Historical Development and Discipline Foundation

The Civil Engineering discipline originated from the Mining Construction Engineering program of our university, which was established in 1953. It began enrolling master’s students in Structural Engineering and Geotechnical Engineering in 1980, and doctoral students in Structural Engineering in 1986, making it one of the earliest disciplines in China authorized to confer doctoral degrees in this field. In 1995, the program was renamed Civil Engineering. The Structural Engineering discipline has also been recognized as a provincial key discipline of Liaoning Province.

Research Directions and Academic Strengths

Over the past nearly half century, through the continuous efforts of all faculty and staff members, the program has developed a disciplinary system centered on Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, and Civil Engineering Materials. It has achieved fruitful research outcomes in areas such as composite structures, structural inspection and strengthening, underground structures, foundation pit engineering, structural disaster prevention and mitigation, civil engineering materials and structural stability, rock fracture and damage, waterproofing and grouting technology, prestressing and anchorage technology, and modern computational mechanics. In many of these fields, the discipline has maintained a leading position among domestic counterparts.

Faculty Team and International Collaboration

The discipline currently has 33 faculty members and laboratory technicians, including 9 professors, 16 associate professors, 6 lecturers, and 2 laboratory technicians, among whom 19 are doctoral supervisors. More than 10 faculty members have studied overseas in countries and regions such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, and Macao. The discipline has continuously promoted extensive academic exchanges and cooperation, and has hosted multiple international academic conferences.

Educational System and Student Training

The curriculum system of the program is well structured, with civil and industrial construction, road and bridge engineering, and underground engineering as its main directions. Students are trained with a broad knowledge base and strong adaptability, fully reflecting the characteristics of “broad civil engineering.” At present, the program enrolls more than 110 undergraduate students in Civil Engineering each year, more than 50 master’s students in Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, and Architecture and Civil Engineering, and more than 20 doctoral students in Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, and Engineering Mechanics.

Experimental Platforms and Research Facilities

The Department of Civil Engineering has established the “211 Project” Experimental Center for Geomechanics and Underground Engineering, which consists of the Grouting and Technology Laboratory, the Geomechanics and Materials Laboratory, the Geotechnical Engineering Testing Laboratory, and the Engineering Structures Laboratory. These facilities support experimental research on the mechanical properties of geotechnical materials, geotechnical grouting parameters and processes, geotechnical models, the mechanical behavior of structures under static and dynamic loads, the performance of FRP materials and structures, the reliability of concrete structures, steel–concrete composite structures, and the properties of modified asphalt. Among the available facilities, equipment such as the dynamic triaxial testing apparatus for soil and the triaxial testing apparatus for rock has been used in major engineering research and has reached an advanced or leading level both domestically and internationally.

Research Achievements and Academic Output

In recent years, the discipline has undertaken more than 80 national, provincial/ministerial, and industry-sponsored research projects, completed the appraisal of more than 40 research projects, and received 38 awards, including 3 second-class national awards and 23 provincial or ministerial awards. It has also been granted 5 national patents, published 478 academic papers, with more than 100 indexed by the three major citation databases, and published 29 monographs and 3 translated works.