Civil engineering is one of the broadest of the engineering disciplines, extending across many technical specialties. Civil engineers plan, design, and supervise the construction of facilities essential to modern life. These facilities vary widely in nature, size, and scope and include space satellites and launching facilities, offshore structures, bridges, buildings, tunnels, highways, transit systems, dams, airports, harbors, water supply and wastewater treatment plants, and other facilities for mitigating environmental problems. All of the forces of nature, static and dynamic, are included in this field of inquiry, as are the properties of materials, including the soil and rock mantle of the earth. In addition, civil engineering is concerned with the interlocking influences of structures, systems, forces, and materials on one another and on society. Civil engineers work in many diversified areas, such as structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, water resources and environmental engineering, transportation engineering, ocean and coastal engineering, and construction engineering.

Civil engineering activities are intimately involved with the activities of many other professions, such as planning, finance, architecture, and health; with agencies of local, state, and federal governments; and with the business community in general.

The undergraduate program in civil and environmental engineering provides a broad and thorough education for students in civil engineering fundamentals, applications, and design in order to prepare graduates for the practice of professional engineering. To enable graduates to meet challenges posed by an ever-changing society and advancing technology, the program provides a broad background in many of the different areas of civil engineering and sound exposure to engineering sciences, humanities, and social sciences. The undergraduate curriculum permits students to have an area of concentration in structures, geotechnical engineering, construction engineering, transportation engineering, or water resources/environmental engineering. Students have considerable freedom to select a variety of departmental electives, technical electives, and, in the senior year, capstone design courses to form a concentrated area of study. The bachelor of science program in civil engineering is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET.