In addition to the required core CENG courses, basic science and mathematics sequence, and NTC core curriculum; the CENG curriculum requires 6 credit hours of Technical Electives, 6 credit hours of Engineering Electives, and 6 credit hours of Advanced Specialization Electives. Full course descriptions can be found here.
In general, a Technical Elective is a course offered by the School of Science and Engineering. An Engineering Elective is any non-required CENG course, a course offered by one of the engineering departments (BMEN, ENGP, RCSE), or a course offered by Computer Science (COSC and CMPS). Advanced Specialization Electives are typically selected from the following list:
- Any 3000-level or above CENG, BMEN, CHEM, CMPS, COSC, ENGP, MATH, MPEN, PHYS, or RCSE
- CELL 3030: Molecular Biology
- CELL 3750: Cell Biology (pre-req: CELL 3030)
- EENS 4250: Isotopes in the Environment
- EENS 4360: Environmental Geochemistry (pre-req: EENS 2110
- ENRG-4100-01: Energy Markets, Economics, and Policy
- ENRG-4110-01: Energy Financial Modeling
- ENRG-4200-01: Energy Fundamentals & Trading
- SPHU 3160: Biostatistics in Public Health (pre-req: SPHU 1010 and 1020)
- SPHU 4160: Intro to Statistical Packages (pre-req: SPHU 3160)
- SPHU 4400: Practical Bioinformatics
- SPHU 4410: Data & Information Management in Public Health (pre-req: SPHU 1010 and 1020)
Any substitutions must follow the petition for degree plan modification process as outlined in the Undergraduate Handbook.
Technical electives, Engineering electives, and Advanced Specialization electives must each satisfy a minimum of 6 credit hours, and at least 3 credit hours of Technical and Engineering electives must be at the 3000-level or above. For all electives, the courses must be of at least the same technical rigor as the first freshman-level course we require from that department (i.e., General Chemistry for CHEM courses, General Physics for PHYS courses, Calculus I for MATH courses. CELL 1010 is the benchmark for CELL courses). Note that a maximum of 3-credit hours can be satisfied from Professional Development Courses. Courses for non-science majors will not fulfill the elective requirements.
**Students may take courses from a biochemistry series offered by either Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CENG 4450 and 4460) or Chemistry (CHEM 3830 and 3840) to satisfy one or both courses of the Advanced Specialization Elective requirement. Once a biochemistry course has been taken and a grade of D- or better has been granted, the parallel course from the other department cannot be taken to satisfy any elective requirement for the Chemical Engineering degree. As an example, a student who withdraws from CHEM 3830 can take CENG 4450 to satisfy the first Advanced Specialization requirement. If the student then goes on to earn credit for both CENG 4460 and CHEM 3840, one of the courses can be used for elective credit but the other ‘biochemistry II’ course will not be counted as an elective, technical or otherwise.
