Graduate Course Descriptions + Timetable

The Challenges of Urban Policy-Making
Addressing societal and engineering challenges in the 21st century requires engineers to think holistically about the systems we design and build. Public policy often dictates what engineering projects are commissioned and what values are being optimized for in engineering practice (e.g. cost, beauty, environment, safety, equity). However, too few engineers understand the drivers of public policy, how public policy is developed, and the role it plays in engineering. Similarly, too few policy makers understand the applied science of engineering. The interplay between policy and civil engineering is particularly acute in the urban environment, where civil engineering works (transportation, housing, water services, libraries, etc.) are concentrated and where, in Canada, the public policies of three levels of government influence engineering practice.
This seminar course challenges engineers to think about how public policy is made and how it guides the practice of engineering both directly and indirectly. Particular focus is placed on urban policy and urban engineering. The first month of the course will deal with the process of urban policy making examining how issues emerge, how important ideas are framed, priorities are established, and agendas are set and managed. Factors to be considered include the role of bureaucratic and political actors, organized interests and non-governmental groups, the importance and influence of networks, and the potential for new models and options for the engagement of stakeholders and citizens at large.
The second and third month of the course will focus on the relationship between public policy and the practice of civil engineering. The focus of the course will be to examine the myriad ways public policy and priorities intersect with the development of the built environment. The relationship between public policy and engineering in housing, transport, energy and sustainability will be discussed. The focus of the course will be on Canadian cities with examples from cities located elsewhere in the high-income world; examples and experiences from other parts of the world are welcomed.

Registration in this course is reserved for MEngCEM students. Other students wishing to register must request permission from the Office of Student Services.

Infrastructure and Urban Prosperity
The course explores the evolution of great cities over time, looking at form and function to understand urban economic growth and accumulation of wealth. Drawing from various strands of economic thought, topics include: value theory; quantification of urban wealth; microeconomics of real estate markets; infrastructure for competitive financial centres; macroeconomics of urban form; growth theory; and evolutionary economics applied to urban systems. Using current and historical examples of urban development, the implications of infrastructure planning and management on the health/wealth of cities is examined.

Registration in this course is reserved for MEngCEM students. Other students wishing to register must request permission from the Office of Student Services.

Integrative Decision-Making
This capstone course studies 'city building' from a total city perspective. Lectures in municipal finance, economic development, and strategy are added to material from CEM1001H to CEM1004H to provide an integrated approach to urban decision making. Topics include: stakeholder viewpoints; multi objective reasoning and decision making; and communication strategies. Emphasis is given to decision making related to urban planning and infrastructure development.

Prerequisites: CEM1000Y, CEM1001H, CEM1002H, CEM1003H, CEM1004H.

Registration in this course is reserved for MEngCEM students. Other students wishing to register must request permission from the Office of Student Services.

Collaborative Engineering and Architectural Design Studio
Engineering and Architecture students are paired to form a design team for a specified building design project. Lectures are given on design development, aspects of structural system design, the relationship of structure to program and function, modeling and drawing, digital modeling, as well as topics related to the specific term design project. Studio design experience to familiarize students with both the synergistic and divergent goals of the engineering and architectural design and to develop collaboration skills for optimizing the outcome of the interdisciplinary professional interaction. Architecture students in this joint studio are enrolled in ARC3016Y. Please note that this course is currently inactive.

View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Introduction to Structural Dynamics
The concept of dynamic equilibrium and corresponding equation of motion will be introduced. The theoretical solution of a songle degree of freedom system will be derived and the effects of verious types of loads, such as impulse load, sinusoidal load, or random vibration on the structural response will be discussed. To solve dynamic problems of multi-degree of freedom (MDOF) systems, concepts of mass, stiffness, and damping matrix will be introduced, which will be followed by eigen value analysis and modal analysis. The concepts of Fourier Transformation will be introduced, which will be used to interpret dynamic responses of structures or dynamic nature of applied loads. Dynamic experiments of elastic systems will be demonstrated using an educational shaking table.

View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Prestressed Concrete
An introduction to procedures for predicting the load-deformation response of prestressed concrete elements and structures with emphasis on how these procedures can be used in the design of new structures and in the evaluation of existing structures. Topics include: prestressing technology; control of cracking; response to axial load and flexure; response to shear and torsion; disturbed regions; restraint of deformations; design codes.

Prerequisite: CIV313H1 or CIV357H1 or equivalent.

