Graduate CEM Concentration
The graduate CEM track offers an in-depth professional learning and networking experience, intended to provide participants with a platform for sharing truly valuable CEM knowledge, know-how, and professional opportunities, to strengthen their careers and businesses.
The M.E. CE Students of the track will find a practice-driven, flexible program, intended to fit their professional profiles, specific interests, and career goals. Thanks to the partnership of some of the most important firms of the construction industry and UVA, students will:
- Find opportunities to engage with an employer, by actively showing their potential as CEM professionals.
- Increase their professional value, by gaining certifiable work experience while they finish their graduate studies.
- Acquire specialized cutting-edge knowledge and expertise in any of the CEM areas of performance.
- Develop the distinctive competencies, business acumen, organizational mindset, global perspective, and the leadership and communicational skills required to advance to senior-level positions.
- Learn to perform in recurrent CEM challenging scenarios, such as: Managing large scale construction projects, small construction companies, branch offices of big construction companies, achieving high-performance as single-specialty contractors, balancing shared resources in multi-project environments, coordinating multi-disciplinary teams, and leading distinct functional areas and support processes of a construction business.
- Learn to make trustworthy decisions in different roles, authority levels and within different paths of the CEM career, articulating them with the business goals and the organizational constraints.
Curriculum
The CEM track of the ME-CE program consists of two (2) CEM Core Courses, four (4) CEM electives, and four (4) Technical electives.
The core of the track consists of five integrated courses, which are co-delivered with the industry partners, and represent the central body of knowledge of CEM. At the same time, they develop the cross-cutting skills and business mindset required to ensure long-term professional success.
The CEM Electives and Technical Electives are complementary courses aimed to delve into particular topics of the CEM core, gain real-world CEM experience while pursuing the master’s degree; and complement the CEM body of knowledge with the study of related disciplines, such as architecture, land development, real estate, sustainability, systems, operations, and management.
The participants should select the blend of CEM Core courses, CEM electives, and Technical Electives that best reflect their current and intended profiles and best represent their personal and professional goals.
At least two courses (2) from the following list:
CE 5035: Construction Estimating and Bidding
This course provides students with an in-depth understanding of how a general contractor pursues, estimates, bids and procures work. The course will cover the full range of activities from conceptual estimating, to scoping and bidding projects, to the submission of proposals to the general contractor’s clients as well as the procurement types and the corresponding strategies that a general contractor employs in the pursuit of these procurements.
Semester: Spring 2021, Spring 2022
CE 6015: Project Management
As engineers, you will always be involved in projects, either as designers, team members, or project leaders. While the project focus will be different each time, the basics are the same every time. Therefore, it is essential to understand how projects are planned, executed, and managed. Project management skills are just as crucial to success as engineering skills. The purpose of this course is to introduce the principles of project management. The course will equip students with the concepts, tools, and language of project management that can be applied to any project size and type.
Semester: Spring 2022
CE 6035: Leadership and Negotiation
Leadership and negotiation skills are essential for managerial positions. In this course, students will become familiar with the different ways of exercising leadership and the essential negotiation concepts and strategies. Students will identify their strengths and weaknesses and learn how to best work with others in a leadership context. The course's fundamental concepts will be learned through readings and class discussions, and skills will be practiced with role-playing simulations and construction-related case studies.
Semester: Fall 2021, Fall 2022
CE 6045: Construction Business
This course provides an overview of the most essential business concepts: value creation, marketing, sales, finance, and systems design. Students will learn how 1) construction businesses work - in practice, not theory, 2) how people work, and 3) how systems work. By understanding these fundamental principles, students will be equipped with a set of tools to make good business decisions.
Semester: Fall 2023
Any CEM Core Course, or any course from the following list.
CE 5500: Construction Scheduling and Control
This course focuses on teaching theoretical concepts and practical techniques for scheduling and control construction projects. The course provides students with the ability to prepare a comprehensive schedule for a project, including bar charts, network diagrams, resource profiles, and an earned value analysis. It emphasizes manual and computer-based approaches.
Semester: Summer 2021, Summer 2022
CE 6025: VDC Coordination and Control
Technologies are revolutionizing the way 21st-century construction projects are delivered. In this course, students will learn how to use Building Information Modeling (BIM) to 1) support the decision-making over a project life cycle and 2) improve coordination between stakeholders throughout the design and construction stages. With this hands-on course, students will learn how to integrate all models of a project to visualize construction processes and better predict, manage, and communicate project outcomes.
