Department of Underground Engineering

The programme of civil engineering can be dated back to as early as 1986 when Southwest Jiaotong University (then named Imperial Chinese Railway College at Shanhaiguan) was founded. SWJTU is one of the birthplaces of China’s modern education intraffic and civil Engineering. After the founding of People’s Republic of China, the programme of bridge and tunnel engineering was provided in SWJTU in 1952, and the tunnel engineering was among the first undergraduate programmes of its kind. SWJTU was authorized among the first batch to grant master’s degree and doctoral degree under the programme of bridge and tunnel engineering in 1981. Bridge and tunnel engineering is also among the first group of national key disciplines in 1987, the only one of its kind at that time, and on the list of “211 Project” and the state “985 Project Innovation Platform on Rail Transit & Transportation Engineering”.

Research on key parameters of segment lining structure Systematic design of shield tunnel

Thanks to great efforts of famous scholars such as Prof. Gao Quqing, Prof. Mai Tizeng, Prof. Guan Baoshu, Prof. Fan Wentian and Prof. Zhang Zhen, brilliant achievements in teaching and research have been made in the discipline of tunnel engineering. Its graduates have grown into top-notch professionals in tunnel and underground engineering represented by famous experts like Wang Mengshu (academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering), Shi Zhongheng (academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering), Shi Yuxin (Master of Engineering Survey and Design ) and Liu Peishuo (Master of Engineering Survey and Design). It has been an important teaching and research base in railway tunnels, road tunnels and urban subways in China. The department also enjoys a high reputation in the world and has successfully held such high-level international academic conferences as the 16th World Tunnel Congress.

Department of Underground Engineering is affiliated to School of Civil Engineering of SWJTU and is a component part of the discipline of Bridge and Tunnel Engineering. It focuses on the teaching and research in tunnel engineering. Currently it has more than 40 full-time teachers (including 19 professors, 16 associate professors and 7 lecturers), of whom 15 are doctoral supervisors and 20 postgraduate supervisors. Among the faculty, there are 1 Distinguished Professor of Cheung Kong Scholars, 1 winner of the “National Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars”, 1 scholar of National-level “One hundred, One thousand and Ten thousand Talents Programme”, 2 recipients of government allowances of the State Council, 2 scholars of the Ministry of Education’s “Special Support Programme for New Century Excellent Talents in University” (NCET), 6 leaders in academic and technical development in Sichuan Province, 4 candidates for leaders in academic and technical development in Sichuan Province, 4 Sichuan Provincial Specialists with Outstanding Contributions. At the same time, several academicians and renowned experts and scholars in the field of tunnel engineering are employed as part-time teachers to offer academic guidance to students of SWJTU.

The Department of Underground Engineering mainly offers courses for two undergraduate programmes, Civil Engineering and Urban Underground Space Engineering, and one postgraduate programme of Bridge and Tunnel Engineering (Tunnel Engineering), as well as related teaching tasks such as adult teaching and master of engineering. In total, more than 20 textbooks (including five state-level planning textbooks) have been compiled and published. At present, the Department of Underground Engineering annually enrolls 150 undergraduates, over 80 postgraduate students and 15 doctoral students, and brings in several post-doctors for research work.

Department of Underground Engineering is home to several high-level academic platforms such as "MOE Innovation Team of Large and Complicated Transportation Tunnel Engineering" and "MOE Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering" and builds theNational Engineering Laboratory in Geohazard Prevention Technology for Land Transportationby integrating quality resources in other relevant disciplines.

MOE Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, with fixed assets worth 30 million yuan, covers a construction area of over 10,000 square meters and is equipped with internationally advanced experiment equipment for tunnel and underground engineering, making it the largest lab in the field with leading power in research and development in the country and even in the world.

In the recent five years, the Department of Underground Engineering has undertaken over 200 major scientific research projects / items, of which nearly 80 projects are at national level (including 2 projects under National Programme on Key Basic Research Project (973 Programme), 3 under National High-tech Development Programme of China (863 Programme), 4 under National Key Technology Research and Development Programme of theMinistry of Science and Technology of China, 1 project in China Torch Programme and 63 by National Natural Science Foundation of China )and over 60 projects at provincial and ministerial level. The average annual research funding is about 30 million yuan. Over 30 monographs and over 600 articles (including 300 covered by SCI and EI) have been published, more than 30 national invention patents and 5 software copyrights granted, and 2 National Key New Products awarded.

In recent years, these laboratories have made ingenious and innovative achievements in such fields as deep-ultra-long tunnels, high-altitude tunnels, large-scale trans-coastal underwater tunnels, urban subways in complex environmental conditions, and operation, traffic accident prevention and control and energy conservation for the long traffic tunnels. Besides, these laboratories played their part in solving several key technical issues about the construction of many national key traffic tunnels. Since 2000, Department of Underground Engineering has won 10 National Science and Technology Progress Award (in charge of two projects), the second prize of National Technology Invention Award, and more than 70 science and technology awards at provincial and ministerial level (including national first-level society), contributing a great deal to basic research and technology progress in China's Tunnel Engineering.

Message

Department of Underground Engineering offers programme of tunnel engineering under the national key discipline of Bridge and Tunnel Engineering.

For more than 100 years, especially since the discipline was formally named Bridge and Tunnel Engineering in 1952, the department adheres to the motto of educating talents to breathe new life into the Chinese nation and of unremitting self-improvement, maintains the tradition of academic excellence, meticulous scholarship and stringent requirements, and adopts the development concept of “objectivity, innovation, sharing and opening”. It has trained a large number of senior professionals in the field of Tunnel and Underground Engineering, facilitating the development of China’s higher education and transportation undertakings.

In recent years, the Department of Underground Engineering follows the work philosophy of “takingdiscipline development as the core to ensure the quality of talent cultivation and strengthen science and technology research, taking team building as a foundation to improve the overall qualities of the teaching staff, and taking platform construction as an opportunity to upgrade research bases and promote their development”. It has achieved fruitful results in disciplinary development, teaching faculty enhancement, scientific research, talents cultivation, academic exchanges, and education reform and so on, improving significantly the comprehensive strength of the discipline.

Without concerns, support and help from all walks of - life, the programme of tunnel engineering can not develop so rapidly. At this very moment, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of youon behalf of teachers and students in the Department of Underground Engineering. Ibelieve that our joint efforts will secure a brighter future for the discipline of Tunnel Engineering!