Road and Airport Engineering

At the beginning of the 20th century, Tongji Medical and Engineering School founded the Civil Engineering Discipline in 1914, and introduced the "Road", "Railway" and other relevant courses. This is the origin of the current Department of Road and Airport Engineering at Tongji University, with a long history of over 100 years and having been one of the top disciplines in this field. During the national reorganization of colleges and departments in China starting from 1952, the relevant majors and programs from Shanghai Jiaotong University, St. John's University, Tsinghua University and Tongji University were merged and regrouped as China's first Department of Railway and Road Engineering established at Tongji University. Since then, several Department names has ever been used, such as Department of Road Engineering, Department of Railway, Road and Bridge Engineering, Department of Road and Bridge Engineering, Department of Road and Traffic Engineering, etc. In 2001, the Department name was changed to the current one, the Department of Road and Airport Engineering.

Since 1952, the Department had been enrolling undergraduate students ever using various major names at different times including “Highway and Urban Road Engineering”, “Highway, Urban Road and Airport Engineering”, “Transportation Civil Engineering”. Currently, the Department enrolls undergraduate students in the major of “Road and Airport Engineering” under two Level I disciplines, namely “Transportation Engineering” and “Civil Engineering”.

In 1955, the Department started to enroll graduate students in the major of Highway and Urban Road Engineering. With China’s reform of graduate student programs in 1980s, the Department was approved to introduce China’s first Master’s and Doctoral degree programs of the “Road Engineering” major in 1981 and 1985, respectively. In 1998 the graduate major was changed to “Road and Railway Engineering”, including the specialties of “Road and Airport Engineering”, “Road Safety and Environmental Engineering”, etc. This major setup is still in use to date. The Department has also played a vital role in the construction of the current second-level disciplines in the College of Transportation Engineering such as Road and Railway Engineering and Traffic Information and Control Engineering.

In the fields of highway, urban road, airport and port engineering, the Department conducts comprehensive research on the related science and technology on planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, materials, safety and management. The Department cultivated a large number of outstanding talents in the area of engineering, management and research, including Minister of China Ministry of Construction (the precursor of Ministry of Housing and Urban‑Rural Development), General Engineer of China Ministry of Transport, university presidents, design masters, entrepreneur, scholars, etc. A series of key scientific research projects were performed for the governments at different levels, such as National Five-Year Plans for National Economic and Social Development, National Key Technology Support Program, “863 Plan”, National Natural Science Foundation of China, etc. Significant contributions have been make by the Department to the development of various national and industry standards and specifications, and supported the construction and management of hundreds of the national key projects in the field of road and airport engineering. The Department has established and retained close collaboration in education and research with more than ten countries such as US, Germany, Netherlands, France, etc.

The Department currently has 36 faculties, including 18 professors, 16 associate professors, and 8 winners of talent programs at provincial, ministerial, and national levels (including one Distinguished Professor of Cheung Kong Scholar and Winner of The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholar, three Winners of The National Recruitment Program of Global Experts [a.k.a “the Thousand Talents Plan”]). Thirty one out of the 36 faculties hold doctoral degrees. The Department of Road and Airport Engineering has been delving into elite education, scientific research, and international collaboration, to develop unique discipline characteristics of top-notch, internationalization, and sustainability.