View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Structural Analysis II
The general flexibility and stiffness methods of analysis; multispan beams, trusses, frames and grids; loadings due to force, support displacement, temperature change and member prestrain; axial and flexural stability; basic plasticity. Topics in this course represent the basis for the finite element method of analysis.

Prerequisite: CIV214H1.

View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Geotechnical Design
This course is built around a transportation project that contains all the essential geotechnical investigation and design elements and illustrates how they all come together on a project. The students will be taken through the entire design process from project initiation to construction. In essence, the project will include a bridge over a river with some property constraints requiring the use of a retaining wall as well as deep and shallow foundations and some groundwater control. The highway will require a soil cut. One section crosses a low-lying swampy area that will require embankment construction over deep soft soils. A short tunnel section is planned beneath a railway that cannot be taken out of service. A pavement design will be required along the entire route as well as materials testing and construction monitoring.

Prerequisite: CIV321H1/CME321H1; equivalent or permission of instructor.

View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Urban Activity, Air Pollution and Health
This is an interdisciplinary course where the challenge of air pollution is introduced with a focus on urban areas. The interdependencies between transportation, air quality, and health are demonstrated. The city and the behaviour of its inhabitants constitute the context for the following course topics: overview of air pollutants in urban areas, urban air quality monitoring networks, mobile source emissions, air pollution and meteorology, atmospheric dispersion, chemical processes specific to cities, personal mobility and exposure to traffic-related air pollution, epidemiology of air pollution.
View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Groundwater Flow and Contamination
Mechanics of saturated and unsaturated fluid flow in porous media. Confined and unconfined flow. Flow to wells. Analytical and numerical solutions of groundwater flow equations. Non-reactive and reactive contaminant transport on groundwater systems. Analytical and numerical solutions of contaminant transport equations. Flow and solute transport in fractured porous media. Assessment of environmental impacts of waste disposal operations. Remediation of contaminated groundwater.

Prerequisite: JVM270H1/CIV270H1/CME270H1, CIV250H1/EDV250H1 or equivalent.

View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Studies in Building Science
This course examines the basic principles governing the control of heat, moisture and air movement in buildings and presents the fundamentals of building enclosure design. With this background, students are required to research advanced topics related to emerging areas of Building Science, and to write and present to the class an individual comprehensive paper related to their research. Lectures for this course will be jointly offered with those of CIV375H1.

Exclusion: CIV375H1.

View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities
Developing infrastructure for sustainable cities entails understanding the connection between urban morphology and physiology. This course uses a systems approach to analyzing anthropogenic material flow and other components of urban metabolism, linking them to the design of urban infrastructure. Elements of sustainable transportation, green buildings, urban climatology, urban vegetation, water systems and local energy supply are integrated in the design of sustainable urban neighbourhoods.

Prerequisite: CIV340H1, [CIV375H1/CIV575H1], CIV531H1.

View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Engineering and Management of Large Projects
This technical elective course will investigate the role of stakeholders in major civil engineering projects; the complexities of managing project stages, multiple stakeholders, and technical challenges, and, social and environmental factors.

Each week includes a different speaker who can address issues related to technical, social, and environmental challenges in the project and how they were overcome.
View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

MEng Project II
A supervised project for MEng students equivalent to two regular half-credit courses in Civil Engineering. Topics to be determined by student and supervisor. The project must appear on the MEng Proposed Program Form for approval prior to start. Once approved, the Office of Student Services adds this course to the student's academic schedule.

Bridge Engineering
This course deals with advanced topics in modern bridge design. Actual course content will vary from year to year, and will include topics selected from the following list: concrete segmental bridges, cable-supported bridges, arches, precast concrete systems for rehabilitation of existing bridges, and innovative composite systems. For a given topic, the approach taken will be to define performance requirements; describe structural systems, components, and critical details; and develop analytical methods for dimensioning and validation, giving special consideration to the interaction between design and construction. There will be a strong emphasis throughout the course on the application of leading-edge and emerging technologies, including high-performance materials.

Advanced Topics in Building Design
Introduction to various structural systems; analysis of coupled shear walls using various techniques such as Laminar method, Finite difference formulation, Equivalent Frame method; stagewise incremental analysis of walls including plastification of laminae; design of walls and coupling beams; shear wall-frame interaction; behaviour of framed tubes; shear lag in tubes; approximate methods of analysis for frame tubes and multi-storey frames. Individual projects involving specialized topics will form an integral part of the course.