Semester: Spring 2023
CE 6500: Construction Practice
The purpose of this practicum course is for students to obtain relevant field experience before graduation and boost their professional skills. As part of an externship, which will be sponsored by one of our industry partners, students will be going to a job site/office regularly where a specific task, issue, or situation that is going on in the project/office will be handled to them. Students will benefit from being exposed to office and fieldwork regularly, practicing engineers, and project managers.
Semester: Fall 2021, Fall 2022
CE 6500: Land Development Engineering
Through this course, students will develop critical engineering skills for sustainable land development, including project procurement, road design, utility/stormwater design, site grading design, and construction. The course provides an experience similar to working in a professional site/civil engineering design firm. Project work will require the use of technology design tools (CAD), leadership, and problem-solving.
Semester: Fall 2022
LAW 9020: Construction Law
The construction industry is a $700-billion per year sector of the United States economy and is expected to continue to grow rapidly. This seminar will focus on aspects of the law unique to this dynamic industry. The course will cover issues relating to private and public construction, including the role of the various parties involved in the construction process, risk-allocation clauses employed in construction contracts, issues arising during contract performance, selection of project delivery systems, and dispute resolution. The class provides a “real world” view of the construction industry, featuring guest lectures by leading attorneys in their areas of expertise and culminating with a visit to a project site under construction.
ARCH 5114: Sustainability and Systems in the Built Environment
This course takes a systems perspective to study and design for sustainability in the built environment at various scales (e.g., materials, buildings, cities, and regions) and for different types of systems (e.g., physical, social, information). Students from SEAS, A-School, and other majors are welcome in this course, which emphasizes interdisciplinary design collaboration and diversity of thought.
PLAN 5200: The Real Estate Development Process
Covers fundamentals from basic real estate relationships, land acquisition decisions, "the cash cycle", legal aspects, public processes including entitlements, risk management, ethics, and preliminary feasibility analysis. The emphasis is on the creation of value in real estate (viewed holistically as financial profit informed by equity, sustainability, and design.)
Technical Electives may include any technical course at or above the 5xxx level approved by the academic adviser.
Recommended Technical Electives:
- Any CEM Core Course, CEM Elective, or
- CE 6500 Behavioral Design
- SYS 6001 Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design
- SYS 6050 Risk Analysis
- SYS 6582 Introduction to Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma
- PLAN 5201 Real Estate Finance Fundamentals
- PLAN 5230 Design Dimensions of Real Estate
- PLAN 5250 Applied Real Estate
- PLAC 5240 Collaborative Planning for Sustainability
- ARCH 7230 Building Integration Workshop
- ARCH 8480 Professional Practices
- ARCH 5342 Parametric Energy Design
Suggested Paths
The Graduate CEM track has been designed to fulfill the needs of different prospective students: full time students, part-time students, and currently UVA undergraduate civil students. For specific information about the recommended plan of study for each type of prospective student, click on the "+" next to each scholarship name.
This is a recommended path to be followed by students who finished their bachelor’s degree in Civil/Construction Engineering and want to continue their education with our M.E degree. They will pursue the professional master’s degree on grounds.
This is a recommended path to be followed by the students who have a full-time job and will pursue the distance-learning master’s program.
This is a recommended path to be followed by students pursuing a B.S in Civil Engineering at UVA. To complete the 30 credits requirement, students should transfer, at least, 9 credit hours from their bachelor’s degree. Keep in mind that credits that are used for the undergraduate degree can not count towards a graduate degree.
UVA Students
Pre-requisite Courses
Applicants must have taken during their undergraduate degree in engineering an introductory course to Construction Engineering and Management (i.e., construction management, construction engineering, or an equivalent) and an introductory course to Engineering Economics or an equivalent.
Otherwise, applicants must take CE 2030 Management of Engineering and Construction Projects and CE 2020 Engineering Economic Analysis.
Applicants, who do not have an undergraduate degree in engineering, should satisfy the requirements described for the engineering applicants and additionally take the following course:
CE 5500 Civil Engineering Design and Practice I Summer 2022
CE 5500 Civil Engineering Design and Practice II
Contact Information
Diana Franco Duran
Diana Franco Duran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is the director of the Civil Engineering Undergraduate Program, and manages the Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) concentration.
The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only. The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found here.