Civil Engineering Brochure

An Excellent Career Choice

Those who enter civil engineering today can look forward to one of the most rewarding careers ever open to men and women -- offering personal fulfillment, enduring service to humanity, and financial success.

In the next two decades, as the world's population grows, environmental concerns mount, the technological revolution expands and we continue space habitation, there will be an unprecedented demand for civil engineers. They will be needed to plan, design, build and maintain the facilities essential to our civilization: bridges, dams, highways, transit systems, airports, tunnels, irrigation systems, water distribution and wastewater treatment facilities, space satellites and launching facilities, and industrial and commercial buildings.

Civil Engineers are High-Tech

The phrase "high technology" has been tossed around in engineering circles for the past several years, bringing to mind images of super computers, lasers and robotics. But what does high-tech have to do with civil engineering? Plenty! Civil engineers always have been pioneers in testing, adapting, and putting to practical use advances in technology.

Today, civil engineers are applying computers, robotics, lasers, thermography, global positioning systems, satellite imaging, remote sensing, geographic information systems, new materials and other high-tech developments to every aspect of their work in research, design, construction and management. Nowhere is this application of high technology more evident than in the University of Florida's Department of Civil Engineering.

The University and the College

Tracing its beginnings back to 1853, the University of Florida has grown into one of the largest universities in the United States. It is one of the most broadly based universities in the United States, with 20 colleges and schools, from which more than 48,000 undergraduate and graduate students may choose from 114 majors in 52 undergraduate degree programs.

Like the university in which it is housed, the College of Engineering is committed to high-quality education and research. Since its inception in 1910, the college has grown to include more than 6,600 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 300 faculty members in its 12 departments. The college's annual research expenditures place it among the top 15 engineering schools in the country.

The Department

The Department of Civil Engineering, which was established in 1905, has been a recognized leader in innovative educational programs and is widely considered to be among the top programs in the United States. A department with a strong emphasis on social consciousness, UF's Civil Engineering department continues to graduate men and women who make outstanding contributions to the public through business, industry, education, and government.

Programs

Students enrolled in the civil engineering program are trained in a broad base of engineering services -- structural, geotechnical, transportation, hydraulics, environmental, civil engineering materials, surveying sciences, and construction engineering -- leading to a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. Each of the specialty areas also can be developed in greater depth at the graduate level.

With all these areas of activity, civil engineering at the University of Florida offers a virtually unlimited range of career opportunities to satisfy individual interests, aptitudes, and goals.

Faculty

The Department of Civil Engineering has more than 35 faculty members with the rank of assistant professor or above, making it one of the largest Civil Engineering departments in the country. The high quality of the department's faculty gives students the opportunity to work with some of the most educated and experienced professionals in the field.

In addition to the regular faculty, visiting speakers, drawn from among the most successful practitioners in civil engineering throughout the world, help satisfy the department's commitment to bring practice to the class room.

Students

More than 400 upper division and almost 600 undergraduate civil engineering students are enrolled in the department. Additionally, more than 150 students are engaged in graduate study at the master's and doctoral level.

Civil engineering students, who by their very nature are community and service oriented, have one of the most active student groups on campus -- the American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter. Other student chapters include Chi Epsilon (Civil Engineering Honor Society), the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the Florida Engineering Society.

Students in the Civil Engineering Department also participate in a variety of activities, including concrete canoe races, the annual Engineers' Fair balsa wood bridge building contest, and the annual Steel Bridge competition.

Research

The research activities in the Department of Civil Engineering include new developments in structural analysis and design, traffic operations, soil exploration and testing techniques, surface and groundwater studies, public works, pavements and pavement design, and construction engineering and management.

Research may involve theoretical developments, physical testing, and computer modeling. Financial support in the form of teaching and research assistantships is available for outstanding graduate students.

The department's entire research program is directed toward engineering for the public benefit.

Academic Requirements

First-year engineering students spend their time in necessary preparatory courses such as mathematics, chemistry, and physics, which serve as a foundation for the engineering degree. Additionally, in the first two years of study, a number of basic engineering courses are taken to complete the core curriculum required of all engineering students. In upper division, students concentrate on their major field of study -- civil engineering.

Placement

Opportunities for a career suited to the individual interested in building on the quality of life are greater in civil engineering than in any other field.

Because civil engineers have such a broad educational background, they have a wide variety of employment opportunities available in every area from design to construction.

UF civil engineering graduates consistently do well in industry and graduate school and are in very high demand by employers in both the private and public sectors. Students are assisted in their search for employment by the UF Career Resource Center, located on campus, and the Department.

The University of Florida Department of Civil Engineering is committed to educating qualified engineers to meet today's needs and tomorrow's challenges.