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Each candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Engineering must satisfactorily complete an approved curriculum in engineering. Each curriculum consists of a specified Lower Division Program (or an approved equivalent program for students who transfer into the College with 90 or more quarter units) and a specified Upper Division Program. Detailed requirements for the approved curricula are given in the "Programs and Courses" section of this catalog; to see the courses required in your major, consult this section.
The minimum number of required units in the combined Lower and Upper Division Programs varies, with the curriculum, from 180 to 195.
You may, for good cause, request a modification of particular degree requirements by submitting a student
petition. These petitions, which are available in the Undergraduate Office, can be a valuable aid in resolving individual program conflicts or other special problems. Such petitions are subject to approval by the Undergraduate Study Committee, a body of six professors and six (non-voting) students. A negative decision by the committee may be appealed to the College faculty for action at a regular meeting.
Transfer students. If you are admitted with 90 or more quarter units, you are classified as having upper division standing, but you are required to complete the minimum number of quarter units in the subject areas specified below before your Lower Division Program is considered complete. You may, however, start your Upper Division Program while completing your Lower Division Program requirements. For more specific advice on your requirements, see the transfer counselor of your institution.
| Subject Areas | Minimum Quarter Units |
| Mathematics (calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, vector analysis) | 22 |
| Physical and biological sciences (typically, at least 10 units must be in general chemistry and at least 12 units in physics courses designed for engineering and physical science students) | 22-26 |
| Engineering (lower division subjects such as graphics, properties of materials, surveying, computer programming, statics and circuit theory. These courses must include statics, circuits and FORTRAN for all but Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science majors, who must take C and C++ programming. Students majoring in Mechanical, Aeronautical, Materials Science, Civil, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or Computer Science may have additional course requirements specific to their respective majors. Because of additional lower division chemistry requirements, Chemical Engineering majors may elect to take only 10 units—FORTRAN, circuit theory and statics—of engineering in their lower division programs) | 15-26 |
| Written and oral expression English 1 or 3 and Communication 1 or 3, or courses that are their equivalents | 8 |
| HumanitiesSocial Sciences (courses must be selected from a list of course groups approved by the Committee on Undergraduate Study) | 5-12 |
| Additional subjects (Chemical Engineering majors should cover quantitative analysis and one course in organic chemistry with a laboratory component during their sophomore year) | 7-8 |
| Total | 90 |
Once you have completed the Lower Division Program and fulfilled these specified subject area requirements, you need not take additional lower division courses, except those that are prerequisite to upper division courses in your curriculum. For additional information on core prerequisite courses, please contact your department or college adviser.
Credit in University Extension Courses. Appropriate courses taken through University Extension may be used for degree credit; however, you may use a maximum of 16 units of courses taken through University Extension for degree credit. Simultaneous registration in resident courses and Extension courses requires prior approval by the College's Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies. Such approval will be given only for a limited number of credits. No grade points are assigned for courses completed in University Extension.
In addition to fulfilling the university residence requirement, you must complete at least 35 of the final 45 units characteristic of your curriculum in engineering while registered in the College.
In addition to meeting the university scholarship requirement, you are required to maintain a 2.0 grade point average for all course work within Engineering.
After completing 70 quarter units, you may elect to satisfy the upper division English Composition requirement by passing the English Composition Examination administered by the College of Letters and Science. (You should take it early in your junior year and must take it before your last quarter. Units of credit are not given for passing this examination.)
Or, upon completion of 90 quarter units, you may satisfy this requirement by completing English 101, 102, 104A, or 104E with a grade of C or higher.
This requirement is in addition to the expository writing course requirement (English 1 or 3; Comparative Literature 1, 2, 3 or 4; or Native American Studies 5) specified in the Lower Division Programs.
During the 1998-99 academic year, the English Composition Examination will be offered on the following three Saturdays: October 24, 1998; January 30, 1999; and April 24, 1999. Sign-up rosters will be posted on the bulletin board near the main English Department office (176 Voorhies), Monday until noon on Friday (or until they are filled) just preceding each Saturday examination date. You must sign up, in person, by noon on Friday. You must obtain the English Composition Examination form, available at the UCD Bookstore, to take the exam.
Engineering design is the process of devising a system, component, or process to meet certain needs. Design involves a decision-making process (often iterative), in which the basic sciences, mathematics and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective. Among the fundamental elements of the design process are the establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing and evaluation. You must take at least 24 quarter units of such design course work through a combination of required and restricted elective courses. Specific comments about design are included in individual
curricula descriptions. You should also review the design content of your individual program with your adviser in the course of completing the upper division advising worksheet.
In general, there are four kinds of elective courses in the engineering curricula: HumanitiesSocial Sciences, General Education, technical and unrestricted. Transfer students have an additional set of electives: Physical and Biological Sciences electives or Mathematics/Science electives.
