In 2019, with the goal of reinventing civil engineering at a national scale, the Department of Civil Engineering at Johns Hopkins University was renamed the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering.

What’s the same?
The department remains dedicated to providing a high-quality, comprehensive education in which leading research in the areas of mechanics of materials, structures, and systems is cross-fertilized with research from other fields.

What’s different?

1. The department name has been changed to reflect its explicit commitment to systems-related research and education.
2. The curriculum will be changing. To reflect the department’s revised focus, a Systems Engineering degree track (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels) will be added to the current Civil Engineering degree track in the near future. The goal is to have these in place for the Class of 2021.
3. The department’s focus has shifted in order to prepare students to address future grand societal challenges for improved safety, security, and resiliency of an increasingly fragile and complex infrastructure under evolving natural and man-made hazards. Learn more about how the department is addressing these five Grand Societal Challenges.

What impact will these changes have?
As the first program of its kind, the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering will not only set a new national standard for the field of civil engineering, but will also provide students with a highly collaborative degree program, expand faculty funding and project opportunities, and increase the potential for partnerships both within and outside the university.