C&EE M135C · CEE M135CIntroduction to Finite Element Methods
Civil and Environmental Engineering · 4 units · Undergraduate upper division (100-199)
(Same as Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering M168.) Introduction to basic concepts of finite element methods (FEM) and applications to structural and solid mechanics and heat transfer. Direct matrix structural analysis; weighted residual, least squares, and Ritz approximation methods; shape functions; convergence properties; isoparametric formulation of multidimensional heat flow and elasticity; numerical integration. Practical use of FEM software; geometric and analytical modeling; preprocessing and postprocessing techniques; term projects with computers.
Letter grading.
When it runs
- Spring 2026
- Spring 2027
Scheduled, not typical — from UCLA’s Schedule of Classes, which publishes Fall 2025 through Spring 2027 and nothing before it.
Requisites
Official UCLA wording
Requisite: course 130 or Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 156A or 166A.
BruinTree reads · Prerequisite
confidence 1.00 · from textRequires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
C&EE M135C
- C&EE 130Elementary Structural Mechanics
- MECH&AE 156AAdvanced Strength of Materials
- MECH&AE 82Mathematics of Engineering
- MECH&AE M20Introduction to Computer Programming with MATLAB
- MECH&AE 101Statics and Strength of Materials
- MATH 31BIntegration and Infinite Series
- MECH&AE 166AAnalysis of Aerospace Structures
3 direct requisites. Showing 17 courses over 3 levels; the branches marked with a count carry on past it. Every course here opens its own tree.
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What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
No course in the catalog lists this as a requisite.