Three new cross-disciplinary programs--Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Systems, Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability and Societal Risk Management--are now fully launched in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). The programs are designed to integrate the traditional CEE sub-disciplines and give undergraduate and graduate students a broad, systems perspective on the world’s complex civil and environmental engineering problems.
For undergraduates, the new programs offer additional choices for primary or secondary concentrations, along with the traditional CEE areas of study—construction management, construction materials engineering, environmental engineering, environmental hydrology and hydraulic engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering and transportation engineering.
The programs also offer MS and PhD degrees, opportunities for international trips as part of a “Global Leaders in CEE” component, which brings together both undergraduate and graduate students. The programs also offer seminar series that bring systems experts to campus.
“The students are voting with their feet in support of the cross-cutting programs; the number of students, their grades and their enthusiasm is further proof of the timeliness of expanding our curricula and educational experience in general,” said Amr Elnashai, the Elaine F. Hall Endowed Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering who heads the CEE department. “Other leading departments are following suit.”
Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Systems
The SRIS program addresses emerging approaches to infrastructure systems, focusing on resiliency and sustainability of inter-connected infrastructure—for example, structural, geotechnical and water interactions in urban environments.
Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability
The EWES program focuses on integrating scientific principles, engineered processes and systems analyses to address society’s growing energy needs and their nexus with water and the environment.
Societal Risk Management
The SRM program focuses on reliability, risk and life cycle analysis; decision-making under uncertainty; the ethical, economic and political dimensions of risk management; the legal elements of regulatory mechanisms; risk perception and cognitive biases; risk communication; and post-disaster response and recovery.
“The three programs are bringing together teams of researchers who have not collaborated before, addressing the pressing needs of society in a comprehensive and multidisciplinary framework,” Elnashai said.
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Writer/Contact: Celeste Arbogast Bragorgos, director of communications, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 217/333-6955.
If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.