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The graduated assistance is an acknowledgment granted by the Department of Civil Engineering to outstanding students that allows them to participate in research processes. The objective of this subject is to assess the performance of students as graduated assistants in research projects.

This is an acknowledgment granted by the Department of Civil Engineering to outstanding students that allows them to participate in scholar processes. The objective of this subject is to evaluate the performance of students as scholar-undergraduate monitors.

In this course students are exposed to different remediation technologies, and learn how to establish remediation goals.

This is an introductory graduate level class on the subject of air pollution modeling. The class is focused on providing the students with the skills to formulate continuity equations applied to gas-phase and particulate pollutants in the atmosphere, use numerical methods to solve those equations, and to interpret the results of the numerical simulations. Special attention is placed on the modeling of eddy diffusivity of chemical species in the atmosphere, as well as on methods to estimate eddy diffusion coefficients under different atmospheric stability conditions. Familiarity with  ultivariate calculus and differential equations is required.

Probability and statistics have multiple applications. In the case of Environmental Engineering, both probability and statistics can be used to develop models to support decision-making, contribute in our understanding of environmental phenomena, verify the performance of environmental engineering processes and designs, among others. This course describes different applications of probability and statistics in the context of environmental engineering problems.

The objective of this subject is to provide the methodology and the necessary guidelines to develop the research project. During the classes, there will be an introduction about the conferences the professors will give, in order to provide information about the topics of research.

This subject takes place during the first part of the Dissertation cycle. The final outcome is a meaningful contribution to the global achievements of the research project. The objective of this course is that the student gets acquainted with the topic of the research project, revises the available bibliography for that topic, gets to know the required knowledge for the writing of the said project, performs laboratory essays that make him/her become familiar with the procedures, problems, result assessment and interpretation, should the investigation be experimental.

Individual work done by the students of the master program on Civil Engineering. It consists on the research of community problems, under the guidance of a professor working under the resources and action lines of the department. It includes: revision of knowledge on the topic, theoretical bases, hypo Dissertation and original theories, experimental verification, conclusions and recommendations. Written document and oral defense before a qualifying jury

Development and study of specialized topics, not included within regular courses of the master´s degree, with the guidance of professors working in the same area.

Project on applied research that must be conducted by the students of the master´s degree. These projects do not require the development of a Dissertation. This work is done by the student under the guidance of a professor with specific knowledge in the area of work.

Undergraduate students have the opportunity to take courses from the master´s degree as part of their elective courses. The level requirement allows filtering the students so that they comply with the prerequisites of the post-graduate studies they desire to take.

This course focuses on the structuring of Construction Projects based on basic concepts of administration, studying different aspects involved in their development (feasibility, sales, construction, financing, closing, among others). An essential part of the course is the practical work carried out to apply the tools and concepts studied in class.

General framework of this area, and the construction projects. Costs of the construction projects. Cost structure. Types of budgets. Direct and indirect costs. Analysis of retail prices. Software for the planning and control of budgets. Periods on construction projects. Schedule of activities. CPM networks and bar diagrams. Awarding of economic resources. Programming control. Software for the planning and control of the program. Unification of budgets and schedules: resource flow, cash flow, concept of attained value. Tools for the handling of uncertainty regarding costs and periods. Introduction to Lean Construction. Building information modeling.

This course will give the student a critical perspective on the computational tools available for helping manage a construction project. It will provide the basis for the proper administration of information to manage organizations and construction projects. The course work focuses on research with exploration and practical work using different tools.

This module seeks to familiarize the participants with the legal fundamental elements that belong to different areas of Law whose understanding is necessary for a better performance of professionals -not lawyers- who work in the field of construction.

The course emphasizes in developing the necessary skills so that a civil engineer has the capability of:  (1) Active interaction in the investment decision making of a public and/or private organization; (2) Have the criteria to evaluate and decide over the financial convenience of developing a civil engineer related project; and (3) Understand and quantify the financial implications of the investment of a project. This skills are meant to broaden the knowledge of the civil engineer so that they can see their working environment as an economic and financial structure and therefore evaluate the implications of these disciplines in any civil engineering project. 

