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Building Systems Program Arriving
Welcome to the Building Systems Program! This document contains an outline of things you need to know about the program. It is by no means exhaustive, but should get you started.
The first thing that you need to do upon arriving at the University is to meet the faculty members you will be working with. Drop by their office (or call and make an appointment) and get acquainted. You can find out about the courses they teach, their research interests, and their role in the program; they can find out about your background and your interests. Read about our Faculty.
You will be assigned a temporary advisor. Meet with your advisor and work out a course of study; this is an outline of all the courses that you plan to take for your degree. Options are discussed in the next section. Your course of study is not set in concrete; you will meet with your advisor before each semester starts to review your course of study and revise it as necessary.
Feel free to discuss your proposed course with any of the faculty; however, your course must be formally approved by your advisor. He/she is the only person who can remove your registration lock from the SIS system (i.e., the computer system used for registering for your courses). Read about courses offerred.
Eventually you will select a faculty member to act as the research supervisor for your report, thesis or dissertation. Your research supervisor need not necessarily be the same individual as your advisor; choice of a research supervisor is made later. At this later time, your and your research advisor will also select a graduate committee for your degree examination.
If you are a US citizen or permanent resident and have come from out of state, you should, as soon as possible, take steps to establish Colorado residency. This includes getting a Colorado driver's license, registering your car in Colorado and registering to vote in Colorado. Establishing residency qualifies you for much lower in-state tuition after 12 months.
Your overall course of study must be discussed with and approved by your advisor before each semester starts. This will avoid any surprises occurring when you try to graduate. Your course of study may be wide or narrow; it will depend on your personal career plans. People who are thinking of a future in research work may take a different approach than those who see themselves working in industry or for a consulting engineering firm. However your advisor will ensure that you do end up with a good grounding in all aspects of building systems. Your program of study may be modified at any time (in consultation with your advisor). However, you should always have an overall plan.
Some students, especially those from non-engineering backgrounds, may need to make up undergraduate-level deficiencies. In some cases you will need to take courses for which you will not receive credit for your graduate degree. The makeup courses that you need to take will be determined in discussion with your advisor. As a guide, however, you should have in your background undergraduate-level courses in Calculus, Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer, and Building Mechanical Systems. The courses AREN 2020 (Energy Fundamentals, combined thermo and heat transfer) and AREN 3010 (Mechanical Systems for Buildings) are often taken as make-up courses. (Up to two courses at the 3000 level and above can be taken for graduate credit by doing extra work and by enrolling in them as independent studies. However, this can only be done with the agreement of the course instructor). Note that you are allowed a maximum of six hours of "independent study" in your degree.
There are also courses in other departments that may be of value; consult the attached list. You should also be (or become) competent in computer programming, word processing and spreadsheet usage to solve engineering problems.
There are also other undergraduate-level courses offered in some of the Building Systems areas that may be useful for you to take prior to, or instead of, the graduate-level courses. These are listed in the next section along with graduate-level courses.
If you wish to eventually gain registration as a Professional Engineer, and you do not have a B.S. in engineering from an ABET-accredited engineering program, there are several factors you need to know about. The Colorado Board of Registration can provide you with the current rules.
BUILDING SYSTEMS PROGRAMS AREAS The courses offered in the Building Systems Program may be separated into four main areas. Students may decide to concentrate in one of these areas, or they may wish to take a broad selection from the courses; there is no requirement for picking a specific main area. The areas are: Energy Analysis The associated courses currently available, and the semesters in which they are usually offered, are:
Energy Analysis
CVEN 5020 Building Energy Measurements and Audits (Spring) HVAC Systems
AREN 3010 Mechanical Systems for Buildings (Fall) Illumination
AREN 3540 Illumination I (Fall) Solar & Renewable Energy
AREN 2010 Introduction to Solar Utilization (Spring)
Seminar
CVEN 5090 Building Systems Seminar (Fall and Spring) Notes: Not all of these courses are offered every year. Those that are offered irregularly are identified with a "#" symbol in the semester column above.
Other courses may be appropriate for a student's particular interests. For example, courses in engineering economic analysis, statistics, heat transfer, control theory and/or applied mathematics may be selected.
The CEAE Department (and the BSP) is responsible for seeing that students for which English is a second language are proficient in both written and oral communications in English. Students with English difficulty must avail themselves of University and Departmental courses and programs to improve their capabilities in English.
The actual courses taken will be chosen by the student in consultation with the student's advisor. However, the student should have a basic knowledge of all areas of building systems. This will require taking at least one course from each of the four areas. This requirement can only be waived for Plan I M.S. students (see below) who will need to take one course from three of the four areas. student's committee. The requirement cannot be waived under any circumstances for Ph.D. students.
The Building Systems Program organizes a seminar series each semester under the formal course number of CVEN 5090. One seminar is given each week, or alternating weeks, by a visiting scholar, or by a graduate student speaking on his or her research topic. Attendance at these seminars is required for all BSP graduate students. All students taking 9 or more hours of classes may register for the 1-credit course for no additional tuition cost. Students taking less than 9 hours may optionally register for the seminar. According to University regulations you may take this course for credit only once.
A university is like any other large organization; there are many administrative steps along the path to graduation. The formal requirements are established at several levels, including the University of Colorado, the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, and the BSP faculty. The University Catalog contains the rules of the Graduate School. You should obtain a copy of the Catalog for the year in which you began your studies and keep it for future reference. (If the rules change during the course of your studies, you are bound by the requirements when you began your studies.) The CEAE department has additional specific rules which supercede general Graduate School rules. A copy of these rules is attached. The Schedule of Courses also contains information on deadlines for the various requirements you must meet. Study these documents carefully. When in doubt, consult Jan DeMay in the CEAE office for advice.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING SURE THAT ALL YOUR ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS ARE MET IN A TIMELY FASHION. IT IS NOT YOUR ADVISOR'S JOB TO REMIND YOU OF THIS RESPONSIBILITY.
