From the Department Chair
I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you to
the Department of Civil Engineering and to provide some background
information about the field of civil engineering that you
won’t find elsewhere on this site. Also, I’d like
to make a few personal observations about our Department here
at Johns Hopkins.
Starting about 200 years ago, engineering education in this
country was available only to military engineers, who were
educated at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Civil(ian) engineering was the first non-military engineering
discipline; formal schools of civil engineering began to emerge
in the U.S. in the mid-1800s.
Today, civil engineering is a very broad field--broader than
the other engineering disciplines. Civil engineers build the
civil infrastructure--buildings, bridges, airports, tunnels,
roads, etc. They are also concerned with the foundations of
these structures, and this requires knowledge of the mechanics
of the soil beneath them. Civil engineers also solve problems
related to water supply and waste treatment and the design
and construction of ports and harbors.
Civil Engineering graduates have a wide variety of professional
options available to them. Some enter the practice of civil
engineering, working for engineering firms or starting their
own businesses; others work for city, state, or county governmental
organizations, becoming city, state, or county engineers.
Still others pursue Masters or Ph.D. degrees, which lead either
to academic positions or higher level jobs within the private
sector. Ultimately, an engineering degree provides a rigorous
exposure to logical thinking and the design process. This
foundation has also proven useful to our graduates who elect
professional education in law, medicine, and business.
Johns Hopkins University:
I’ve been impressed by several characteristics of the
University and the Department. First, Johns Hopkins is a world-renowned
educational institution. This is evident in the international
reputation of its faculty and in the national rankings of
many of its schools and departments. Those of us associated
with the institution are proud of this reputation and are
reminded of each time the national news media refer to Johns
Hopkins faculty for their achievements.
Second, Civil Engineering at Hopkins is a small program with
a small number of students. The student/faculty ratio is 10:1,
which means that our students and faculty know one another
personally. Class size in our civil engineering courses rarely
exceeds 15 students and some are far less. This provides a
highly personal educational experience. Yet our students have
numerous opportunities to explore a wide range of civil engineering
topics--from structural, geotechnical and environmental engineering,
to coastal and ocean engineering.
Finally, the quality of the faculty here is exceptional in
both teaching and research. All of our faculty teach undergraduate
courses--last year, two of them won teaching awards for their
undergraduate courses--and all of our faculty conduct state-of-the-art
research with undergraduate and graduate students.
For prospective undergraduate students:
Choosing a college is an important undertaking--your whole
life will be influenced by the choices that you make now.
The education that you receive during the four years of college
and the friends that you make will have an impact on your
entire future. Johns Hopkins University offers first-rate
professors in all aspects of your education--engineering is
enriched by equal depth in the faculty of the natural sciences,
social sciences, and humanities and one of the best music
conservatories in the country.
Our undergraduate engineering program has been designed to
provide a firm foundation for a wide breadth of activities
in modern civil engineering. Some flexibility is built into
the curriculum so that students can pursue particular interests
such as structural or geotechnical analysis and design, environmental
and water resource engineering, coastal and ocean engineering,
and economics and systems analysis. Our program is accredited
by ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.
A five-year BS-MS honors program (50% tuition waiver in fifth
year) is available for qualified applicants, as are dual major
options. A minor in business--the largest minor at Hopkins--is
also offered through the engineering school.
For graduate students:
The civil engineering graduate program at Hopkins is focused
around four thrust areas: structural engineering and mechanics,
geotechnical engineering and geomechanics, probabilistic methods
and hazard management, and coastal/ocean engineering. Recent
developments and applications in engineering mechanics lie
at the core of the program. As described in our catalog: "The
graduate civil engineering program is designed to instill
in the student the fundamental theoretical concepts of mechanics
as well as knowledge of modern structural and geotechnical
engineering, a practical appreciation of the challenges of
creative engineering design, and a sense of responsibility
for professional service." The civil engineering program
also integrates new concepts from research into classroom
and laboratory study, and strives to develop an enthusiasm
on the part of the student for independent creative activities
that lead to new knowledge in problem areas of national importance.
Most incoming
students are fully supported on School or Department fellowships,
and for subsequent years, virtually all students are fully
supported on research grants through their faculty advisers.
Some of our current graduate students have been awarded highly
desirable and competitive NSF Graduate Fellowships.
And finally:
We have an energetic and student-friendly environment here
at Johns Hopkins. We dedicate ourselves to teaching that is
informed by the latest research. We hope you will join us
in learning and creating knowledge to share with the rest
of the world!
-
J. Hugh Ellis