Also, the course looks to teach the student to identify, calculate and incorporate the key variables of project structuring in any investment project, as well as the understanding of the implications that financial uncertainty and risk mean for the financial evaluation of construction projects

Every year the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Universidad de los Andes organizes the Vacation Courses program, also known as the International Summer School. As part of this program we invite professors from foreign universities of recognized prestige to give specialized and advanced courses on topics not covered by the subjects regularly offered by the Department. In many cases the guest professors are world recognized researchers and scholars in their areas of work.

The leveling course of construction management aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to deal with the integrated management of construction projects, including the scheduling, financial structuring, control, as well as, the optimization of the necessary resources. During this course, the students apply mathematical and computational models of planning and control of production under various methodologies of project management.

This module offers the concepts and tools to design a durable and sustainable concrete based on local and international standards. The materials (cement, supplementary cementitious materials, water, aggregates and admixtures) involved in the mix design are studied considering their effect on the final concrete performance. Quality assurance is also studied due to its significant role in concrete design. In the last part of the module, concrete durability is studied considering service life; this last topic also covers different alternatives to mitigate durability problems and concrete pathologies depending on the element or the structure and considering local and international standards.

The objective of the course is to train students in the management of the basic concepts that will allow them to understand the behavior of the most frequently used in civil works steel structures and to have the basics to perform a design of different types of elements put under different requirements including gravitational, static, dynamic loads and horizontal loads caused by wind and/or earth quakes. Participants study designs responding to tension, compression, and flexion and combined loads such as flexion-compression or shear-tension. Bolt and welded connections are reviewed. By the end of the course, the student will be able to develop a conceptual design of components and its connections applied to buildings, roofs or bridges. Special emphasis is given to seismic behavior of buildings built using steel structures and the special seismic requirements under the applicable regulation. Students will conduct a series of demonstrative experimental tests on different conditions and loads that happen in practice and that help illustrate the theoretical developments of the course. Students carry out a real structure design project.

Every year the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Universidad de los Andes organizes the Vacation Courses program, also known as the International Summer School. As part of this program we invite professors from foreign universities of recognized prestige to give specialized and advanced courses on topics not covered by the subjects regularly offered by the Department. In many cases the guest professors are world recognized researchers and scholars in their areas of work.

The objective of the course is to establish the basis and fundamentals about the origin and evolution of the seismic phenomena, its characterization, its modeling process, the seismic hazard assessment and future possible effects on the exposed mad-made infrastructure and natural formations near the surface level. Fundamental concepts about the probabilistic seismic hazard  assessment, secondary hazard effects such as soil vibration, liquefaction, landslides, volcanic eruptions and the basics of seismic risk assessments will be covered by the course. At the end of the course the student will have the ability to understand all the basic concepts of earthquake engineering, perform seismic hazard and risk models and apply the methodological approaches related to seismic analysis and design of structures with application to other graduate course such as Structural Design, Dynamics of Structures, Soil Dynamics, Soil Structure Interaction and other related topics. In addition the student will be in a position to develop basic research in the field of earthquake engineering through more refined models and theories which conform the state of the art of the study of Earth Science from the engineering perspective.

Extend the basic concepts of static linear analysis presented in undergraduate courses, and study static and dynamic non-linear methods for the analysis of complex structures. The types of analysis included are: linear static, non-linear static and non-linear dynamic. Additionally, practical applications are included using design codes and computer programs.

The objective of the course “Basics of Structural Steel Design” is to make the student familiar with the basic concepts related to the behavior, analysis and design of members and connections that are part of a steel structure.

Laminated, built-up and composite members, subjected to tension, compression, flexure, shear, torsion and combined forces are studied. Basic concepts of welded and bolted connections are included in the course. Additionally, serviceability design considerations such as deflections and vibrations are studied.

The analysis and design methodologies studied during the course are based on the general requirements established in the Colombian Code, NSR-10.

Software for analysis and design of steel structures and its connections are used during the course in order to get familiar to the methodologies carried on in the professional practice.

This course is divided into two parts: 1) The first part presents a set of correlations used in geotechnical engineering explaining the advantages and weaknesses of using those correlations. Afterward, the main tools used to include the concepts of probability in the design of geotechnical works are described. These tools include development in Taylor series, the Rosenbluth method, and Montecarlo Simulation. The use of these tools is illustrated with an example of the design of an embankment resting over soft soil. 2) The second part of the course presents case studies of famous geotechnical works.

