Introduction

The School of Civil Engineering(hereinafter referred to as “SCE”), Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), is one of the cradles of Modern China’s Civil Engineering Higher Education. The University was founded in 1986 first as the Imperial Chinese Railway College at Shanhaiguan by Beiyang Railway Bureau. Before the year 1949, 2/3 of the total graduates were majored in Civil Engineering.

Throughout the century-old history, SWJTU has adopted different names and restructured the programme of civil engineering for several times. Shortly after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, governing authorities carried out nation-wide restructuring of universities, schools, departments and programmes. In October 1952, the whole Department of Architecture of Tangshan Jiaotong University was transferred to Tianjin University, including 3 professors, Liu Futai, Xu Zhong and Dai Zhi’ang, 4 associate professors, Zong Guodong, Shen Yulin, Zhang Jianguan and Lu Sheng, 8 lectures and assistant lecturers and 66 students. In August 1952, 120 students from Harbin Railway Technical College and 75 from Railway Engineering Group of Chongqing University and their teachers were transferred to the Department of Civil Engineering of Tangshan Jiaotong University. In October 1952, Professor Zhang Zexi, 2 assistant lecturers and 6 students from Tsinghua University were transferred to Tangshan Jiaotong University. In December 1952, Huang Wanli, a professor in hydraulic engineering, and 9 students of Tangshan Jiaotong University were transferred to Tsinghua University. After the massive restructuring in 1952, the programme of civil engineering of Tangshan Jiaotong University was divided into two departments, i.e., the one of bridge and tunnel and that of railway, delivering such programmes as bridge, tunnel, industrial and civil construction, railway engineering, engineering geology and surveying. In 1993, the School of Civil Engineering was officially established and provided two more programmes of geotechnical engineering and civil structural engineering. In 1996, the School of Civil Engineering became a higher education entity to deliver academic instructions and carry out research and re-adjusted its academic programmes, departments and research institutes. In the same year, it became the first of its kind to enroll and cultivate talents according to category-specific talents development plan.

At present, the School of Civil Engineering comprises of 6 departments, including road and railway engineering, bridge engineering, underground engineering, geotechnical engineering, architectural engineering and civiltransportation engineering, 4 teaching and research offices in civil engineering drawing, building materials, structural mechanics and hydromechanics, and 4 research institutes (centers) including Institute of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Mao Yisheng Bridge Research Institute, Research Center for Long-span Bridges over Deep Water and Research Center for Long and Special Tunnels.

SCE has been authorized to confer academic degrees in civil engineering, a first-level discipline, and boasts 2 national-level key disciplines (bridge and tunnel engineering and road and railway engineering), 1 national-level (nurturing) key discipline (geotechnical engineering), 1 provincial/ministerial-level key discipline (structural engineering) and 2 post-doctoral research centers (civil engineering and traffic engineering). SCE prides itself upon its prominent teaching faculty, of which 77% are doctoral degree holders, consisting of several academicians, 3 experts of “The Thousand Talents Programme” and 2 “Cheung Kong Scholars” and 3 winners of the “National Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars” as its core, a group ofprofessors for core courses as its backbone, a batch of young and middle-aged teachers with an international education background as its backup force and brilliant teaching teams for main courses as its major support.

The “1+2+3” high-level research platform system and “2+1” national experimental teaching platform system are in place in the School of Civil Engineering. “1+2+3” refers to 1 national-level research platform — “National Engineering Laboratory in Geohazard Prevention Technology for Land Transportation”, 2 platforms by the Ministry of Education — “Key Laboratory of High-speed Railway Engineering, Ministry of Education” and “Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Ministry of Education”, and 3 key platforms of Sichuan Province — “Key Laboratory of Seismic Resistance”, “Key Laboratory of Highway Engineering ” and “Key Laboratory of Wind Tunel Engineering ”.“2+1” refers to 2 national entity-based teaching centers for civil engineering — “National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Civil Engineering” and “ SWJTU - CREEC National Teaching Center for Engineering Practice”, and 1 national virtual simulation experimental teaching center. At present, SCE of SWJTU tops the ranking list among domestic colleges and universities in terms of the quantity and high-quality of laboratories and platforms. Equipped with the nationalleading hardware, SCE reaps fruitful achievements in research and exerts potent influence in academia, laying a solid foundation for its basic research and scientific and technological innovation.

Since 1990s, SCE, with a great number of high-level research findings, won numerous awards and prizes, including 1 State Technological Invention Award (marking a breakthrough in relevant scientific and technological awards for SWJTU), 25 National Science and Technology Progress Awards (with 3 grand prizes and 7 firstprizes), more than 100 prizes of all categoriesat provincial and ministerial levels as well as over 130 technological prizes awarded by influential societies in China including Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics & Engineering, China Railway Society, China Highway and Transportation Society, etc. From 2005 and 2015, a total of 194 projects were supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) with a steady annual increase in number. In 2014, SCE rose to the second place regarding the grant amount from NSFC for the discipline of civil engineering among domestic universities.

As its slogan goes “One-hundred-year development in civil engineering brews wisdom and great minds”, the School of Civil Engineering, with a history of over 120 years leaving its footprints in Tangshan, Pingyue, Emei, Chengdu, etc., maintains its tradition of academic excellence, meticulous scholarship and stringent requirements and has produced a great number of masters in academia and engineering field, who enjoy acclaim at home and abroad, including Mao Yisheng, an expert in bridge construction, Zhu Kezhen, an guru in meteorology and geography, and Tung-Yen Lin, the pioneer of standardizing the use of pre-stressed concrete as well as the academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering such as Wang Juqian, Zhou Huijiu, Zhang Wei, Liu Hongxian, Yan Kai, Lin Bingnan, Lin Tonghua, Shi Zhongheng, Wang Mengshu, He Huawu and Qin Shunquan. The unremitting efforts made by generations of SCE students and faculties have yielded remarkable achievements, commanding extensive attention and applause at home and overseas.

All students and teachers of SCE will carry forward the spirit of “producing talents for the rejuvenation of Chinese nation and persevering in self-betterment”, keeping pace with advances in science and technology, embracing great challenges and forging ahead to make further achievements.