New Program: Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Systems

1/6/2012

Program will prepare new generations of civil engineers who are ready to address pressing societal issues while developing needed infrastructure.

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view of Chicago river
View of Chicago River. Photo: istockphoto.com/Agnieszka Szymczak
 
CEE at Illinois has launched a new multidisciplinary program, Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Systems (SRIS). The SRIS program will address emerging approaches to infrastructure systems, focusing on resiliency and sustainability of inter-connected infrastructure—for example, structural, geotechnical, and water interactions in urban environments.
 
The program aims to prepare new generations of civil engineers who are ready to address pressing societal issues while developing needed infrastructure. For example, students will be able to use system-level approaches and thinking to achieve sustainable use of material and resources in the construction of engineered systems. Students will learn to balance short-term costs of facility development and the need for integrating the facility within an infrastructure system that is resilient to natural and human-made disasters.
 
The SRIS program offers an undergraduate primary area and enables graduate students with an interest in integrated research, education and practice to obtain cross-disciplinary M.S. and Ph.D. Civil Engineering degrees. The SRIS initiative also seeks to stimulate work among researchers from the department’s traditional areas, working in multidisciplinary groups, leading to cross-disciplinary projects that address critical societal problems.

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This story was published January 6, 2012.