A lot of people always ask me what a civil engineer actually does. A civil engineer is a professional engineer discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physically and naturally built environment. Physically and natural built environment can be anything from roads, bridges, canals, dams, buildings, and other things along that line. That is the technical definition of my profession though and I like to believe that it goes a little bit farther than that.
I like to think that a major part of my job when I graduate is to help make people’s lives better without them ever really knowing it. For example, there is a lot of time and effort that goes into making a sewer system function properly, and when it does a majority of the people that use it do not even really notice that it is there. But when it malfunctions that is when everyone notices. If I do my job correctly then no one will probably even give a second thought to my projects and that is how it is supposed to be.
Most of the people that decide to go into civil engineering are usually interested in mathematics, as this is a heavily loaded mathematics degree. When a civil engineer gets done with all of their required math classes for graduation they only need but a few more credits to get their math minor. So that should tell you how much math we are required to take. But what I think sets civil engineers apart from the other engineering fields is that for the most part we like to be outside. Most civil engineers can expect to spend at least some part at work outdoors. This is one of the main reasons that I chose to go into the civil engineering field, as I enjoy the outdoors very much.
Civil engineers also have to be in touch with what the public actually wants. This most certainly true when they are designing public works projects, such as roads, bridges, dams, and so on. These structures will have to be used by the public for many years to come and if the public doesn’t like your design then you are not doing your job properly. I believe that some civil engineers lose sight of this and just design the way that they think it should be done without thinking how the general public will accept it. As I said earlier if you are doing your job right then most people won’t even notice you did anything, but it will make their life a lot easier in the end.
As a whole civil engineers are basically responsible for the entire infrastructure that basically everyone uses on a day to day basis. Be it the road you drove in to work on this morning, the water that you used to take a shower with, and even the structure of the building that you are currently sitting in. If it wasn’t for civil engineers civilized life as we know it would not be possible, and most people don’t even realize it.
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ReplyDeleteThat is true that many people including myself do not pay attention to something such as bridge deterioration or a sewer system malfunctioning, until it affects our lifes negatively. When they do break we blame the engineers who make it, but when it it working correctly we don't show our appreciation for their work.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post shows that a lot of work goes into being a civil engineer not just preparing for it is school, but also in the real word. Many perks are also noted here such as being able to work outside instead of in an office all day and helping people out even if they don't notice.
This blog shows a general overview of being a civil engineering; I would like if some specific examples were inputted where an infrastructure broke or malfunctioned and how those in civil engineering were able to learn from it. Some more perks could be mentioned as well. Overall great and informative post.
Thanks for the article! It probably is unfairly true that vast majority of recognition of civil engineering generally focuses on their mistakes. It is an interesting angle coming at it from a civil engineer's perspective. However, I am jealous as an electrical engineer of principle of getting out to see the sun occasionally. Thanks again for the well written article and best of luck with your field.
ReplyDeleteGreat article, i also agree with Nathan that it is unfair that the civil engineers get blamed for the mistakes that happen. I now know what a civil engineer does and this article also helped me get the perspective from a different angle. I am a mechanical engineer and it is nice to see how you think of a certain topic verses how I would look at things. Good job
ReplyDeleteI'm also in civil engineering and I enjoyed how you discussed the fact that if we're doing our job right people won't even notice, but if something is done incorrectly that's when we get the attention. I thought the information about our field was well-written.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I disagreed with your statement about civil engineers losing sight of the general public's satisfaction with a design. I think that engineers largely take that into consideration but it's incredibly hard to satisfy everyone which is what can create issues. I understand how you would say that they lose sight of it, but in my opinion not every single person a part of the general public is going to share the same opinion. Therefore, someone's always going to disagree or find a flaw in something.
Great analysis. I respect all engineers in different fields. For normal people, they usually ignored the bridge and roads. They thought those might be natural born. It is a large mistake they made . People should not only focus on the things they owned. For the reason I didn't choose to be a civil engineer is I was not good at the measurement parts and the geography.
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you wrote this blog. The simplicity of color choices and the way you phrased your sentences was exceptional.
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