Finite Element Methods in Structural Mechanics
Review of required mathematical concepts. Thorough development of the displacement method of finite element analysis; Derivation of the element matrices for planes stress and strain, three dimensional, axisymmetric and plate bending elements; Introduction to nonlinear analysis; Application to structures using existing computer capabilities.

Advanced Modelling Methods for Seismic Performance Assessment of Structures
The objective of the course is to introduce seismic assessment methods for structures through inelastic analyses or advanced experimental simulations. The course mainly consists of three sections: deterministic analytical assessment, reliability-based analytical assessment, and advanced experimental methods. In the first section, numerical models of inelastic structural and geotechnical materials, and various finite element models will be introduced. Built upon these topics, several seismic demand and capacity assessment methods will be presented. Analysis methods for soil-structure-interaction system will be also discussed in this section. In the second section, the fundamentals in structural reliability analysis will be briefly reviewed, which will be followed by seismic fragility assessment. In the third section, the latest development in advanced experimental methods (experiment-analysis hybrid simulation) will be introduced. While the topics of this course will be presented with a perspective of seismic engineering, the knowledge gained from this course could be applied to research and practice in other areas of structural engineering.

Special Studies in Civil Engineering - Structural
Special studies courses are offered when a Professor is available to instruct on a new or unusual topic. Each topic offered constitutes one normal half-course. Special studies course codes may be taken more than once provided that the topic is different each time.

Special Studies in Civil Engineering - Design of Timber Structures
Special studies courses are offered when a Professor is available to instruct on a new or unusual topic. Each topic offered constitutes one normal half-course. Special studies course codes may be taken more than once provided that the topic is different each time.

Building Performance Assessment
It is well known that significant performance gaps exist between the building design stage
and building operation. Therefore, to ensure buildings achieve predicted performance in
terms of resource use and occupant comfort, health and wellbeing, post-occupancy
performance assessment is required. This course begins by introducing students to common
building performance issues, the existing frameworks and rating systems designed to address
these issues as well as the three performance gap types: prediction, expectation and
outcomes. Next, the relationship between occupants, the building envelope and mechanical
systems is explored including the influence of each of these elements on indoor
environmental quality and resource use. Through a field study in an occupied building,
students will gain experience with the metrics, measurement methods and data analysis
techniques used in the holistic assessment of building performance.

Infrastructure Renewal
This course deals with the assessment maintenance and repair of concrete structures. Topics covered include: inspection and monitoring of concrete structures (including instrumentation and non-destructive testing); identification of material failure mechanisms; residual service life prediction; life cycle cost analysis; and methods of repair and rehabilitation. Case studies of problems in structures due to reinforcement corrosion, alkali-aggregate reaction and free-thaw cycling will be investigated in detail. Recent advances in inspection and repair techniques will be critically evaluated.
/div>

Microscopy Applied to Building and Geomaterials
This laboratory course covers visible light, electron, and x-ray microscopic methods for the characterization of concrete and geo-materials, including methods of sample preparation. Topics include fluorescent dye impregnation to characterize cracks/grain boundaries/pores, chemical staining procedures, image and quantitative chemical analysis using free software packages (ImageJ, MultiSpec, and DTSA-II). After taking this course students will be able to take a geologic or concrete sample through the entire process of stabilization, preparation (cutting, grinding, polishing) and examination by microscopic methods.

Construction Contract Documents
This course examines various construction contract documents used by government and private bodies. Legal principles and relevant cases are discussed with a view to providing students with an understanding of the legal framework surrounding the documents. Contractual problems including the nature, causes, and quantification of construction claims are also examined. Emphasis is placed on how to avoid construction contract problems, as well as how disputes may be efficiently resolved once they arise. Issues of payment security, bankruptcy, liens and professional liability are also studied.

Case Studies in Building Science
By means of a case study approach, a mumber of problems common to high-rise, industrial, and residential buildings will be investigated. The contribution of faults in design, material selection, or workmanship to the failures in building envelopes will be established. A major project will involve the design of a building using appropriate codes and standards as well as programs to evaluate the service life costs of various energy options.

Water Resources Systems Modelling
Water resources systems are physically complex and the solution of appropriate mathematical models is computationally demanding. This course considers physical processes in water resource systems, their mathematical representation and numerical solutions. Newton's 2nd law and the equations of mass and energy conservation are developed and applied to closed-conduit, open-channel and groundwater flow problems. Procedures for efficient numerical solution of the governing equations are presented. Problems of non-linearity, sensitivity to data and computational complexity are introduced.

Prerequisite: EDV250H1 or permission of the instructor.

