Basics
Many people think of Civil Engineers as the people who design roads and bridges, but in reality, it is much more than that. Civil Engineering is a very broad field that involves quiet a few sub-fields. Some of these sub fields include, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Municipal Engineering, and Transportation Engineering, to name a few.Structural Engineering mostly deals with structures and there abilities to resist loads. Bridges, tunnels, dams, and canals would be some of the more common structures that a Structural Engineer would be involved with. A Structural Engineer would aid in the design and construction along with assessing the structure throughout its life to insure safety and function ability.
Environmental Engineers evaluate the environmental impacts of proposed projects, and help with treating the air, ground and water around us. They design systems to deal with contaminants in our environment and ways to avoid future contamination from occurring.
Municipal Engineers design and maintain cities. They are involved with the design of the cities streets, pedestrian paths, building planning, and utilities. This field of Civil Engineering is what I am most interested in because it allows the engineer to be involved in a few different civil disciplines instead of specializing in just one.
Transportation Engineers design and maintain all of our modes of transport, although most Transportation Engineers usually specialize in one mode of transportation. Different modes of transportation would include passenger vehicles, trains, airplanes and boats.
Interests
Civil Engineers are usually people who are interested in the outdoors. Most of the sub-fields of Civil Engineering, require you to do things outdoors on occasion, so a liking of the outdoors is good. One of the interests for me personally is being around construction. I worked general construction jobs for three years, before starting college. I liked construction and wanted to stay involved in it in some way. Another interest that Civil Engineers have is being apart of building things that the general public uses every day. This means that the things Civil Engineers build must be extremely safe and reliable, both for people and the environment.Values
Civil Engineers value the people around them. Most of what Civil Engineers do, are things that most people take for granted. When is the last time you drove to work, or turned your faucet on? You probably never even thought about all of the work that goes into ensuring that you had a safe drive to work because the roads you used were engineered sufficiently, or that you can drink water from your faucet without worrying about getting sick because there are Civil Engineers somewhere who are ensuring that your water is safe.Civil Engineers also value building things in an innovative and economic fashion. They are coming up with ways and materials to build things that are cheaper, safer and will last longer than the more conventional methods that have been used before.
As a civil engineering student myself, I found your explanation very interesting. It is one of the first things we learn as civil engineers that there are different sub-fields of civil engineering. Transportation engineering and structural engineering are probably the most popular. Like you said, there is also environmental engineering and municipal engineering. Some, possibly smaller areas of civil engineering include geotechnical engineering, materials, and water resources (which could be considered a part of environmental engineering).
ReplyDeleteGeotechnical engineering is, in my estimation, a branch between structural engineers and environmental engineers. Geotechnical engineers analyze the ground we build on and make sure that the soil is stable, or if a foundation will require more reinforcements.
Water resources engineers, obviously, work with the public's water supply. Water resources engineers are environmental engineers who specifically deal with the world's water supply and try to ensure the public has safe drinking water. On the other hand, water resources engineers also must make sure the removal or use of water will not harm the environment. Plants and animals need water too. Water resources engineers help to keep the balance, and maintain safety for everyone and everything's water supply.
Materials engineering is also pretty straight forward. This sub field of civil engineering makes sure the right materials are being used, as well as create new materials. The goal is to have more reliable and cost effective materials.
I enjoyed reading your explanation of civil engineers' values. It is the civil engineers who have played a sometimes unnoticed role in society.
I enjoyed reading your description of Civil Engineering. My experience as a mechanical engineering student has helped me gain some exposure to the field, but this article is very eye opening to the elements of other fields as well. To someone who is not knowledgeable about various engineering fields, this article would be helpful. I liked how you highlight all the variation within civil engineering and go into detail with each separate profession in the field. One thing people don't realize about Civil Engineering is that holding the job title goes beyond designing and constructing roads and bridges (as you mentioned in your introduction). I couldn't agree more. Many do not acknowledge how much value is put into balancing public safety, reliability, and environmental preservation; which is why I also appreciate the mention of these factors. This piece is a great overview of what civil engineers do and what their importance and relevance is to society.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this review a lot, considering i am also a civil engineer so this may be a bit bias. I am very glad you went over all of the different fields in civil engineering because that is what a lot of people do not know about civil. Everyone knows about transportation and structural but not a lot of people know that we also do materials and water management which is very essential in our world today but looked over and not given credit. Most of your overview is what i also said in mine so it is nice to see that we think alike and trying to notify the general public of what civil engineers truly do.
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