Description

Civil engineering is arguably the oldestengineering discipline. It deals with the built environment and canbe dated to the first time someone placed a roof over his or herhead or laid a tree trunk across a river to make it easier to getacross.

The built environment encompasses much of what defines moderncivilization. Buildings and bridges are often the firstconstructions that come to mind, as they are the most conspicuouscreations of structural engineering, one of civil engineering'smajor sub-disciplines. Roads, railroads, subway systems, andairports are designed by transportation engineers, another categoryof civil engineering. And then there are the less visible creationsof civil engineers. Every time you open a water faucet, you expectwater to come out, without thinking that civil engineers made itpossible. New York City has one of the world’s most impressivewater supply systems, receiving billions of gallons of high-qualitywater from the Catskills over one hundred miles away. Similarly,not many people seem to worry about what happens to the water afterit has served its purposes. The old civil engineering discipline ofsanitary engineering has evolved into modern environmentalengineering of such significance that most academic departmentshave changed their names to civil and environmentalengineering.

These few examples illustrate that civil engineers do a lot morethan design buildings and bridges. They can be found in theaerospace industry, designing jetliners and space stations; in theautomotive industry, perfecting the load-carrying capacity of achassis and improving the crashworthiness of bumpers and doors; andthey can be found in the ship building industry, the powerindustry, and many other industries wherever constructed facilitiesare involved. And they plan and oversee the construction of thesefacilities as construction managers.

Civil engineering is an exciting profession because at the endof the day you can see the results of your work, whether this is acompleted bridge, a high-rise building, a subway station, or ahydroelectric dam.

Please look at the Web pages of our individual faculty membersto learn more about their special interests as examples of whatcivil engineering and engineering mechanics is and can beabout.

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline thatdeals with the design, construction, and maintenance of thephysical and naturally built environment, including works likeroads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings. Civil engineering isthe second-oldest engineering discipline after militaryengineering, and it is defined to distinguish non-militaryengineering from military engineering. It is traditionally brokeninto several sub-disciplines including architectural engineering,environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, geophysics,geodesy, control engineering, structural engineering, earthquakeengineering, transportation engineering, earth science, atmosphericsciences, forensic engineering, municipal or urban engineering,water resources engineering, materials engineering, offshoreengineering, aerospace engineering, quantity surveying, coastalengineering, surveying, and construction engineering. Civilengineering takes place in the public sector from municipal throughto national governments, and in the private sector from individualhomeowners through to international companies