Mission

The mission of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) is to provide human services in a sustainable way, balancing society's need for long-term infrastructure with environmental health. In our research, we seek to understand natural systems, to foster the intelligent use of resources and to design sustainable infrastructures.

To fulfill this mission, we believe it is imperative that human infrastructure and the natural environment be viewed synergistically. Our department provides leadership in the field by focusing on technological innovations, seeking advances in basic knowledge and taking a systems perspective.

We concentrate our efforts on quantitative and analytical approaches, novel experiment-based modeling, and the development and/or use of appropriate tools and technology. Our goal is to meet the sustainability challenge for both infrastructure renewal in developed countries and new infrastructure in developing countries.

We recognize that a broader perspective is necessary to fully tackle the many challenges of integrating the built and natural environments, but we strongly believe that this can best be achieved at MIT through partnerships with other academic and research units, which can contribute expertise in such dimensions as economics, public policy, urban planning and political science.

Education

Our department seeks to be a vibrant and innovative place of learning, where the next generation of undergraduate and graduate students-as well as postdoctoral researchers-can develop their interests in learning, leading and transforming the disciplines of civil and environmental engineering. We strive to lead these disciplines as the premiere civil and environmental engineering department in the world, and to be internationally recognized as such by our peers.

CEE is part of MIT's School of Engineering.