The undergraduate minor in architectural engineering serves CU Boulder students who are interested in building science, engineering and systems design.
Architectural engineering is the application of engineering principles and technology to building design and construction. Architectural engineering combines aspects of electrical, mechanical and civil engineering to design integrated systems for buildings. Building systems include heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; illumination and electrical systems; material and structural systems; and construction methods applied to buildings.
Requirements
Admission Requirements
A cumulative GPA of 2.750 or higher is required to be admitted to the minor.
The minor is not open to students pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering or the Bachelor of Science in Integrated Design Engineering with an architectural engineering disciplinary emphasis. In addition, the structural systems and construction engineering and management tracks (shown below) are not open to students pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering or the Bachelor of Science in Integrated Design Engineering with a civil engineering disciplinary emphasis.
Prerequisites
The following prerequisite courses are required, with a grade of C- or higher in each. A student may be accepted into the minor with no more than two of these courses as deficiencies. All deficiencies must be completed before the minor is awarded.
- Calculus 1 (APPM 1350, MATH 1300 or APPM 1345 )
- Calculus 2 (APPM 1360 or MATH 2300)
- Calculus 3 (APPM 2350 or MATH 2400)
- Differential Equations and Linear Algebra (APPM 2360 , or MATH 2130 and MATH 3430 )
- Two semesters of calculus-based physics (PHYS 1110 or PHYS 1115, and PHYS 1120 or PHYS 1125 )
- Statics (CVEN 2121 , ASEN 2701 , GEEN 2851 or MCEN 2023 )
Program Requirements
Grade Requirements
A cumulative GPA of 2.000 is required in the courses used to satisfy the minor requirements, with no individual grade lower than C-.
Residency
The minor requires 18 credit hours, at least nine of which must be AREN/CVEN courses completed on the CU Boulder campus. The minor is composed of three required courses, two courses in a single track, plus one elective course.
Course Requirements
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Required Core Courses | ||
| AREN 2050 | Building Materials and Systems | 3 |
| CVEN 3246 | Introduction to Construction | 3 |
| CVEN 3161 | Mechanics of Materials 1 | 3 |
| or MCEN 2063 | Mechanics of Solids | |
| Tracks | 6 | |
| Choose one: | ||
| Mechanical Systems Track | ||
| Energy Efficient Buildings | ||
| Building Energy Systems Engineering | ||
| Structural Systems Track 1 | ||
| Structural Analysis | ||
| Steel Design | ||
or CVEN 4555 | Reinforced Concrete Design | |
or CVEN 4565 | Design of Wood Structures | |
| Electrical Systems Track | ||
| Circuits for Architectural Engineers | ||
or ECEN 2250 | Introduction to Circuits and Electronics | |
or ECEN 3010 | Circuits and Electronics for Mechanical Engineers | |
or GEEN 3010 | Circuits for Engineers | |
| Building Electrical Systems Design 1 | ||
| Lighting Track | ||
| Illumination I | ||
| Illumination 2 | ||
| Construction Engineering & Management Track 1 | ||
| Pre-construction Estimating and Scheduling | ||
| Construction Project Execution and Control | ||
| Elective | 3 | |
| History and Theory of Architecture 2 | ||
| Engineering Drawing | ||
| Civil Engineering Drawing | ||
| Beginning Digital Applications 2 | ||
| Energy System Modeling and Control | ||
| Optical Design for Illumination and Solid State Lighting | ||
| Design of Masonry Structures | ||
AREN 4530 | ||
| Luminous Radiative Transfer | ||
| Daylighting | ||
| Special Topics for Seniors/Grads (Sustainable Lighting Workshop, Computer Simulation of Building Systems, or Forensic Engineering) | ||
| Sustainable Building Design | ||
| Compu Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Analysis for Built/Natural Envmnts | ||
| Building Energy Audits | ||
AREN 5050 | ||
AREN 5070 | ||
| Special Topics for Seniors/Grads (Distributed Generation Systems, Color Theory/Light Source, or Applied Data Analysis & Modeling) | ||
| Embodied Carbon in Buildings | ||
| Optimizing Grid Connected Systems | ||
| Total Credit Hours | 18 | |
| 1 | Not open to students pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering or the Bachelor of Science in Integrated Design Engineering with a civil engineering disciplinary emphasis. |
| 2 | Only the Intro 3-D Modeling (RHINO) and INTRO BIM (Revit) sections are approved as an elective. |