What is civil engineering ?

Question

I am in high school and I was wondering if I should pursure this career.I would also like to know the universities that offer the best programs.Also, are there many females in this area of engineering?

Answer 1

Civil Engineering is one of the broader areas of engineering, and includes:

Transportation (how to build roads, such as what materials and methods are best; road system design, such as how wide, how steep to make the hills, and how much curve you can safely have; and traffic signal design, to determine how to most efficiently control traffic flow)

Environmental (includes remediating contaminated areas and treating wastewater)

Construction (the people who actually do the building; they're in charge of maintaining quality and that what is built follows the intent of the design)

Geotechnical (design foundations so that your structure doesn't sink, tilt, or fall over)

Structural (works with buildings, bridges, dams, and all the big things you see built)

Materials (you work with the materials that are used to building things - this also overlaps mechanical engineering)

And other areas that I'm sure I'm forgetting. Civil engineering is also involved in flood control and waterways design. It's one of the oldest (if not the oldest) and most versatile areas of engineering. There's more to it, but this will give you an idea.

And there are many, many women in civil engineering. I'm a structural engineer, and am a woman :-) I'm not sure what the percentage is now, but in universities, women usually account for about 20 percent of engineering students; the percentage in practice is somewhat lower than that.

Check out these websites:
American Society of Civil Engineers www.asce.org
Society of Women Engineers www.swe.org

As to the best schools, rankings are published every year that are pretty arbitrary. The most important point is that the degree is ABET accredited (I recommend that the BS is accredited rather than the MS), which allows you to get a license, and therefore a job. Generally, public universities have more practical programs, whereas private are more theoretical. Check into the curriculum at the school and talk to people, though, since this doesn't always hold true. See how successful and supportive the alumni are - that's usually a good indicator.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Civil Engineering Means any one Building, Bridge, and any one Construction Work Supervision, estimating,Design,Plan e.t.c

Answer 3

Civil Engineering deals with buildings construction or any type of construction - There is both male and female studets in this field. but you find more male than female students selecting this type of engineering.

Answer 4

civil engineer is structural engineer in general mean..civil engineering includes other departments like geotechnical, transportation ,water resources engineerings etc...they designs all kinds of buildings and they do the statical analysis these buildings..

Answer 5

Civil engineering is all the operations of land measurement- IOW, surveying.

Answer 6

in chinese it's 土木工程。it means some engineering, that useing mathematics,physical,physics,chemic,computer information etc and mechanics ,materials,and other technologys
to build road ,bridge,architecture,city road and so on .
my english is poor ,sorry

Answer 7

opposite to uncivil engineering