PROFILE

Civil Engineering is a branch of engineering involved in the conceptualization, planning, design, construction and operation of systems, facilities and infrastructures needed for maintaining and supporting modern civilization. Anyone electing to study in this profession will find ample opportunity to render service to humanity and to his country; and to meet challenging and unique engineering problems.

The undergraduate curriculum of the Department of Civil engineering is designed to give the graduate a balanced education in the specialized areas of Civil Engineering (Construction Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Transportation Engineering, Structural Engineering and Water Resources Engineering) as well as in the social sciences and humanities - a recognition that technical solutions in civil engineering problems must often consider the socio-economic, legal, political and environmental aspects.

Students electing to enter the graduate program study, in coordination with their academic adviser, designed to give them a more in-depth understanding and training in their selected area of specialization.

VISION

An internationally recognized civil engineering institution in instruction, research and extension service.

MISSION

To achieve a culture of academic excellence, technological proficiency, and social relevance in instruction research and extension service.

HISTORY

The establishment of the U.P. College of Engineering is dated as June 13, 1910. But it was in the meeting of the U.P. Board of Regents of June 3, 1910 that the resolution was passed effective on June 13. In that meeting, Mr. W. F. Colbert was appointed Acting Dean and was authorized to draft a curriculum and select the necessary teaching personnel to open the course. A four-year course leading to the degree of B.S. with an additional degree of Civil Engineering upon completion of an extra academic year of study.

Twenty-two high school graduates from different parts of the country registered in June 1910. When interviewed in early 1960 for the College of Engineering Golden Jubilee Book, Engineer Ricardo Nostratis of San Francisco del Malabon of Cavite, one of the first two graduates with the degree of Civil Engineering in 1915, reminisced that when the college opened in June 1910 ( at the same time as Liberal Arts ), classes were held at a two-story wood frame house at the corner of Isaac Peral Street ( now U.N. Avenue ) and Florida street ( now Maria Orosa ) in Ermita. That building ( acquired from the O'Brian Family ) was the University of the Philippines itself.

Among the 22 first engineering students were Vidal Tan, Paulino Gullas of Cebu, Marcelino Montemayor and Ricardo Paras of Pangasinan and Domingo Guanio of Nueva Ecija. Vidal Tan ( who became U.P. Engineering Dean from 1940-1949 ) was sent as a government pensionado to finish his civil engineering at Cornell University, while the three others mentioned shifted to law after the first year.

The civil engineering curriculum became a B.S. course and had its first graduates in 1916; the first graduates in Master of Civil Engineering in 1919.

The first appointed instructor in the civil engineering curriculum was Jose P. Katigbak of the Manila City Engineer's Office who taught drawing. Classes in drawing were then held at the Manila High School in Intramuros.