Chair's Message
Dr. Zhihui Sun
It is indeed my honor to welcome everyone to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department! As many of you may already know, we launched the new school year with a completely revamped departmental webpage! Please spend some time exploring the website to learn more about our programs.
We offer four degree programs and three certificate programs. Our BS in Civil Engineering program provides you with a unique curriculum consisting of fundamental and advanced courses in various sub disciplines of civil engineering, three full semesters of cooperative work experience and a capstone design project.
Qualified students may apply for direct admission to our Master of Engineering program to get their master’s degrees in one additional year. Both BS and MEng in in Civil Engineering programs are ABET accredited. We also offer MS and PhD in Civil Engineering programs. In both MEng and MS degree programs, students can choose thesis or non-thesis options.
Our MS program is offered both on-campus and on-line. We are very proud of our MS Online program, which has been recognized by The Best Schools as one of the top 14 MS Online programs in Civil Engineering nationwide. Our PhD program provides students with abundant opportunities to perform cutting-edge researches on relative Civil Engineering topics. Under the guidance of our award-winning faculty, students often disseminate their research findings through journal publications and conference presentations. Other than the degree programs, the CEE department also offers three graduate certificate programs in Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering (on-line), and Transportation Engineering (on-line).
The CEE department has 12 faculty and three research institutes. Our faculty are recognized nationally and internationally in structural, geo, transportation and water resources. They have received many professional honors and brought in research projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration and, American Society of Civil Engineers, as well as many state and local funding agencies. With the research funds, our faculty supports both undergraduate and graduate research with full commitment to the training and education of our students.
Our department also hosts the hydraulics lab, concrete lab, structural lab, geo lab, transportation lab, and advanced material analytical lab to meet the needs in both teaching and research. We continue to upgrade our laboratory facilities each year. Thanks to the generosity of the Dahlem family, this year we are renovating our structural lab. This remodeled lab will be equipped with a servo-controlled, large-scale structural testing system to support both teaching and research.
In addition, we have two student chapters within the department. The Civil Engineering student chapter of the national ASCE organization which is open to all students, is administered and operated by students majoring in Civil Engineering. University of Louisville’s Chapter of Chi Epsilon (XE) is part of the National Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Society and it is by invitation only. Both chapters are well connected with the ASCE Louisville Branch and the KSPE Louisville Chapter. Our student chapters often help the community by partnering with the ASCE professional branch or working with community outreach assistance organizations. The ASCE student chapter members attend the ASCE Regional Student Conference for the Ohio Valley region competition, and the chapter is often recognized by KY and national ASCE at the Outstanding Student Chapter Awards. This year, Abby Miles, the past ASCE student chapter president, was presented the Outstanding Student Leadership Award by the National ASCE Committee on Student Members.
Our student population is growing every year. As we keep growing, we will continue to graduate high quality undergraduates and graduates in Civil Engineering. I would like to highly encourage everyone who is interested in this discipline to contact our faculty, staff, and myself. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Zhihui Sun