Field of Study

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 high-rise buildings, long-span bridges, space launching platforms, offshore structures, retractable roof stadiums, tunnels, highways, transit systems, dams, airports, harbors, water supply and wastewater treatment plants, and other infrastructure facilities. All of the forces of nature, static and dynamic, are included in this field of civil engineering, 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 diverse areas, such as structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, water resources 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 architecture, planning, education,and health; with agencies of local, state, and federal governments; and with the business community in general.

The undergraduate program in civil 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 structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, construction engineering, transportation engineering, and water resources. Students have considerable freedom to select a variety of departmental electives, technical electives, and, in the senior year, the students should do a senior design or capstone course in one of the concentration areas of study.