Concurrent Masters Program in Civil Engineering and Planning

Transportation Systems Focus Area

Program Options
Students enrolled in the concurrent MSCE/MURP degree program choose between a thesis option and a comprehensive exam option.

The Thesis Option requires completing:

  • 72 units of study (eight of which may be taken in conjunction with the thesis research);
  • the completion of an original research project and the writing of a thesis to describe it;
  • required core courses in each program (see below); and
  • enough units of approved electives to meet the minimum total requirement of 72 units

The Comprehensive Exam (All Course) option requires completing:

  • 72 units of study;
  • a professional report, which represents a substantial piece of planning practice, as the capstone event;
  • required core courses in each program (see below); and
  • enough units of approved electives to meet the minimum total requirement of 72 units

Program Core Courses
All students focusing on Transportation Systems are required to take seven CEE core courses (21-22 units) and eight PPD core courses (32 units), as follows:


CEE Core Courses
(12 units)
  1. CEE 220A Travel Demand Analysis I (3 units)
  2. CEE 221A Transportation Systems Analysis I (3)
  3. CEE 228A Urban Transportation Networks I (3)
  4. CEE 283 Mathematical Methods in Engineering Analysis (3)

CEE Core Electives
Three CEE core elective courses (9-10 units total), one course from each of three of the following sets:
  1. CEE 224A Transportation Data Analysis (3 units)
  2. CEE 225A or CEE 225B Transportation Planning Models I-II (3,3)
  3. CEE 226A Traffic Flow Theory I (3)
  4. CEE 227A Transportation Logistics (3)
  5. CEE 229A Traffic Systems Operation and Control I (3)
  6. Econ 282A or Econ 282B Transportation Economics I-II (4,4)

PPD Core Courses
(32 units)
  1. PPD 202 Planning History (4)
  2. PPD 203 Theoretical Foundations of Planning (4)
  3. PPD 206 Microeconomic Analysis (4)
  4. One PPD planning law course: 207 or 252 (4)
  5. One PPD urban settlements course: 208, 242, 244, or 246 (4)
  6. PPD 280A and PPD 280B Urban Planning Studio (4,4)
  7. PPD 292 Professional Report (4)

Electives may include as many as eight units of independent studies or approved undergraduate courses, but no redundancy is allowed in program classes. The MSCE Thesis Option requires a minimum of 20 units of non-research graduate courses (200-289); the MSCE Comprehensive Exam Option requires a minimum of 30 units of non-research graduate courses (200-289). For course descriptions, see the UCI General Catalogue.

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