Master in Environmental Engineering

Building an environmentally sustainable future is one of the most pressing issues that mankind is tackling nowadays. We aim at producing competent and skilled professionals that couple a strong engineering background with an interdisciplinary understanding of the complex interactions between human needs and natural environment that characterize the Anthropocene.

This is achieved by intermeshing traditional disciplines (hydraulics, hydrology, sanitary engineering, structural and geotechnical engineering, spatial planning) with emerging environmental issues and problem-solving skills.

With a theoretically grounded but pragmatic approach, our graduates will be able to develop innovative and sustainable solutions, based on a deep knowledge of the fundamental environmental dynamics and on the capability to quantify and simulate the effects of anthropogenic interventions.

The Master’s degree program in Environmental Engineering is a two-year full-time program (120 ECTS) open to international students.

The program admits every year a maximum number of 10 non-EU students permanently resident abroad.

Students benefit from everyday interactions with internationally renowned professors and researchers. With a low ratio between students and teachers and courses organized in projects and group work, students have the possibility to acquire both technical and practical competencies and experience real-world challenges while attending the courses. Field activities complement the learning opportunities.

The first year foresees 6 common courses and one course depending on the track that is chosen for the second year when the program is articulated into 4 tracks that cover different aspects of the broad spectrum of Environmental Engineering:

1. Water Resources and Land Protection
2. Environmental Quality and Remediation Technologies
3. Environmental Sustainability and International Cooperation
4. Modeling and Simulation

Tracks 3 and 4 are totally taught in English; for tracks 1 and 2, some courses are taught in Italian.

Master’s graduates are able to design and manage works and services in various areas of environmental engineering, such as:

• land protection from natural and man-made hazards, analysis and mitigation of hydrogeological risk, protection and requalification of water bodies;
• urban infrastructures, hydraulic structures, civil works within an environmental context;
• sustainable management of environmental resources, treatment of emissions in solids, liquids, and gases, quality monitoring, pollution prevention, and remediation of environmental matrices (air, water, soil);
• management of the territory and the built environment, even in the presence of conflicting uses of resources, with a view to environmental sustainability and in the context of specific socio-economic contexts.

Furthermore, graduates are able to:

• select and use mathematical and numerical models;
• acquire and analyze data for environmental monitoring;
• analyze and interpret complex environmental data;
• analyze and evaluate the environmental impact of civil and industrial works and develop strategic environmental assessment procedures for plans and programs;
• interact with experts from different disciplines and cooperate to solve complex environmental problems.

Graduates work as designers, managers and modelers in a wide range of areas connected with environmental issues.

Graduates can also continue their career with doctoral studies, in Italy and abroad, and within start-up companies.