions.
The changes as a whole reflect input from the department’s Board of Visitors, many of whose members are working engineers or lead major companies involved in the field, as well as from alumni. As part of the development process, the committee sent alumni a survey asking them to weigh in on what they found most valuable in their engineering education, as well as what they would have liked to see more of.
Ali Haghani, a professor and former chair of the department, said that while the fundamentals of civil and environmental engineering remain constant, educators have learned more over the years about how to best equip students for their careers. “The existing curriculum had been in place for many years,” he said. “It was time for a change.”
Besides Andrade and Haghani, the committee that drew up the new curriculum included Associate Professor Michelle (Sheby) Bensi, Associate Professor Dimitrios Goulias, Professor Birthe Kjellerup, and Associate Professor Allison Reilly. The final plan was approved by the chair of the department, Professor Nii Attoh-Okine.
December 31, 2025
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