"Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT"
is published quarterly by the
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bldg. 1-383, 77 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139

Editor: Debbie Levey
(617)253-7101
levey@mit.edu

Letter from the Department head

        Winter is at our door ­ at least 27 inches (68 cm) of snow has forced us to stay inside our home in Lexington during the first weekend of December. Despite the reassuring words of my MIT colleagues about last winter being unusually nasty and cold ("Patrick ­ it is not always like that, don't worry"), I now wonder if that was in fact mild compared to what's coming. The family is definitely much better prepared for the snow this year: everyone has good boots and we have a "real" snow shovel. However the rule "Dad isn't the only one to shovel" hasn't been approved yet by our junior council at home.
        Being snowed in is a good time to start writing up a Newsletter column. The excitement in the house reminds me that the holiday season is getting very close. So first and foremost, on behalf of the Department, I take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year.
        This newsletter contains many interesting articles and provides as usual a way to stay connected with your fellow alums, and I don't want to distract you much from jumping in and turning to your favorite sections. Before you do so, however, allow me to briefly reflect on some of the many changes going on throughout the Department. As indicated before, after a year-long vigorous process over 2002-2003, a Strategic Plan has emerged and is currently in the process of being implemented. The Plan fundamentally adopts the strong view that human infrastructure and the natural environment must be viewed in a synergistic way. Without trivializing the fundamental and tremendous changes it implies, it does acknowledge that the provision of human services in a sustainable way is the most logical extension of the classical mission of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Sustainability here is meant in the most fundamental and encompassing way, i.e. ecologically sound and economically viable.
        We believe that the Department is in a unique position to greatly contribute toward the adoption of such a mission. We also believe that the most effective way for the Department at MIT to provide leadership toward such a transformation is to focus along the intellectual dimensions associated with 1) technological innovations, 2) advances in basic knowledge, and 3) a systems perspective. Providing a further sharpening of this focus, we have also decided to concentrate our effort on a) quantitative and analytical approaches, b) novel experimentally based modeling, and c) development and use of sensing, information technology, and advanced computing.
        We also fully recognize that a broader perspective is needed in order to fully tackle the many challenges toward a meaningful integration of the built and natural environments, but we strongly believe that this can be best achieved through partnerships with other units who will bring the best expertise for these other dimensions (economics, public policy, urban planning, political science, etc.).
        Very recent dramatic developments in (i) the life sciences (molecular biology, genomics, and a systems perspective to biology), (ii) information and sensing technology, and (iii) materials science and technology offer unprecedented opportunities toward the integration of human activities with the natural environment. And we intend to seize on these opportunities in an aggressive way, and lead on many such fronts. Although not fully articulated yet in precise terms (there is always a danger of being overly prescriptive and thus inhibiting innovation), "earth systems engineering" has the potential to capture the focus of this department moving forward in the sense we have outlined above.
        I promised to provide details about the implementation of our Plan in my last column. The Plan considers research, education, outreach, and organizational structure in an integrated way. I will concentrate here on the educational components.
        Graduate education: Vital to the strength of the Department we have three main graduate degree programs: the Master of Engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering (MEng), the Master of Science (SM), and the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Our Plan recognizes the crucial importance of the variety of such graduate offerings. But it also stresses the importance of the PhD degree as the fundamental research degree, and the criticality of our mission to educate intellectual leaders for academia and national or international research laboratories. We are currently looking at the addition of a new departmental doctoral track in "system", whose focus and originality would lie at the intersection of Information Technology, Modeling and Analysis, and CEE applications.
        Many SM degrees in the Department are given as a passageway toward the doctoral degree. But for some SM programs, such as the Master of Science in Transportation (MST), and the SM program in Construction and Engineering Management (CEM), a large percentage of graduating students have been taking jobs in industry and government. These have essentially been professional master programs, operating parallel to the MEng program. Both the MEng and the CEM programs have been extensively reviewed recently (the MST review will be finalized by the end of the spring '04 term).
      MEng Now in its eighth year, the MEng is a nine-month program with several specialization tracks. A recent in-depth review of the program has reinforced the view that this program can continue to have a significant role in producing students highly sought after by industry, and that, with adequate involvement of the faculty, it can thrive as an educational success. The review also provided several specific recommendations to raise the visibility of the program, and ensure the alignment of its tracks with the intellectual thrust and expertise of the faculty. We intend to follow closely on these recommendations.
      Construction Management This program, established in 1982, has focused toward broad issues associated with the construction industry and the management of construction firms, emphasizing the management side of the industry. At the time of its inception, this choice was clearly innovative and unique. Since then other professional master degrees have been created at MIT at the intersection of management and engineering. Many of these programs are now housed in the Engineering Systems Division (ESD), founded in 1998, an academic unit within the School of Engineering that is placing considerable emphasis on the interface between engineering and management. As part of the strategic plan and focus outlined above, we have decided to phase out the program in its current format. The future directions of the Department will definitely include courses and/or programs that will be related to the construction industry. Consistent with the Department's future activities and emphasis, our focus will shift toward courses addressing innovative advanced technology, engineering tools and methodologies, particularly those with the potential to move (part of) this industry toward technological innovation and leadership with respect to the integration of human activities with the natural environment.
      Undergraduate education Our Plan calls for a very strong continued presence in undergraduate education and the development of an unified undergraduate degree to educate a new generation of "renaissance engineers" trained in fundamentals and able to make new connections between different fields of knowledge. The first phase of our five-year plan (toward an undergraduate program offering a single degree, with tracks that permit some specialization) is now being worked on. A committee, chaired by Prof. Dennis Mc Laughlin, is currently looking at the design of a common sophomore core. This is still at the preliminary stage but will likely include four basic blocks: Engineering Mechanics/Materials, Biogeochemical Cycles, Engineering Math and Computation, and Systems, each spanning fundamentals with lab/design/hands-on modules.
        As you can see, we have embarked on an ambitious and exciting journey, requiring, more than ever, tremendous investments in people and facilities.
        Let me conclude by saying that I have truly enjoyed reading comments that I have received from many of you over the past 16 months. Please note that I very much value your input and so do not hesitate to continue to get in touch with me at jaillet@mit.edu with your input. Thank you in advance for caring about the Department and for helping us continue to grow this Department into an indisputable leader at MIT and worldwide.