Physical and Chemical Treatment Processes
Theory and application of physical and chemical operations and processes for the treatment of water and wastewater. Specific processes covered include sedimentation, coagulation, filtration, and disinfection, with an overview of reactor theory. Laboratory experiments are designed to support and demonstrate the lecture material.

Advanced and Sustainable Drinking Water Treatment
*enrollment preference will be given to students in the Advanced Water Technologies & Process Design specialization, and the Drinking Water Research Group.*

This course covers sustainability issues as they apply to the provision of safe drinking water. Water reclamation and reuse topics focus on strategies that allow wastewater to be treated for indirect potable reuse as well as many other purposes. Other major topics include: risk assessment associated with emerging pathogens and chemical constituents present in source waters, advanced drinking water treatment processes including membranes (UF, NF and RO), advanced oxidation and activated carbon. Throughout the course, case studies, application examples and numerical problems will be presented.
Syllabus

Indoor Air Quality
Contaminants in indoor air have enormous impact on human health, productivity, building energy use and sustainability. This course focuses on important contaminants, fundamental tools and methodologies to measure and model the indoor environment, and on engineering solutions to improve indoor air quality. The course covers a rationale and motivation for the investigation of indoor contaminants, important contaminants and sources, the use of mass balances to assess indoor concentrations, fundamental transport and transformation processes that occur indoors, indoor exposure assessment, and methodologies to assess costs and benefits for technologies and techniques to improve indoor air. The course explicitly links the air inside of buildings to building materials, energy use, outdoor air quality, and human health.

Special Studies in Civil Engineering - Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Global Health
This course focuses on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in low income settings from an environmental health perspective. With respect to water, the course will cover drinking water quality and quantity, water access and appropriate water treatment and storage options. With respect to sanitation, the course will cover low cost decentralized sanitation, promotion of sanitation, gender, and sanitation in challenging environments. Hygiene topics will include disease transmission, and theory and practice of hygiene behaviour, education and change.
---
Special studies courses are offered when a professor is available to instruct on a new or unusual topic. Each topic offered constitutes one normal half-course. Special studies course codes may be taken more than once provided that the topic is different each time.

Special Studies in Civil Engineering - Large Scale Infrastructure and Sustainability
The next 15 years will see major changes in the global infrastructure system; in this time US$90 Trillion dollars will be spent on infrastructure. To meet local, national and international sustainability goals this next generation of infrastructure must be planned, designed and built in new ways. Large scale infrastructure projects have impacts well beyond their stated primary purpose: they consume significant amounts of natural resources and, once built, change how we live, work and move. As key players in planning, designing, constructing and commissioning large infrastructure projects, engineers have a special responsibility to understand the myriad ways infrastructure interacts with our natural and social systems. This course will explore what sustainability means in the context of infrastructure development, examine infrastructure needs and sustainability at the global and project scale, and provide students will skills and techniques to impact infrastructure sustainability in their future work. At the end of this course, students will be able to think critically about the wider impacts of large scale infrastructure projects and use this knowledge alongside their technical engineering skills to develop better outcomes.
---
Special studies courses are offered when a Professor is available to instruct on a new or unusual topic. Each topic offered constitutes one normal half-course. Special studies course codes may be taken more than once provided that the topic is different each time.

Soil Properties and Behaviour
The fundamental concepts of soil mechanics and foundation engineering presented at the undergraduate level will be further developed in the context of advanced topics including: undrained loading and soil liquefaction; coupled hydro-mechanical modeling using Biot theory; cemented soils; unsaturated soil mechanics; constitutive models and laboratory test methods; and field monitoring techniques. Extensive reading assignments will be given. Research papers, numerical modeling assignments, and class presentations will be used as the basis for evaluation.

Advanced Rock Engineering: Fractured Rock Masses
Rock masses can be defined as made of intact rock blocks and discontinuities (joints, faults, etc…). It is the presence of those weak features that determine the overall hydro-mechanical response of the rock mass that engineers observe in the field. Therefore, to correctly engineer any structure in rock, we cannot relay only on the mechanical properties of the intact rock, but we need to be able to properly understand the role that fractures play on the overall behaviour that we observe, and how to account for them during the different phases of the rock engineering design.
This course will try to address this specific issue by presenting the latest scientific discoveries and engineering approaches in the field. It will also present students with innovative methodologies for the quantification of fracture shear strength, rock mass mapping, and rock mass modeling tools such as the Combined Finite-Discrete Element Method for simulating damage and fracture in geomaterials.

