Department of Civil Engineering & Management

Our CEM profile and research is fully aligned with the strategy of the University of Twente, which goes under the motto High Tech, Human Touch. Our mission is to develop, apply and disseminate novel solutions for sustainable infrastructures, contributing to several SDG’s like SDG 6 (clean water & sanitation), SDG 7 (affordable & clean energy), SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production), and SDG 13 (climate action). We involve and train young engineers and scientists who are capable of taking leadership roles and positions within the broad spectrum of topics of civil engineering. Our department provides a BSc programme in Civil Engineering and two MSc programmes: Civil Engineering & Management (CEM) and the 4TU Construction Management & Engineering (CME) master.

Civil Engineering is key in the transformations needed for climate mitigation/adaptation, energy systems, mobility, digital infrastructures, nature inclusive and built environment. Resilience depends on the weakest links. To max resilience those transitions – currently dealt with in parallel - need to be integrated in policy, planning and roll out. The integration for resilience is a social-technical challenge, and a focal point for CEM education and research. As Civil Engineering & Management our raison d’être, research and education pivots around the interactions between technical and human systems. Our Engaged Scholarship approach, strong focus on combining research, education and innovation was/is the foundation for challenge-based courses and PDEng programs.

Our current multi-disciplinary research addresses the global need for delivering long-term, sustainable and resilient performance of existing and new infrastructure systems.  We have balanced strengths in teaching and research on the domains:

• sustainable use of freshwater resources, marine and riverine flood risk management, nature-based coastal flood risk management,
• smart, green and integrated transport, intelligent transport systems shared transport, autonomous vehicles, temporal dynamics in accessibility and travel behavior;
• construction management, planning, provision, construction and maintenance aimed at the resilience of vital infrastructures/assets including on asset management, project control, project supply chain management and building information modelling.

In the coming decade we intend to create more focus on the follow topics:

• Resilience in transitions of our living environment: creating perspective and initiative to integrate
• Digitalization in planning, engineering, and maintenance of infrastructures
• Human- & nature inclusive engineering solutions for civil infrastructure and related resources
• Life cycle engineering of infrastructure assets, materials, transport services and water systems
• Education of the CEM professional for the (grand) societal challenges

These themes will act as foundations of our envisaged Dutch Civil Engineering Lab (virtual, field, physical)