Quick Facts

person drawing on paper

Quick Facts

  • Full-time faculty: 12
  • Undergraduate students: 89
  • Graduate students: 35
  • Annual research expenditures (3-year average): $2.2M

Degrees and Programs 

Points of Pride

  • Students and faculty conduct research on-campus in our state-of-the-art, three-story high bay facility
  • Researchers at the GW Transportation Program are working to make driving safer and less frustrating by helping develop intelligent transportation systems that will allow more vehicles to pass through a single lane while reducing accidents. By better understanding traffic flow theory, driver/pedestrian behavior, and evacuation modeling, the difficulties of driving on our increasingly congested road will be eased.
  • Environmental engineering faculty and students use one of the world's largest wastewater treatment plants as a real-world laboratory to improve the water quality of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  They also investigate techniques and processes to create beneficial rescue of wastewater.
  • Faculty and student researchers are using GW's earthquake simulator to study how buildings and bridges react to earthquakes of various magnitudes.  By combining analytical and experimental investigation, they provide important test data to validate and calibrate analytical tools that will be used by engineers to improve the design of future structures.
  • Students in the department helped form a GW chapter of Engineers Without Borders, which works to address basic human needs by providing clean water, power, sanitation, and education.  The GW team has worked on projects domestically; in La Pena, El Salvador; and in Rajasthan, India, giving students real-world engineering experiences.

Women in Civil and Environmental Engineering:

In the U.S., 27% of students graduating with a BSc degree in civil or environmental engineering are women. At the George Washington University, 52% of undergraduate students in civil and environmental engineering are women.

Research Areas