Special Studies in Civil Engineering: Reliability-based Design in Rock Engineering
Modern engineering design codes embrace reliability-based design, and this philosophy is being introduced into geotechnical engineering. However, the application of RBD to rock engineering is not straightforward. This course presents the latest understanding and developments in RBD for rock engineering, and covers the following topics: rationale for RBD; computing the probability of failure; simple examples of RBD; application of FORM to rock engineering problems; the problem of limited data; the problem of non-probabilistic uncertainty. Course delivery is via lectures, directed reading and problem-solving.
---
Special studies courses are offered when a Professor is available to instruct on a new or unusual topic. Each topic offered constitutes one normal half-course. Special studies course codes may be taken more than once provided that the topic is different each time.

Special Studies in Civil Engineering: Engineering Rock Mechanics
This course is aimed at students who have studied soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering at undergraduate level, and who wish to expand their knowledge to include rock mechanics and rock engineering. The course covers fundamental components of rock mechanics (in situ stress, discontinuities, intact rock, rock masses, heterogeneity) before moving on to rock engineering topics (rock excavation and stabilisation, foundations and slopes, underground excavations). Course delivery is via lectures, tutorials, and laboratory sessions.
---
Special studies courses are offered when a Professor is available to instruct on a new or unusual topic. Each topic offered constitutes one normal half-course. Special studies course codes may be taken more than once provided that the topic is different each time.

Special Studies in Civil Engineering - Rock Engineering Design Practice
Special studies courses are offered when a professor is available to instruct on a new or unusual topic. Each topic offered constitutes one normal half-course. Special studies course codes may be taken more than once provided that the topic is different each time.

Transportation Research Seminars
This is a credit/non-credit seminar series that is mandatory for research students in the Transportation Research Group. This course does not count toward program course requirements. Talk to your supervisor for more information on how this course fits into your program.

Freight Transportation and ITS Applications
Efficient movement of freight is crucial for national economic viability. This course introduces the structure of the freight industry and relates it to business logistics and planning of supply chains. Planning of freight services at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels is presented and models of international, inter-city, and urban freight movements are introduced. Shipper behavior related to mode choice, carrier selection, adoption of 3-PL and information technology options is considered. The course also introduces the role of advanced technologies (ITS) in improving freight operations, and the implications of e-commerce on planning of freight services. The course concludes by providing an overview of policy issues, data sources and needs, and the particularities of the Canadian freight transportation context.

Fundamentals of ITS and Traffic Management
This course focuses on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) with emphasis on Advanced Traffic Control and Management Systems (ATMS) and applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ATMS. Topics include:

• Overview and Introduction to ITS


• Traffic Flow Modeling for ITS: Macroscopic, Microscopic and Mesoscopic


• Transportation Networks Modeling and Traffic Assignment


• Genetic Algorithms (GA) for Optimization (Artificial Intelligence Part I)


• Applications of GA: Emergency Evacuation Optimization, Origin-Destination Estimation, Dynamic Congestion Pricing


• Artificial Neural Networks (Artificial Intelligence Part II)


• Applications of NN: Automated Incident Detection (AID), Short-Term Traffic Flow Forecasting,


• Traffic Control and Optimization Theoretical Primer


• Reinforcement Learning (Artificial Intelligence Part III)


• Introduction to Deep Learning (Deep NN + RL)


• Freeway Traffic Control and Optimization


• Street Traffic Control and Optimization


• Other Research Topics (time permitting), e.g. Modelling and Exploiting Vehicle Automation and Connectivity for 21s Century Traffic Control.

Prerequisite: CIV332H1.

Special Studies in Civil Engineering - Transportation: Urban Operations Research
Special studies courses are offered when a Professor is available to instruct on a new or unusual topic. Each topic offered constitutes one normal half-course. Special studies course codes may be taken more than once provided that the topic is different each time.

This course focuses on quantitative methods and techniques for the analysis and modelling of urban transportation systems. Major topics include probabilistic modelling, queuing models of transport operations, network models, and simulation of transportation systems. The application of these methods to modelling various components of the transportation system (including road, transit and pedestrian facilities) is emphasized in this course.

Integrated Mine Waste Engineering

View full course description in the Engineering Undergrad Academic Calendar.

