Civil engineering program ranked No. 7 in the U.S., 16th worldwide
SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel Capen Professor of Civil Engineering, Michael Constantinou, one of several CSEE faculty conducting research in the department's earthquake lab.
By Peter Murphy
Published August 24, 2017 This content is archived.
UB’s program in civil engineering was ranked No. 7 among engineering schools in the United States and No. 16 worldwide in the 2017 global rankings of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also referred to as the Shanghai Ranking.
The ARWU is regarded as one of the most prestigious and influential global rankings. The rankings are largely based on university research outcomes, such as the number of articles published in high-impact academic journals, highly cited researchers and scientific awards, and per-capita performance.
The list was released earlier this month as part of ARWU’s annual ranking. Three hundred universities with programs in civil engineering worldwide made the list.
Twenty-two subject areas in engineering were evaluated. To be included in a subject ranking, the universities had to have a minimum number of research publications during the period of 2011-2015; the publication threshold varied for each area. For civil engineering, the threshold was 50.
“We are pleased to have been recognized in this way, and to know that our faculty are contributing to the quantifiable, high-quality outcomes considered in this ranking procedure,” said Joseph Atkinson, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. “This ranking reinforces our place as one of the top departments for research. We’re proud of our many award-winning and dedicated faculty members.”
The AWRU ranking was originally created to evaluate top Chinese universities, but the organization now ranks universities around the world. The ranking has been described by The Economist as “the most widely used ranking of the world’s research universities,” and by The Chronicle of Higher Education as “the most influential international ranking.”
Only the top 50 institutions in each program area were individually ranked. Other subject areas that were ranked within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are as follows:
- Biomedical: #151-200; 300 universities ranked
- Biotechnology: #201-300; 300 universities ranked
- Computer science and engineering: #151-200; 500 universities ranked
- Electrical: #201-300; 500 universities ranked
- Environmental science and engineering: #301-400; 500 universities ranked
- Materials science engineering: #301-400; 500 universities ranked
- Nanoscience and nanotechnology: #151-200; 300 universities ranked
- Telecommunication engineering: #101-150; 200 universities ranked
- Transportation science and technology: #76-100; 100 universities ranked
The full 2017 ARWU report and methodology is available online.