CEE At A Glance

Quick Facts

Full-time faculty: 13
Undergraduate students: 83
Graduate students: 49
Annual research expenditures: $2.7 million
 

Degrees And Programs

• Undergraduate (B.S., 5-year B.S./M.S.):
  Civil Engineering: with options in  environmental or transportation engineering, sustainability, med-prep, and physics
• Graduate (M.S., Ph.D., Applied Scientist, Eng):
  Civil Engineering: with focus areas in  environmental, geotechnical, structural,  transportation, or water resources engineering, or in engineering mechanics
• Certificate Programs:
  Environmental Engineering, Geo-environmental Engineering,  Structural Engineering, Transportation Engineering
   

Research Areas

• Environmental Engineering
• Materials
• Mechanics
• Structural, Geo-technical and Earthquake Engineering
• Transportation Safety Engineering

 

Points Of Pride

The physical infrastructure of modern civilization is conceived and realized by civil and environmental engineers, and GW's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering contributes to these advances and improvements in our infrastructure through a wide range of research activities.

Researchers at the Center for Intelligent Systems Research (CISR) are working to make driving safer and less frustrating by helping develop intelligent transportation systems that will allow more vehicles to pass through a single lane while reducing accidents.  By better understanding traffic flow theory, driver/pedestrian behavior, and evacuation modeling, the difficulties of driving on our increasingly congested road will be eased.

Environmental engineering faculty and students use one of the world's largest wastewater treatment plants as a real-world laboratory to improve the water quality of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  They also investigate techniques and processes to create beneficial rescue of wastewater.

Faculty and student researchers are using GW's earthquake simulator to study how buildings and bridges react to earthquakes of various magnitudes.  By combining analytical and experimental investigation, they provide important test data to validate and calibrate analytical tools that will be used by engineers to improve the design of future structures.

The Civil and Environmental Engineering department was a member of Team Capitol DC, a consortium of area schools that won a coveted spot as one of only 20 teams selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to compete in its 2013 Solar Decathlon competition. Students and faculty worked with teammates across an array of disciplines to build a solar house for the competition.

Students in the department helped form a GW chapter of Engineers Without Borders, which works to address basic human needs by providing clean water, power, sanitation, and education.  The GW team has worked on projects both domestically and in La Pena, El Salvador, giving students real-world engineering experiences.
 

Labs, Centers & Institutes

• Center for Intelligent Systems Research
  Traffic & Networks Research Lab
  Driving Simulation Lab
  Truck Driving Simulation Lab
  Virtual Reality Lab
• Cooperative Vehicle Systems Lab
• Earthquake Engineering & Structures Lab
• Environmental Engineering Lab
• Fluid Mechanics & Hydraulics Lab
• Soil Mechanics Lab
• Structural Testing & Material Science Lab