The basic course requirements are:
For a Masters degree, the student may undertake "Plan I" with a thesis or "Plan II" based on course work. Plan I requires 21 hours of course work plus a (4 credit-hour) thesis. The thesis generally discusses an organized research topic. Experience has shown that it takes a student from 18 to 24 months to complete this plan. Financial support is generally limited to exceptionally well qualified students selecting Plan I.
Plan II requires 30 hours of course work. The 30 hours may be all formal course work (Plan IIb), or may include (for Plan IIa) the 3-hour course CVEN 7830, the Master's Project (or "Report"). Note that: one half of the course work must be taken in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department. (An exception may be made if the relevant courses were taken as part of an undergraduate degree). Departmental approval is required to select this plan. The Plan II can be successfully completed in 12 - 18 months by a diligent student. Non-CEAE courses at the 4000 level may be used for graduate credit up to a maximum of 6 hours (Plan I) or 9 hours (Plan II), with the approval of the advisor.
Up to 6 hours of "independent study" may be taken where an individual course of study is worked out between the student and a faculty member. Up to 9 hours of graduate courses can be transferred from another institution.
For a Ph.D., you need at least 30 hours of graduate-level course work plus a dissertation. For an entrant from another university, up to 15 hours of acceptable graduate courses may be transferred leaving at least 15 hours of course work to be done at the University of Colorado. For students already in the Master's program in the CEAE department, 21 hours of graduate course work performed at CU is applicable towards the Ph.D. degree. The Ph. D. also requires that 30 hours of dissertation credit be taken with a minimum residency of 2 years.
Significant events along the way are: (ii) For a Ph.D. you will have a Preliminary Exam, taken in the first year of your studies. This exam is given in order to test your background knowledge and diagnose areas for further study. You will also have a Comprehensive Exam, taken after course work is completed and at the beginning of research work on the dissertation. Candidacy requires passing the comprehensive exam. Your final examination is the defense of your dissertation. Master's degree Final Exam The Final Exam is taken after course work and report or thesis are completed. The exam is an oral exam of at least two hours duration if you have chosen the thesis or report option. It is your responsibility to arrange the schedule for the exam and to complete the Departmental and Graduate School forms associated with it. The first part of the exam is open to the public, and starts with a 40-50 minute presentation of the work undertaken for the report or thesis. The remainder of the first part is taken up with discussion of this work including questions from the committee and general public. The meeting is then closed to the public, and for the remainder of the time the committee examines the candidate on any appropriate engineering topic. This examination will be based on, but not limited to, the graduate course work. The thesis or report is prepared in consultation with the student's research supervisor. The candidate is expected to supply to the committee members, at least one week before the exam, a complete copy of the final draft of the report or thesis and a list of the courses taken for graduate studies. Incomplete or late drafts will probably result in cancellation of the exam. If you have selected the course-only option for your MS degree, your final examination is written and must be arranged with your advisor who will assemble the exam from questions submitted by BSP and other faculty members. Ph.D. Preliminary Exam This exam will be scheduled in the first year following admission to the Ph.D. program. The exam is designed to test the candidate's background knowledge. It is also partly a diagnostic exam to identify areas of weakness. It will be a day-long written exam in which the candidate may be questioned on any engineering topic. A student who fails the Preliminary Exam is suspended from the program. Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam The Comprehensive Exam is taken by a Ph.D. candidate after course work is completed and at the beginning of dissertation work. It is a two-part exam. The first part is a written exam and the second part is an oral exam. The written exam is a week-long take-home exam on all areas of the BSP program. If the student does not pass the exam, all or part of the exam may be retaken once. After the written exam is successfully completed, the oral exam may be scheduled. The oral exam has two parts and usually lasts 2 hours. It is your responsibility to arrange the schedule for the exam and to complete the Departmental and Graduate School forms associated with it. During the first part of this exam, the candidate may be questioned on any engineering topic. The comprehensive exam will be based on, but not limited to, the graduate course work done by the candidate. During the second part of the oral exam, the candidate presents a proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation research. The proposal typically includes a statement of the problem and research objectives, a review of the literature, and a description of preliminary work and results. A written proposal should be provided to each committee member at least one week prior to the oral exam. The committee may approve the proposal at the time of the presentation or ask that the proposal be developed more fully. Ph.D. Final Exam As for the MS degree, the Ph.D. Final Exam is taken after the dissertation has been completed. The exam is an oral exam of at least two hours duration. It is your responsibility to arrange the schedule for the exam and to complete the Departmental and Graduate School forms associated with it. The first part of the exam is open to the public, and starts with a 40-50 minute presentation of the work undertaken for the dissertation. The remainder of the first part is taken up with discussion of this work including questions from the committee and general public. The meeting is then closed to the public, and for the remainder of the time the committee examines the candidate on any appropriate engineering topic. Comment on Oral Exams An oral exam is a demanding method of evaluation for the examinee. Not only does it require mastery of the subject matter but it also tests the candidates' abilities to "think on their feet". It is suggested that students rehearse for these exams by having practice oral exams with their fellow students. Fundamental Expectations of BSP Graduates Upon graduation, you will hold an advanced degree in engineering and the work will have fundamental expectations about your knowledge. During the Master's Degree Final Examination or the Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination you should be able to correctly answer fundamental questions on the following topics: Thermodynamics - First and second laws, open and closed systems, thermodynamic
properties, thermodynamic cycles, Carnot efficiency. NOTICE: Regulations of the Graduate School or of the CEAE Department supersede any of the above if there should be a conflict.
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