Dr. Muhammad Hajj, Chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean EngineeringMessage from the Chair
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering (CEOE).
CEOE always had strong and special attributes. The past four years have confirmed its ability to rise beyond expectations despite the extraordinary challenges posed by the pandemic during most of that period. We were able to do it through the unwavering commitment of our faculty and staff to excellence in all we do, the support from our alums and industry sponsors, and the hard work of our students.
Over the past four years, we have expanded our research capabilities by renovating and establishing new computational and experimental laboratories including the Subsurface Energy, Water, and Environmental Systems Laboratory, the Smart Infrastructure Laboratory, the Advanced Concrete Technology Laboratory, and the Integrated Spatial Modeling and Remote Sensing Technologies Laboratory.
Our three-year average research funding increased from an average of $6.14M/year between 2016 and 2018 to more than $8.8M /year (>$500K per TT faculty per year) between 2019 and 2022. We are writing three times the number of journal articles (more than 100 journal articles in total and more than five journal articles per TT faculty member per year), and we are advising twice the number of PhD students (more than 4 students per TT faculty member) in comparison to 2018.
Last year, we taught more credit hours with the same number of faculty and with 67% of the number of adjunct faculty we had in 2018. This efficiency has led us to excel in teaching. More than half of our faculty scored 4.75 (out of 5) or higher in student evaluations. None of us scored below 3.0. More than half of our adjuncts scored 4.75 or higher.
Additionally, 45% of our undergraduate students participated in co-op programs last year. Others participated in undergraduate research experience and attended scientific conferences. Our graduate students are participating in more conferences and in summer research experience in industry or national labs. Many of our students won prestigious awards.
To the alums I met over the past four years, thank you for reaching out to provide support and advice. I am hopeful to meet more alums in the near future and to learning about their successes.
To our industry sponsors, thank you for all the support. We could not do as well without your commitment and look forward to continuing our working relation.
Our future is bright. Our undergraduate civil, environmental and naval degree programs passed the ABET review and have been accredited for six more years starting in Fall 2022. Also, we expect to welcome more than 70 new undergraduate students in Fall 2022. We are proud that 47% of this incoming class are female students. Almost 50% of this class are from out-of-state pointing that our strong reputation is expanding further geographically. We also expect more than 80 new master’s and at least 18 new PhD students to join our degree programs. I look forward to welcoming each student individually, providing them with the best learning experiences and to achieving new milestones with all of them.
As always, whether you are an alumnus, a prospective student, a colleague, or an industry representative, we will be glad to hear from you. Please do not hesitate to contact me or others in the department if we can be of any help. We also invite you to visit our beautiful campus to meet CEOE students, faculty and staff and, of course, to view the Manhattan skyline in New York City from across the Hudson River.
Dr. Muhammad Hajj
