Civil engineering is an umbrella field comprised of many related specialties.
[Structural engineering]
?, or structural design, is typically the largest, most
important part of civil engineering as a practice. Structural engineers design
bridges, buildings, dams etc. Supporting structural engineering is the field
of
geotechnical engineering. The importance of geotechnical engineering
can hardly be overstated: buildings must be connected to the ground! Other
parts of civil engineering include [transportation engineering]
?, [environmental engineering]
?, and [construction management]
?. Civil engineering also
supports a fair amount of intellectual activity with
material science. The
materials, of course, being the physical properties of concrete, steel and
recently, polymers and ceramics with potential engineering application. Academically,
a good civil engineering department will invariably shelter one or [applied mathematicians]
? and/or computer scientists. Although the field is far from many
exciting frontiers in
mathematics and
computer science, the problems of civil engineering
can be mathematically or computationally grotesque. As such, there is a lot
of opportunity for applying reasonably advanced techniques on what might be
considered mundane problems (for example, a sliding block on a plane).