Civil Engineering

Civil engineering is one of the oldest engineering disciplines and served as the original foundation for West Point as an academic institution. Civil engineers improve the world around them through work on vital infrastructure projects like roads, buildings, and waterways. They design, build, and maintain the infrastructure of modern civilization. Civil engineers are leaders who help and serve society by providing safe, functional, economical structures and facilities. The civil engineering (CE) curriculum is broad, rigorous, rewarding, and relevant to the needs of the Army and the profession.

CE majors apply knowledge of mathematics and science to solve problems in structural, geotechnical, transportation, hydraulic, and construction engineering. They will design a CE project, use probability and statistics to address uncertainty, include principles of sustainability in design, and explain basic concepts in project management, business, public policy, and leadership. Additionally, they will analyze issues in professional ethics and explain the importance of professional licensure.

Graduates of the CE major are well prepared for professional practice, including licensure, and for subsequent graduate study in a variety of disciplines.

CE majors have a lab requirement component.

This major offers an honors track.

Who are civil engineers?

Civil engineers design, build, and maintain the infrastructure of modern civilization. They are leaders who help and serve society by providing safe, functional, economical structures and facilities. Civil engineers are unique problem-solvers who apply their technical know-how to meet disaster relief challenges, deteriorating facilities, traffic congestion, floods, earthquakes, environmental contamination, and community planning. The products of civil engineering include water treatment plants and distribution systems, power distribution facilities, roads, bridges, buildings, tunnels, dams, railroads, airports, docks, harbors, canals, offshore structures, and wastewater treatment facilities.

Entrusted by society to create a sustainable world and enhance the global quality of life, civil engineers serve competently, collaboratively, and ethically as planners, designers, constructors, and operators of society’s economic and social engines. They create the built environment; protect the natural environment and its resources; innovate and integrate ideas and technology across the public, private, and academic sectors; manage risk and uncertainty caused by natural events, accidents, and other threats; and lead discussions and decisions shaping public environmental and infrastructure policy.

In the Army, civil engineers provide leadership and technical abilities to support combat operations through expertise in mobility, counter-mobility, and survivability operations. They design and construct critical infrastructure such as base camps, roads, bridges, airfields, and ports. As part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, civil engineers provide vital public engineering to support our nation’s security, energize the economy, and reduce disaster risks. Army civil engineers also manage the design, construction, maintenance, and repair of facilities and infrastructure at Army installations worldwide.

What will I study?

The curriculum is broad, rigorous, rewarding, and relevant to the needs of the Army and the profession. The program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. Graduates of the CE major are well prepared for professional practice, including licensure, and for subsequent graduate study in a variety of disciplines. The USMA Red Book provides an example of the curriculum.

CE majors apply the knowledge of mathematics and science; analyze and solve problems in structural, geotechnical, hydraulic/hydrology, construction engineering; conduct experiments in civil engineering technical areas, and analyze and interpret the resulting data; design a civil engineering project; use probability and statistics to address uncertainty; include principles of sustainability in design; explain basic concepts in project management, business, public policy, and leadership; analyze issues in professional ethics; and explain the importance of professional licensure.

CE majors engage in a year-long capstone project requiring them to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems in teams. The projects are open-ended and involve applying math, science, and engineering principles acquired in previous coursework. The teams use an iterative design process to define the problem and requirements, analyze alternatives within constraints (e.g., applicable codes and standards), and select the best alternative to solve the problem. The design process takes into consideration public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors. Teams communicate their process and solution through written deliverables and presentations to a range of audiences.

CE majors take the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam during the spring semester of their first year. Passing the FE exam is the essential first step in becoming a registered professional civil engineer.

Why study civil engineering?

• Civil engineers help people and build the future. Civil, in civil engineering, is civilization. Every day, everyone touches something that civil engineers design and build. At its core, civil engineering provides an opportunity for solving challenging, real-life problems for the benefit of people.
• Engineers are explorers, inventors, and professionals. They push technological frontiers to improve the quality of life for our nation’s citizens today and for the future. Civil engineers pursuing licensing as professional engineers, a qualification valued by the Army and demanded by society, to design and build the requirements for a modern civilization.
• Civil engineering teaches you how things work. This will be of enormous benefit to you as an Army officer in an increasingly technically demanding world. The Army recognizes this and provides many postgraduate educational and research opportunities at top universities and research laboratories for its best engineering minds.
• Civil engineering teaches you how to think. Civil engineers learn how to describe, analyze, and solve problems using mathematics and systematic problem-solving techniques. Learning to think logically and to work systematically contributes to the ability to address new and difficult problems with confidence.
• Civil engineering teaches you how to oversee complicated and interdisciplinary projects. Because a civil engineering education teaches you how things work and how to logically solve new problems, civil engineers are in very high demand as project managers across many private and public sectors. Check out this link to see how civil engineers are in high demand with job satisfaction!
• Civil engineering allows you to keep your options open. Civil engineers possess excellent reasoning skills and understand their world. These qualities make civil engineers competitive for most graduate programs of study in engineering as well as law, business, and medicine.

To learn more about this area of study, visit the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.