Undergraduate Catalogue - UPRM

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL
ENGINEERING AND
SURVEYING
The College of Engineering offers a five-year
program leading to a Bachelor of Science degree
in Civil Engineering and a four-year Bachelor of
Science in Surveying and Topography which are
administered by the Civil Engineering and
Surveying Department.
VISION:
We provide society with people-serving,
problem-solvers in civil engineering and
surveying.
MISSION:
Provide our society with high quality
professionals having a strong education in civil
engineering and/or land surveying; with rich
cultural, ethical, environmental, and social
sensitivities; capacity for critical thinking; and
the entrepreneurial skills to solve civil
infrastructure problems, search for and
disseminate new knowledge, provide services to
solve engineering problems as members of
interdisciplinary teams.
SLOGAN:
CES=(PS) 2 (Civil Engineers and Surveyors =
People-serving, problem solvers)
CIVIL ENGINEERING
It offers BS in Civil Engineering, and MS, ME,
and PhD in structures, environmental,
transportation and geotechnical engineering and
a BS in Surveying and Topography. It serves
approximately 1000 undergraduate students and
about 100 graduate students.
Highlights:
• Ranks among the top ten programs in
the US, in terms of graduating Civil
Engineers, with an 88% success rate in
credit approval.
• Largest program in the US in terms of
graduating female Civil Engineers (33%
of the student population).
• Only program offering doctoral degrees
(structures and environmental) in Civil
Engineering in the Caribbean.
• Hosts a faculty with thirty top rank
professors with extraordinary local and
international academic and research
experiences and reputation.
• Supports basic and applied research in
man-made and natural hazards
(earthquakes, hurricanes, floods,
others), transportation, environmental,
land surveying, and civil engineering
materials.
• The external funding awarded to
support research and creative work
during 2003 was about $3.5 million.
• Placed first (from 28 universities) in the
Southeast regional ASCE conferences
and engineering /creativity student
competitions in 2003.
Civil Engineering, the oldest of the traditional
divisions of engineering, encompasses a broad
range of public and private infrastructure
projects for improving the world's large-scale
environment with the most innovative and up-todate
technology. Highways, bridges, railroads,
dams, docks and wharves, airports, launching
facilities, multistory buildings, industrial
structures, water, air, and land conservation and
protection, and water distribution systems,
industrial and residential waste treatment
systems, tunnels, and transit systems supported
by computer aided design and geographical
information systems (the country's infrastructure)
are some examples of the work performed by
civil engineers. Each work has an impact upon
the daily living of most people. Civil engineers,
therefore, are called upon to consider, in an
integrated manner, the social and physical factors
which affect the planning, design, construction,
operation, and maintenance of our total
infrastructure systems.
The Bachelor’s degree program precedes a wellcoordinated
graduate study program, which
offers Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Civil
Engineering.
278 Undergraduate Catalogue 2004-2005