Project Management
Project management has evolved from being an accidental job title into being a chosen profession with a career path, code of ethics and its own body of knowledge. This course covers most of the knowledge areas of the Project Management Institute: integration, scope, cost, time, risk, human resources, and communications management. We take a practical, applied approach, using a textbook and discussing case studies. There is a term paper on "lessons learned" from an actual project. More info

Operations Research for Engineering Management
This course introduces optimization techniques applicable in solving various engineering programs. These techniques are widely used in engineering design, optimal control, production planning, reliability engineering, and operations management. The contents of this course can be classified into two major categories: modeling techniques and optimization algorithms. Topics include linear programming, sensitivity analysis, nonlinear programming, dynamic programming, decision making under uncertainty, new developments in optimization techniques. The course will also examine several case studies to gain understanding of real applications of optimization techniques. More info

Infrastructure Resilience Planning
Planning for resilience is a fundamental of strategic and operational planning of infrastructure and requires an in-depth understanding of the operation one wishes to make resilient, its context and operating environment. This course teaches resilience planning from first principles, including the development and application of international and Canadian infrastructure resilience and investment policy, demand and dependency management, all-hazards and mitigation strategies and its relationship to Enterprise Risk Management and Business Continuity Planning. More info

Environmental Decision Making
This course introduces and critically considers concepts and methods for making decisions about environmental problems. Topics include critical thinking, quantitative and qualitative approaches to decision making, science and the use of models, addressing conflicting objectives and stakeholders through formal evaluation methods and collective decision making, dealing with uncertainties, values, perceptions and ethical considerations. The material is presented through lectures and class discussions using examples and case studies. Note that all course material may not be posted on the site, and students must ensure that they receive all announcements and handouts given out during the classes.
More Info

Environmental Law
Law is a key instrument in environmental management. What is the general framework which governs the Canadian environment? What are the values, assumptions, and guiding principles which underlie this framework? Are there alternative models for regulation? How does the Canadian model compare to other models? This course will address these questions with the intention of giving students a basic understanding of regulatory policies in Canada governing the environment, natural resource use and allocation.
More Info

Graduate Seminar in Environment and Health
There is a pressing need to study the complex relationships between the environment and human health, especially as we are increasingly challenged by environmental health issues. This course introduces students to various issues related to environment and health in providing an academic environment of inquiry and dialogue in which academics and graduate students from various disciplines can exchange ideas, information and insights. The aim is to expose the students to the many ways that issues related to the environment and health are framed, examined, discussed and engaged. The course will stimulate students to reflect on this diverse discussion and to integrate their work into a broader context and perspective. Students will have the opportunity to explore linkages between environmental factors and health issues as these intersect with environmental and health policy, standards and guidelines; biological impacts; psychosocial factors; economic factors; and ethical and legal issues.
More Info

Global Ecology and Biochemical Cycles
More Info

Environmental Microbiology
The objective of this course is to develop fundamental aspects of microbiology and biochemistry as they relate to energetics and kinetics of microbial growth, environmental pollution and water quality, bioconversions, biogeochemical cycles, bioenergy and other bioproducts. More info

HVAC Fundamentals
Introduction to the fundamentals of HVAC system operation and the relationship between these systems, building occupants and the building envelope. Fundamentals of psychrometrics, heat transfer and refrigeration; determination of heating and cooling loads driven by occupant requirements and the building envelope; heating and cooling equipment types and HVAC system configurations; controls and maintenance issues that influence performance; evaluation of various HVAC systems with respect to energy and indoor environmental quality performance. More Info

Scheduling
This course takes a practical approach to scheduling problems and solution techniques, motivating the different mathematical definitions of scheduling with real world scheduling systems and problems. Topics covered include: job shop scheduling, timetabling, project scheduling, and the variety of solution approaches including constraint programming, local search, heuristics, and dispatch rules. Also covered will be information engineering aspects of building scheduling systems for real world problems.


Prerequisite: MIE262H1.

Statistical Models in Empirical Research
This course covers various statistical models used in empirical research, in particular human factors research, including linear regression, mixed linear models, non-parametric models, generalized linear models, time series modeling, and cluster analysis. For various observational and experimental data, students will be proficient in generating relevant hypotheses to answer research questions, selecting and building appropriate statistical models, and effectively communicating these results through interpretation and presentation of results. Basic knowledge in probability, statistics, and experimental design is required. The course will not focus on the design of experiments. In addition to homework assignments and exams, the students will review and critique journal articles and conference papers for the validity of the use of various statistical models. The students will work on a term long project of their choice and will be encouraged to relate this assignment to their current research projects. The examples used in class and the assignments will be drawn from human factors research. However, the students will not be required to use human factors data for their project. More Info