Basic characteristics of soils: the origin and nature of soils, mineralogy, activity, sensitivity, index properties, correlations. Hydrodynamics of porous medium: permeability, tubification, secondary and radial consolidation, drainage. plasticity, cut resistance, and plastic equilibrium: elements of plasticity, cut tests, stress tensors and deformation, theories of plastic equilibrium. Mechanics of partially saturated soils: water retention in soils (suction), permeability and water migration, deformation and cut resistance. Special techniques Compacting techniques.

This course is divided in two modules. The first module deals with the mathematical fundamentals used on the description of mechanical processes in the framework of continuum mechanics. The second modules presents the soil mechanic behavior based on the formulation of constitutive models.

Introduction to stability. Economic aspects of landslides. Classification of slope movements. Reconnaissance and research of landslides. Fault systems. Shear resistance in soils with regards to stability. Methods to analyze the stability. Applications run on computers. Prevention, control and landslide correction.

In this course, the students learn the basic concepts that describe the mechanical bahavior of slopes and different methodologies that are used in practice to cuantify their stability and to mitigate landslides. Theoretical concepts are applied in the developement of practical projects, so that students can have an approach to the professional practice.

Foundation analysis frequently faces complex problems in that land stresses and deformations are the result of the interaction between the soil and the structure in media whose properties can be random. This course will teach the student how to analyze foundation or containment structures, bearing in mind the variables of the terrain and the stochastic variables. We will study diverse problems of interaction between the land and a foundation: foundation slabs with individual or group piles under generalized loads, pile slab systems, excavations with panels or sheet piles. We will also study foundations on complex soils such as compressible soils or expansive or collapsible soils. The course will also look at numeric or physical modeling techniques using geotechnical centrifuges.

Every year the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Universidad de los Andes organizes the Vacation Courses program, also known as the International Summer School. As part of this program we invite professors from foreign universities of recognized prestige to give specialized and advanced courses on topics not covered by the subjects regularly offered by the Department. In many cases the guest professors are world recognized researchers and scholars in their areas of work.

Modern tendencies in the designing of flexible and rigid pavements point at designs based on deformations and stresses in the different layers of the pavement. These design methodologies are known as mechanicist methodologies, to this end, we present first the main properties of the materials making up the pavement: materials with asphaltic or hydraulic binder, or unbinded materials. We also study the methodologies of stress analysis, and deformations in the layers of pavement. We also describe the procedures of design for different structures of pavement: flexible, with thick asphaltic layers, mixed, reversed and rigid. Finally, we present the fashion of involving within the designs the stochastic variables, and we present the methodologies of optimization that involve construction costs and pavement maintenance.

This course will provide the theoretical foundations, concepts, and cutting edge tools necessary to prepare a comprehensive design for a roadway project (rural, semi-urban, or urban) in any of its execution phases (planning, pre-feasibility, feasibility, and construction design). It will also provide the theoretical foundations, concepts, and tools for the comprehensive design of tunnels for roads, highways, and railroads (geometry, ventilation, illumination, traffic, and safety controls)

The objective of this course is to understand and assess the response and performance of pavement structures in order to collect information that could be used as part of decision-making processes in road infrastructure projects. To achieve this goal, students apply available simulation and computational techniques to quantify and understand the role of the different design variables in the overall response and potential degradation of these structures.

The goal of this course is to provide the necessary concepts and methodology to conduct an adequate design of structures for the handling of water.

Flow in pressure systems. Equations for designing piping. Colebrook-White equation. Design and design algorithms: simple pipes, simple pipes with high minor losses, pipes in series, parallel pipes. Design of main pipe systems. Rotodynamic pumps, designs for piping systems including pumps. Design of piping networks: basic principles, Hardy-Cross methods with flow correction, Hardy -Cross method with head correction, Newton-Raphson method, linear theory method. New methods for calculating and designing networks. Current research on friction factors in pipes. Design of pressure irrigation systems: spray, micro-spray, and drip, calculation of required flows, and required power and diameters.

