Future Research Focus Areas
Civil engineering is a broad profession focused on serving people by providing facilities to meet the basic needs of society. Faculty and students of the Civil Engineering Department at Auburn are active in research that has a direct impact on daily life. Much of the work is oriented toward developing or improving methods for the planning, design, construction, operation, or maintenance of the public's infrastructure. Results of the research often lead to significant savings of tax dollars. Research of Auburn faculty and students also leads to improvements in methods for the prevention or remediation of pollution of the air, soil, surface water and groundwater. The current emphasis on infrastructure, primarily highway infrastructure, and environmental issues will continue in the future.
Although the Department's research emphasis will stay much the same, the future will require addition of expertise in emerging areas of civil engineering. Also, some new faculty will have expertise in the gap areas between the traditional civil engineering specialties. Three of the most recent hires have these type interests. For example, a faculty member hired in 2002 has significant educational background and professional consulting experience in structural engineering, and his research focus area is mixture proportioning and performance of portland cement concrete.
An emerging area of research is centered around the use of fiber reinforced plastics in civil engineering structures. Existing faculty are working in this area, but the addition of a faculty member with focus in this area is needed to keep up with trends in research funding. Many possibilities exist for applications of fiber reinforced plastics in bridges. Auburn faculty are considering ways to test full size fiber reinforced plastic bridges and/or components at the NCAT Test Track.
Present faculty in the hydraulics/hydrology area are focused on research in the groundwater and bridge scour areas. These research capabilities will be greatly enhanced by addition of a faculty member with interests in surface water resources. This person will need to interact well with the Environmental group to attack problems in areas of surface water supply and surface water pollution. There are likely to be a number of future research opportunities on homeland security issues related to water supply and distribution systems.
Currently the specialty area in greatest need of senior leadership is the Environmental group. Hiring a renowned faculty member in this area is proposed. A very talented group of young faculty with a wide range of expertise are in place and capable of taking advantage of opportunities resulting from hiring a senior leader for the group.
Additional faculty members in specialty areas other than Environmental are proposed at the assistant or associate professor level. However, these new faculty will need leadership from senior faculty. Most of the specialty groups in Civil Engineering have senior members who will retire within the next three to eight years. As senior faculty retire, it will be essential to the progress of the Department that established faculty leaders be hired to fill those positions.
