Civil Engineering at Northeastern University

Civil engineers are on the frontlines of a changing world. They’re designing the cities of the future, developing innovations for a cleaner environment, and fighting climate change. At Northeastern University, you can earn a master’s degree in civil engineering with a concentration in construction management; environmental, water, and coastal systems; geotechnical/geoenvironmental engineering; structures; transportation; or data and systems. Degree requirements may be completed on a full- or part-time basis.

Concentration 1: Construction Management

Construction management is a broad and complex discipline that integrates the multiple stages of large-scale construction projects with the detailed technology and knowledge needed to complete them. In this concentration, you learn to approach and lead construction projects from a sustainable and holistic perspective. You’ll be exposed not only to technical engineering concepts but also to a much broader application of these concepts as they relate to large and complex projects. You’ll learn and apply ideas related to construction project control and organization, sustainable design, and technologies in construction, logistics, resource management, incorporating technological and business innovation, and economic and environmental viability.

Concentration 2: Environmental, Water, and Coastal Systems

With this concentration, you’ll learn to tackle interconnected challenges in water, energy, waste, air pollution, and related fields—all in the context of a changing planet. This technical area within the department covers a wide range of technologies and design solutions for natural systems, from the molecular scale to global climate change. Our faculty work on creating hardware and software tools to better monitor, predict, and mitigate environmental pollution and create clean environments.

Concentration 3: Geotechnical/Geoenvironmental Engineering

This program includes study in the areas of soil mechanics/foundations and geoenvironmental engineering. It includes studies of soil and related earth materials for problems related to the protection of human health and the environment. Related areas include fate/transport in subsurfaces, subsurface remediation, and others. By leading and housing the research center PROTECT, a $23M program funded by NIH-NIEHS, our faculty are world-class leaders in environmental health. They engage in research that focuses on reducing exposure to groundwater contamination and developing green remediation strategies that mitigate preterm birth rates through reducing exposure to pollutants that may threaten human health and natural ecosystems.

Concentration 4: Structures

Structural engineering at Northeastern University focuses on urban engineering and use-inspired research that prepares students for many of the unique technical challenges of our time. Students in this concentration study under our faculty who are known internationally as leaders in natural hazard characterization, dynamic and nonlinear infrastructure simulation, sensor development, design of novel and sustainable infrastructure systems, offshore wind structures and wind engineering, materiomics and material design through molecular simulation, and structural reliability. Our research, both analytical and experimental, is supported by the state-of-the-art Laboratory for Structural Testing of Resilient and Sustainable Systems (STReSS Laboratory), which enables experimental characterization of large-scale structural systems and components.

Concentration 5: Transportation

Urban transportation of people and goods is undergoing a significant transformation with the introduction of new types of services (bike sharing, ride-hailing, etc.) and concepts such as mobility on demand and mobility as a service. Coupled with technological advances related to electric, connected, and autonomous vehicles, these developments promise to completely change the nature of urban mobility, while addressing the significant challenges of safety, sustainability, and equity. This program is designed for students interested in working on the frontlines of transportation engineering.

Concentration 6: Data and Systems concentration 

The Data and Systems Concentration, grounded in faculty interests and existing courses, will prepare students to use new and emerging technologies in data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, as well as systems analysis (e.g., operations research, economics, system identification) and sensors to address problems in domains spanning all (traditional) civil and environmental engineering (CEE) areas. This is an umbrella program that serves all CEE disciplines by providing a solid foundation in modern programming languages such as Python and R, developing students' data analytics skills, promoting a systems perspective, and, importantly, honing these in the context of data-driven CEE problem solving.