School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics

The School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics (SCEM) was established as a merger of the Department of Mechanics and the School of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the former Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST), and the Department of Urban Construction and Management and the Department of Roads and Traffic Engineering of the former Wuhan Urban Construction Institute. At present, the SCEM includes five departments, namely, Department of Mechanics, Department of Architectural Engineering, Department of Road and Bridge Engineering, Department of Engineering Management and Department of Traffic Engineering. The SCEM owns two Hubei Provincial Key Laboratories, namely Hubei Key Laboratory for Control Structure and Hubei Key Laboratory for Engineering Structure Analysis and Safety Assessment. The SCEM has several centers for research and teaching, including Construction Product Testing Center of Seismic Isolation and Damping with the approval of the Ministry of Construction, Civil Engineering of Quality Inspection Center granted by the Hubei Provincial Construction Department, National Supervision Engineer Training Center approved by the Ministry of Construction, Tunnel Engineering Technology Research Center, Engineering Computation and Simulation Center, Engineering Management Informationization Technology Research Center, etc..

Education in the SCEM prepares students for leadership or talents in five professions, including Engineering Mechanics, Civil Engineering, Road and Bridge Engineering, Traffic Engineering and Engineering Management. The SCEM has more than 200 faculty and staff dedicated to the education of undergraduate and graduate students. Among them, there are two Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, one Visiting Cheung Kong Professor, one recipient of the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars, four recipients of New Century Excellent Talents Scheme of the Ministry of Education of China, 30 PhD supervisors, 40 professors, and over 60 associate professors.

The SCEM covers four first-class disciplines: Mechanics, Civil Engineering, Traffic Engineering, and Management Science & Engineering. Two research centers for Mechanics and Civil Engineering can provide post-doctoral positions for applicants from related fields. The SCEM has 11 doctoral programs and 13 master’s programs. At present, there are about 600 master and doctoral students and 1800 undergraduate students in the SCEM.

As for scientific research and social services, the SCEM has its own characteristics. Its major research directions are as follows: Seismic Isolation of Engineering Structures, Energy & Vibration Dissipation and Active control, Fatigue and Fracture of Structures, Modeling and Simulation of Engineering Structures, Theory and Practice of Long-Span Bridge Structures, Integrated System for Structural Damage Detection, etc. Since 2001, professors in the SCEM have won four second prize awards of the National Science & Technology Progress, 20 Science & Technology Progress Awards at the provincial or ministerial level.

In the past decade, great progress in terms of higher education reform and quality engineering construction has been made in the SCEM. Over 10 monographs and 50 textbooks have been published and about 10 textbooks have been co-edited. The SCEM takes the lead in fine curriculum building, including two state-level quality courses and seven provincial fine courses. Engineering Mechanics, the national distinguishing discipline and Civil Engineering, the provincial distinguishing discipline are in the process of building and development. The SCEM is also making significant progress in building high-quality teaching resource practice, with the establishment of two provincial experimental teaching demonstration centers.

The SCEM places great importance on academic exchange with the outside world. An international Journal and a Chinese Journal, i.e. Acta Mechanica Solida Sinica (English edition) and the Journal of Huazhong University of Science & Technology (Urban Science edition) are being published in our school. Over 300 research papers are published every year, more than 150 of which are indexed by SCI, EI and ISTP. In addition, The SCEM has been exchanging students with many famous universities and research institutes in the world, such as University of California, Kyoto University, University of Houston, and many universities in Singapore and Hong Kong. The SCEM also has international scientific cooperation with famous companies, hosts or participated in domestic and international high-level academic conferences for many times. More than 30 renowned scholars and entrepreneurs are invited to give lectures or seminars annually.