Laboratories and Facilities
Civil and Construction Engineering and Management Laboratories and Facilities
The Department of Civil and Construction Engineering and Management (CCEM) at The University of Texas at Tyler supports its Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering, and Construction Management programs through shared laboratory, computing, fabrication, design, and collaborative-learning facilities at the Tyler Main Campus and Houston Engineering Center (HEC). These resources support hands-on instruction, engineering and construction applications, design, student projects, and research.
Tyler Main Campus
CCEM's primary Tyler facilities are located within the Bill Ratliff Engineering and Science Complex, comprising Ratliff Building South (RBS) and Ratliff Building North (RBN) and providing approximately 140,000 square feet of classroom, laboratory, and office space. Students also have access to shared machine-shop, fabrication, study, collaboration, and lounge spaces.
Construction and Fabrication
The Construction Management and Design/Fabrication facilities support construction applications, materials work, fabrication, and student projects. Equipment includes table and miter saws, planers, jointers, drill presses, sanders, nailers, air compressors, power tools, electronic balances, and construction hand tools. These resources complement the College of Engineering's shared fabrication and machine-shop facilities.
Structures and Construction Materials
The Structures Laboratory in Ratliff Building South supports structural engineering and materials instruction and research. The facility features a 20-by-16-foot strong floor, two-ton crane, Tinius-Olsen 400-kip Universal Testing Machine, and 120-kip and 60-kip hydraulic jacks. Additional materials-testing resources include concrete mixers, slump and compression-testing equipment, curing equipment, sieve-analysis equipment, air-content meters, ovens, and balances.
Geotechnical Engineering and Soils
The Soils Laboratory supports soil mechanics, foundation engineering, geotechnical engineering, and construction applications. Equipment includes direct-shear and consolidation apparatus, liquid- and plastic-limit equipment, hydraulic-conductivity cells, compaction molds and hammers, sieves and mechanical shakers, ovens, and electronic balances. These resources provide practical experience with soil classification, strength, compaction, consolidation, and permeability testing.
Environmental Engineering and Hydraulics
The Environmental and Hydraulics Laboratory supports water quality, environmental engineering, fluid mechanics, hydrology, and hydraulics. Equipment includes a column-filtration system with jar tester, dissolved-oxygen and pH instrumentation, multiparameter water-quality equipment, an incubator, benchtop instrumentation, a hydraulic demonstration channel, and stream-flow measurement equipment.
Transportation and Pavement Materials
The Texas Rural Transportation Research Center (TRTRC) provides specialized asphalt and pavement-material testing capabilities. Equipment includes an automatic laboratory mixer, gyratory compactor, AsphaltQube testing system, Dynamic Shear Rheometer, Bending Beam Rheometer, asphalt-content furnace, Rolling Thin Film Oven, universal double-wheel tracker, and Micro-Deval machine.
Transportation resources also include computing and simulation applications, GIS resources, differential GPS equipment, traffic-counting equipment, radar speed guns, and plotting capability.
Design, Computing and Collaboration
Design studios and project spaces give senior design teams and other student groups places to meet, develop designs, collaborate, and assemble or store projects and subassemblies.
Students and faculty also have access to UT Tyler's centralized Virtual Desktop Infrastructure through Omnissa Horizon 8, providing on- and off-campus access to the College of Engineering's Windows-based software environment. Available engineering resources include MATLAB, Mathcad, SAP2000, Autodesk applications, ArcGIS, and transportation-related applications.
Houston Engineering Center
The UT Tyler Houston Engineering Center (HEC), located at the Houston City College Alief Campus, extends CCEM's engineering and construction programs to the Greater Houston area. UT Tyler occupies approximately 21,728 square feet within the Alief campus building.
CCEM laboratories at HEC provide hands-on resources supporting construction materials, structural applications, geotechnical engineering, environmental engineering, and hydraulics.
Construction Materials and Structural Resources
The Construction Management Laboratory provides equipment for concrete and construction-material applications, including Humboldt concrete compressive-strength testing machines, concrete-cylinder molds, slump-test equipment, a water-pressure testing gauge, measurement equipment, and laboratory balances.
The Civil Structural Laboratory includes manual compressive-strength testing equipment, bench ovens, sieve shakers, wheelbarrow mixers, slump cones, tamping rods, mixing bowls, and related laboratory accessories. Other HEC resources include a 250-kip compression-testing machine, concrete mixers, curing equipment, electronic balances, and ovens.
Geotechnical Engineering and Soils
The HEC Soils Laboratory supports soil mechanics and geotechnical laboratory instruction. Resources include liquid- and plastic-limit equipment, hydrometers and graduated cylinders, consolidation cells, hydraulic-conductivity cells, compaction equipment, sieves and motorized mechanical shakers, ovens, and electronic balances.
Environmental Engineering and Hydraulics
The HEC Environmental and Hydraulics Laboratory supports water-quality, hydrology, environmental, and hydraulic applications. Equipment includes a column-filtration system with jar tester, incubator, dissolved-oxygen meter, pH meters, hydraulic demonstration channel, and stream-flow measurement equipment.
Computing and Collaborative Learning
HEC provides a shared engineering computer laboratory with 26 wired workstations, an instructor station with large-format display capability, secure printing, and engineering software resources. Students also have access to UT Tyler's centralized virtual desktop environment.
West Houston Institute IDEAStudio
A distinctive resource accessible to UT Tyler students at HEC is the West Houston Institute IDEAStudio, a 10,000-square-foot makerspace supporting digital fabrication, prototyping, and traditional manufacturing. Students may use its equipment after completing required safety and equipment-user training.
The Assembly Area includes Ultimaker, Prusa, Formlabs, re:3D Gigabot, and Markforged 3D printers, along with laser cutting, large-format and vinyl printing/cutting, electronics workbenches, and Windows and Mac computer stations.