Environmental Engineering (BS)

Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus

The BS program in Environmental Engineering is concerned with the interrelation of people, materials, and processes in a complex and changing environment. The broad field of environmental engineering includes control of air and water pollution, environmental health and safety, energy management, solid and hazardous waste management, and sustainability.

Graduates of an environmental engineering program must have the skills needed to plan, design, construct, and maintain environmentally-focused infrastructure and industrial facilities. In addition, graduates must have the broad education necessary to communicate effectively with other engineers, planners, administrators, government officials, and the general public.

Cal Poly’s Environmental Engineering program offers a solid background in the fundamentals of fluid mechanics, water resources, thermodynamics and mass transfer processes, chemistry of environmental processes, and fate and transport of environmental contaminants, pollution control across environmental systems (air, water, and soil), as well as complementary civil engineering topics. The project-oriented approach to instruction, in modern well-equipped laboratories, provides an excellent opportunity to gain hands on experience in the discipline, preparing students for either a career in professional practice or for advanced study in graduate school.

The Environmental Engineering program educational objectives are that its graduates will:

1. Integrate principles of sustainability, resilience, and restoration into engineering solutions.
2. Communicate and collaborate with diverse stakeholders in an inclusive, effective, equitable, and professional manner.
3. Implement systems thinking in engineering designs and solutions that promote public health, safety, and welfare on a local and global scale.
4. Pursue life-long professional development through study, licensure, certification, leadership, and service.
5. Acknowledge, understand, and incorporate the needs of diverse and vulnerable populations in outreach and engineering practice.

Graduates typically pursue careers in industry, consulting firms, and public agencies. Career areas typically focus on air and water pollution control, sustainability, energy and energy recovery, groundwater, water treatment and reclamation, solid waste management, and hazardous waste management.

Cal Poly’s “learn by doing” philosophy is emphasized by integrating design throughout the curriculum, especially in the numerous design-centered laboratories.  In the required two-semester senior design project, students demonstrate their understanding of environmental engineering principles and practice and their ability to apply that understanding creatively to address practical problems. The senior design program also includes professional practice topics on interpersonal communication, teamwork, leadership, and ethics. This senior design experience promotes an understanding of the considerations and skills necessary to become a successful environmental engineering professional.   

The program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. Various program constituencies, such as graduates and employers, are consulted periodically for input to review, update, and assess achievement of the educational objectives. Other indicators such as student/alumni placement and success rates in the statewide fundamentals in engineering examination are also used to evaluate attainment.
The student organization Society of Environmental Engineers offers technical programs and other activities, including field trips to study typical installations of systems, national-level student competitions, and community service activities. Student memberships also are available in the Air and Waste Management Association, the California Water Pollution Control Association, and the Water Environment Federation.

Program Learning Objectives

1. An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics.
2. An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factor.
3. An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences.
4. An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.
5. An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.
6. An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions.
7. An ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

Degree Requirements and Curriculum

In addition to the program requirements listed on this page, students must also satisfy requirements outlined in more detail in the Minimum Requirements for Graduation section of this catalog, including:

• 40 units of upper-division courses
• 2.0 GPA
• Graduation Writing Requirement (GWR)
• U.S. Cultural Pluralism (USCP)

Note: No Major or Support courses may be selected as credit/no credit. In addition, no more than 12 units of cooperative or internship courses can count towards your degree requirements.

¹

Required in Major or Support; also satisfies General Education (GE) requirement.

²

A combined maximum of 4 units from ENVE 4400, ENVE 4405, and ENVE 4407 may count towards technical electives.

General Education (GE) Requirements

• 43 units required, 13 of which are specified in Major and/or Support.
• If any of the remaining 30 Units is used to satisfy a Major or Support requirement, additional units of Free Electives may be needed to complete the total units required for the degree.
• See the complete GE course listing.
• A grade of C- or better is required in one course in each of the following GE Areas: 1A (English Composition), 1B (Critical Thinking), 1C (Oral Communication), and 2 (Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning). 

¹

Required in Major or Support; also satisfies General Education (GE) requirement.

Coming soon