Civil and Coastal Engineering at The University of Florida
Civil Engineers face difficult challenges to renew, secure, and broaden the capabilities of our nation’s infrastructure and the environment. New technologies must be developed to protect our water supplies and constructed infrastructure from both environmental and human-devised hazards. At the same time these systems must be renewed and made sustainable while serving the demands of a growing population. Changing demographics and priorities for infrastructure also place new demands for services and intelligence embedded in the infrastructure. These challenges are perhaps greater and certainly more complex than the awe-inspiring engineering achievements of the past century, requiring new approaches that draw on the strengths of multiple disciplines in Civil Engineering.
With 27 tenure-track faculty, augmented by a professional staff of 85 that includes research scientists and engineers, laboratory technicians and support personnel, the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering (CCE) is uniquely comprehensive in its ability to address the new research needs of the infrastructure and the environment. In response to these needs, our research thrusts fall into five broad areas: constructed infrastructure systems, high performance infrastructure materials, coastal and water resources monitoring, assessment and rehabilitation, and transportation infrastructure systems. CCE research expenditures for 2009-2010 exceeded $8.9 million, placing the CCE Department second among all departments in the UF College of Engineering. During that same time period, new CCE research awards exceeded $10 million. The Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida offers a broad-based yet cutting-edge graduate program with approximately 320 full-time students, 180 of whom are supported on graduate assistantships sustained by numerous outside sponsors. The Department of Civil Engineering dates back to 1910, and maintains a strong undergraduate program enrolling more than 700 students, providing a firm foundation for the graduate program.
The Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering is attuned to the emergence of the Master’s degree as the entry level technical degree for the professional practice of civil engineering, as necessitated by the technically demanding nature of newer design methodologies and specifications. The program includes comprehensive course offerings and highly qualified faculty in each of five traditional areas of civil engineering: Construction Engineering, Geotech- nical Engineering, Materials and Pavement Engineering, Public Works Engineering, Structural Engineering, Transportation Systems Engineering and Water Resources/Hydrology Engineering and Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering . The graduate courses provide a strong background in engineering design, as well as theory and analysis, and coupled with the department’s extensive research program, prepare the graduate for employment in government or professional engineering industry at the Master’s level, or cutting edge PhD studies, leading to employment in research institutions or academia.
The heart of the graduate program is its cutting edge research enterprise with extensive outside sponsorship, comprehensive physical testing facilities, and state-of-the-art computing facilities. The Civil and Coastal Engineering faculty have a long history of cooperating across the traditional specialty areas as teams, collaborating on major funded multi-disciplinary research projects addressing the critical needs of society, thus enhancing the education of the Master’s student, as well as providing the basis for a strong PhD program. The research program is elaborated upon elsewhere on this site, organized into five areas of societal need, including Extreme Load Events, High Performance Infrastructure and Materials, Water Resource Preservation, Beach and Estuarine Preservation, and Transportation Infrastructure Systems.