This course begins with the revision of concepts and procedures in hydrologic modeling, and then it procedes in a sequential manner through several topics that contribute to the development of rainfall-runoff models: (1) rainfall modeling based on conceptual deterministic and probabilistic approximations; (2) soil-plant-atmosphere relations with ecohydrology concepts; (3) rainfall interception modeling and its importance in long term water balances; (4) horizontal precipitation modeling which is a relevant process in cloud forests and paramos; (5) geomorphologic unit hydrographs and its probabilistic interpretation of travel time; (6) rainfallrunoff modeling with different aproximations; (7) frequency analyses of extreme hydrologic events, with emphasis on pdfs selection; (8) analyses of hydrologic times series with inclusión of ENSO effects.

Elements of Hydrogeology. Analytic and numeric modeling of flow and contamination of groundwater. Well hydraulics. Design of pumping and monitoring wells. Multiphase flow. Vulnerability analysis. Forensic and hydrogeology risk. Groundwater in geotechnical problems.

Friction equation in open channels, compound crossover sections, friction linearity. Features of the alluvial channel ways and mountain rivers. Fluvial geomorphology. Erosion and sediment production in basins. Hydraulic aspects of the flow in channels with moving contours. Features and types of sediments. Bed features. Turbulence. Mix length. Speed distribution. Non-permanent flow in channels. Diffusive processes in turbulent flow. Transport of suspended sediments. Transport of bottom-sediments. Modeling and measurement of transport in alluvial channels. Hydraulics and transportation of sediments in mountain rivers. Dynamic equilibrium and answers to channels in hydraulic structures. Fluvial works. Sediment depositing in reservoirs.

The objective of the course is to analyze the specific problems of transport from a multidisciplinary perspective, making special emphasis in the provision of solutions. In this course we will present general methods of analysis of the supply and demand of transportation systems, as well as the general aspects of design of systems and modes. When the course ends, the students will be able to support a detailed analysis of a transportation system, identify problems, come up with and defend solutions. During the classes we will spark discussions aiming at enhancing the development of the oral skills.

Why are some transportation plans implemented? But why do the majority of those plans just decorate bookshelves? What role do technicians play in the planning process? How can technicians have an influence on a technical and political process such as planning? How does a democratic society make collective decisions? This course will attempt to give a response to these questions by analyzing case studies, both Colombian and foreign. In addition, the course will look at recent developments in decision-making theory, and developments in the theories on design, analysis, and implementation of transportation plans. The basic objective is to understand the determining factors that lead to the implementation of a plan and lead to the plan meeting its objectives. The course has other objectives such as improving the student’s analytical capacity, his oral and written expression, and his tolerance for the ideas of others.

This course offers a complete overview of transportation planning, divided in 5 modules: 1. The transportation process; 2. Integrated planning; 3. Models in planning; 4. Urban transportation soutions; 5. Transportation project evaluation.

Every year the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Universidad de los Andes organizes the Vacation Courses program, also known as the International Summer School. As part of this program we invite professors from foreign universities of recognized prestige to give specialized and advanced courses on topics not covered by the subjects regularly offered by the Department. In many cases the guest professors are world recognized researchers and scholars in their areas of work.

This course focuses on the planning, management and operation of public and massive transportation systems. The course analyses the pros and cons of the main technologies of massive transportation with buses, and fast transportation with trains. The course analyzes the fashion to plan the service: how to calculate the size of the fleet, the design of schedules, appointing of drivers to vehicles, plans of operations and real-time operations, among other. The course is based on an real-life application, that will likely consist on studying a solution for public transportation in Bogota´s 7th avenue. Technical visits to the TransMilenio and to Medellin´s Subway (subject to availability of financial resources) will be arranged.

The objective of this course is to present participants with a vision about inter urban freight transportation, concentrated in Colombia. General aspects connected to the role assigned to transportation within different development plans, the transportation plans and guidelines developed in the Country, the institutional framework, the role of the private sector, and topics such as operation conditions and perspectives towards the future in each of the models will be studied. The general methodology for project evaluation with emphasis in the application of NPV and IRR, including the guidelines of social evaluation of transportation projects will be reviewed. Different means of transportation (roads, fluvial, trains, ports, airports, and intermodal transportation) will be analyzed, pointing out infrastructure weaknesses and strengths, as well as different analysis and construction and maintenance costs evaluation, vehicular operation costs and their relationship with freight and fees for each mode. Existing operational norms and regulations.