HumanitiesSocial Sciences electives: Because engineers are significant agents of social change, they must be sensitive to the human setting in which that change takes place. The HumanitiesSocial Sciences (HSS) electives have been selected within the engineering curricula to increase your awareness of the human and societal implications of engineering practice. The humanities include subject areas such as literature, philosophy, history and the fine arts. The social sciences include areas such as anthropology, political science, sociology, psychology and economics.
You must take at least 24 quarter units of course work in the humanities and social sciences; Computer Science and Engineering majors must have 33 quarter units. For all engineering majors at least 8 of these units must be upper division courses. Subjects that are vocationally oriented or skills oriented, such as management and accounting, or that contain a preponderance of scientific or mathematical content, are not suitable for HSS credit even though a course may be offered by a department ordinarily classified as a humanities or social science department. Foreign language courses must stress literature, not skills, and fine arts courses must emphasize the history and appreciation of forms of expression, not development of performance or other technical skills. You may petition to have a non-literature course in a foreign language which is not your native language count as a humanities course. Students enrolled in the Davis Honors Challenge may receive HSS credit for approved Honors Seminars; consult with the Undergraduate Advising Office for a list of approved seminars each quarter. You may petition for HSS credit for 92, 98, 99, 192, 197, 198 and 199 courses in appropriate cases. If you repeat any of the courses which may be repeated for credit, not more than 4 units in any such courses can be counted toward your HSS requirement.
Your HSS electives should be selected to include a comprehensive and coherent set of courses and may, in some cases, be integrated with your General Education electives, as described in the next section. HSS electives must be selected from the following list.
General Education electives are used to satisfy a campus requirement and are chosen from the list of General Education Courses for 1998-99 given earlier in this chapter. Since all engineering majors are in the Science and Engineering GE topical breadth area, you must fulfill the campus requirement by taking courses in the Arts and Humanities area and the Social Sciences area.
You should note that the requirement of 24 quarter units of Humanities and Social Science (HSS) course work is a College of Engineering requirement and is in addition to the campus General Education (GE) requirement of a fixed number of courses. You may satisfy the HSS and GE requirements simultaneously, provided that you take the courses that are listed on both the list of HSS courses above and the GE courses list shown earlier in this chapter.
In satisfying the GE requirement, note that (a) you must take GE courses for a letter grade, and (b) you must fulfill the Subject A requirement before you can receive GE credit for any course providing writing experience credit. In consultation with your academic adviser, you should attempt to design a comprehensive and coherent set of courses using both the HSS electives and GE electives.
Technical electives permit you to tailor a program to your own academic and career objectives. For some, the technical electives offer the opportunity to prepare for a specific occupation. For others, they offer an opportunity to broaden a background in the sciences and engineering.
You may receive technical elective credit to a maximum of 6 units for any combination of engineering courses numbered 190C, 192, 197, 198 and 199, unless further restrictions are imposed on your major. Academic credit for 199 courses is limited to a maximum of 5 units per quarter for each substantially different project. Academic credit for engineering internship courses (192s) is also limited to a maximum of 5 units per quarter.
With the exception of the following courses, all upper division courses in engineering, physics, chemistry, mathematics and statistics may be taken as technical electives. The courses which may not be used are:
In addition to upper division engineering, physics, chemistry, mathematics and statistics courses, the following courses may be taken as technical electives:
You are urged to discuss the selection of technical elective courses with your academic adviser.
Unrestricted electives. You may count any course for which university credit is allowed as an unrestricted elective in the engineering curricula.
Physical and Biological Science electives. Engineering students are required to have 26 units in physical and biological sciences, typically 10 units of chemistry and 16 units of physics. Students who transfer into the College of Engineering with advanced standing are required to complete 26 units of physical and biological science by graduation, but need only have completed 5-10 units of chemistry (depending on major) and 12 units of physics by the time of transfer. Transfer students may make up the remaining 4 units by taking 4 additional units of chemistry, 4 additional units of physics, or 4 units in courses selected from any of the curricula listed below, with the restrictions that follow.
All courses in these departments numbered 10 and 190199 are excluded for credit, as are the following courses:
Use the Degree Requirement Check sheets for each of the curricula for monitoring your progress toward a degree. The Undergraduate Office will prepare only one unofficial preliminary degree check for you (preferably at the end of your junior year). You should also request an exit interview during the quarter before you plan to graduate. To have this degree check prepared, submit a signed Degree Check Request and request an appointment. You can get further information concerning these services and the forms for requesting a degree check or an exit interview in the Undergraduate Advising Office.
Since engineering is a rapidly developing profession, curricular changes are made by the faculty from year to year. To ensure that you benefit from these changes, the College of Engineering has established a policy that you must fulfill the degree requirements stated in the catalog for the year in which you complete degree work or in the catalog for the year immediately preceding.
UC Davis 1998-99 Online General Catalog. Posted July 31, 1998.
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Keitha Hunter and Barbara Anderson, Editors
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