Main menu >> Civil and Environmental Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering
N. M. Hawkins, Professor Emeritus and Interim Head
F. V. Lawrence and K. D. Hjelmstad, Associate Heads
1105 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, 205 N. Mathews Ave., MC-250, Urbana, IL 61801-2352
217-333-8038 • http://cee.ce.uiuc.edu

Civil and environmental engineers carry responsibility for the planning, design, and construction of facilities that provide for the physical well being of people, for the quality of the environment, and for protection from earthquakes, floods, strong winds, and other natural and created hazards. Civil engineering is a broad discipline encompassing activity in many areas:
•transportation facilities and systems (highways, airports, and railroads)
•structures (buildings, bridges, industrial facilities, and space structures with subdisciplines such as dynamics, earthquake engineering, and reliability analysis)
•hydraulics and hydrology (dams, open channel flow, flood control, power projects, groundwater resources, and water resources management)
•construction processes and their management (planning, analysis, automation, and economics)
•geotechnical engineering (foundations, slope stability, tunnels, embankments, waste disposal, and remediation of contaminated ground)
•photogrammetry and geodesy
•environmental engineering (water, sewage, air, waste management, and bioprocessing)
•computer-aided engineering systems
•nondestructive diagnostics

Surrounding these disciplines are a host of other technical areas including numerical analysis techniques, use of modern computational systems in design, analysis, and graphics; engineering materials; and knowledge of the loadings and environments to which a facility may be subjected.

The needs of the State of Illinois and the nation, as well as other countries, continually require development and application of new approaches, concepts, and products to the design and construction of facilities. Research programs in the department add to fundamental knowledge and are directed toward ensuring the early application of new technology. Graduate and undergraduate students participate with faculty in conducting research. A strong integration of research with the educational process has been a decisive factor in the distinguished reputation enjoyed by this department.

The Mid-America Earthquake Center, funded by the National Science Foundation, studies ways to reduce the impact of earthquakes on infrastructures. The Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory (ATREL), funded largely by the Illinois Department of Transportation, is located 15 miles north of the main campus. It contains 56,000 square feet of modern classroom, office, and laboratory space on 56 acres and is home to the Center of Excellence for Airport Pavement Research, which is funded by the Federal Aviation Administration. Faculty and graduate students conduct basic research in the mechanics of airport pavement design for the next generation of large commercial aircraft.


Summary of Engineering Research