People are our priority; the world is our responsibility.
Vision
We will inspire and prepare the next generation of civil and environmental engineers to solve the world’s most pressing challenges and improve the environment and quality of life for all.
Mission
Through interdisciplinary research, service-based learning, and innovative coursework, the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering leads in systems-level thinking and technological innovation at the interface of built, natural, information, and social systems. We define and seek to solve the complex problems facing humanity and the environment in service to the state of Georgia, the nation, and the world.
We commit to act ethically and uphold our core values:
Community | Promoting equity and a sense of belonging to maximize well-being and leverage our cultural and intellectual diversity.
Excellence | Striving for the highest achievement in research, education, and service.
Innovation | Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset to engineer and design new materials,technologies, and high-impact solutions for a rapidly changing world.
Leadership | Pioneering new directions in civil and environmental engineering research, education,and practice, while inspiring and promoting the profession.
Service to Humanity | Tackling the grand challenges of the 21st century by sustaining our planet and improving the building blocks of civilization for generations to come.
Student Success | Creating academically rigorous learning environments and experiences that challenge students to think critically, while supporting and celebrating their achievements.
Themes\Objectives\Initiatives:
The School developed a set of themes that we will use to advance our programs and activities that fit into three broad categories: Community, Student Experience, and Discovery & Service. Each theme has a set of detailed objectives and initiatives that define a clear path to action. Our values are manifest in these initiatives that, when achieved, will take the School to even greater heights than we enjoy today.
| Community | ||
| Strategic Themes | Objectives | Strategic Initiatives |
| A. Recruit, retain, and develop diverse, service-minded students, faculty, and staff who build and support a community fostering excellence, equity, and inclusion. | 1. Through equity-informed recruiting practices, cultivate a well-rounded faculty,staff, and student body that represents the breadth of cultural and intellectual diversity of the communities we serve. 2. Retain our most valuable resources—students, faculty and staff—by cultivating an inclusive environment and developing opportunities for advancement, recognition,and support. |
1a. Define transparent metrics for faculty, staff, and student hiring. 1b. Develop an outreach program to strengthen connections between the School and Georgia high schools and minority-serving institutions. 1c. Elevate community-building and onboarding processes for new first year, transfer, and graduate students. 2a. Recognize and celebrate cultural differences within the School. 2b. Encourage continuing education of faculty and staff by incentivizing professional development that is beneficial to the employee and School operations. 2c. Encourage and incentivize faculty, staff, and students to pursue meaningful service opportunities. 2d. Promote a school culture that values collaboration and contributions of our people. |
| B. Improve access to financial resources and enhance opportunities to support the needs of the School and the financial well-being of the CEE community. | 1. Increase student funding to broaden access and recruit and retain top students. 2. Provide stewardship of existing School resources and innovative solutions for increased productivity in teaching and research. |
1a. Generate funds to support graduate student fellowships. 1b. Expand funding for undergraduate scholarships,emphasizing gifts to prestigious programs such as President’s Scholarships and Dean’s Scholarships. 1c. Increase access to information about CEE scholarships,fellowships, and other financial resources for prospective and current students. 1d. Create a personal leave program for graduate students. 2a. Enhance information technology administrative and security controls while ensuring teaching and research needs are being met. 2b. Promote access to innovative IT resources through centrally managed services. |
| Student Experience | ||
| Strategic Themes | Objectives | Strategic Initiatives |
| A. Foster a sense of belonging to the School and the CEE profession. | 1. Implement early and vertically-integrated engagement of CEE students. 2. Develop holistic and collaborative engineers who know how to discover and solve real-world problems while creating value. 3. Promote a psychologically safe culture,where all members of the CEE community can be their authentic selves. |
1a. Create a spine of sequential problem-based learning courses. 2a. Integrate skill development in teaming, reflection, and computational analysis at maturing levels of technical proficiency. 2b. Incorporate entrepreneurially-minded learning with a primary focus on two pedagogies: story-driven learning and value sensitive design. 2c. Implement faculty development initiatives related to problem-based learning, applied computational skills, teamwork, and reflection. 3a. Cultivate connections through engagement opportunities among faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students. 3b. Provide support for community-building initiatives within the School. |
| B. Pioneer learning opportunities that empower the CEE community to reach their educational goals and meet emerging and long-standing challenges. | 1. Foster experiential learning opportunities to develop technical expertise. 2. Provide our community of students, faculty,staff, alumni, and professionals with resources and programming that enable them to attain their educational goals. 3. Diversify program delivery strategies through multiple educational approaches. |
1a. Lead in providing innovative international learning experiences and engagements. 1b. Develop a new course emphasizing computational techniques applied to CEE systems. 1c. Develop new courses on pressing topics, such as the interaction between climate change and infrastructure. 2a. Enhance space and resources for students to think, tinker, create, and design. 3a. Develop an online master’s degree or certificate program with a data analytics focus. |
| Discovery & Service | ||
| Strategic Themes | Objectives | Strategic Initiatives |
| A. Conduct innovative cross-cutting research to create new knowledge in natural, built, socioeconomic, and information systems with local and global impacts. | 1. Expand research infrastructure, research support, and interdisciplinary collaboration. 2. Enhance creativity, innovation, research impact by improving incentives and career development opportunities for faculty. |
1a. Increase resources and flexible funds for recruiting and supporting graduate and postgraduate students. 1b. Expand flexible funding for high-risk, high-reward research. 1c. Dedicate staff support to assist faculty with grant proposal preparation and project management efforts, especially for teams pursuing large-scale or center-scalegrants. 2a. Implement a faculty time-to-think (i.e., sabbatical-like) program. 2b. Support continuing education and professional development opportunities for faculty. |
| B. Develop innovative research, education and service initiatives to support equitable economic development throughout the state of Georgia, the nation, and the world. | 1. Partner with public and private agencies and community organizations to implement innovative research and training on smart, resilient and sustainable systems to improve the quality of life for all Georgians. 2. Develop curricular innovations to equip students with knowledge and skills to address social and environmental challenges locally and around the world. |
1a. Develop research and workforce development projects with public, private and civic Georgia agencies. 1b. Develop formal engagement activities with rural and urban Georgia communities. 2a. Partner with other campus units to develop educational opportunities in sustainable and resilient infrastructure. 2b. Develop opportunities within our curriculum to partner with communities in Georgia and beyond. |