subject: What Is Civil Engineering? [print this page] Most people can understand what engineers do for the most part. They can see that engineering is the practical application of chemistry, physics, and math. An electrical engineer deals with energy and circuits, a mechanical engineer works with work, energy, and movement, and a materials science engineer deals with the chemistry of how different materials interact. So what this leaves us with is civil engineering. Most have a vague idea that civil engineers design roads and bridges and other infrastructure elements, but do not know much beyond that. If you ever had a wonder of exactly a civil engineer does, read on to find out.
What it is
To know what civil engineering is, we must first know what it is not, or rather, how it is distinguished from other engineering disciplines. It is the oldest of the different disciplines besides military engineering, which it was split away from. It deals with designing, building, and maintaining natural and manmade structures such as roads, bridges, buildings, dams, canals, and so on. It is generally divided into sub groups of structural, geotechnical, environmental, water resources, materials, coastal, surveying, construction, and urban sub categories.
As you can see, civil engineering encompasses a large portion of the things that modern society accomplishes every day. Every time you walk over a bridge, drive on a highway, use water from your tap, go to work in a skyscraper, or any other countless things in our modern world, you are putting your faith in the abilities of a civil engineer.
What They Learn
Civil engineering majors usually complete a program that lasts three to five years after which they are given a degree in engineering or science. During their studies, they learn physics, mathematics, design, project management, and other more focused courses. They learn every thing from the simple machines to advanced physics like work and heat to trigonometry and calculus. The education is rigorous and in depth enough that you hardly even think about it when you drive over or live in their creations every day of your life. Sure things sometimes go wrong, but those are the exception to the rule.
How They do it
Now that we have learned a bit about what it is that civil engineers do, we can delve into the tools and processes the use to do it. As they build the society that we live in every day, they put in use a remarkable array of tools and procedures that boggles the mind. The tools used by civil engineers include computer aided drafting (CAD), blue prints, surveying tools, communication devices, and more. They rely on an army of other support personnel to complete their projects. A civl engineering project will have need for many tools and equipment from exavators, safety gear, cranes, generator ends. transfer switches, conveyer belts, dump trucks, generator parts & components and much more; civil engineering is truly an exciting field to be in.
