The Department of Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Program was established in 1997, and the Master’s and Doctorate Programs were established in 2001 and 2004, respectively. The University is located in the scenic region of the Puli Township in Nantou County, near the origin of the 921 Earthquake. This region provides civil engineers with the perfect environment for learning earthquake and landslide disaster prevention.

    The Department focuses on disaster prevention research and education and endeavors to foster civil professionals that are proficient in both theory and practice and balanced in technology and humanities. The Department’s faculty has combined practical research in shock absorption and reduction to plan the earthquake disaster prevention policy for Central Taiwan, thereby utilizing technologies and contributing to the community. To raise awareness on the operations of natural ecosystems and reduce human interferences, the teachers and students in the Department have proposed various theoretical and practical papers on water conservation, water resources, slopes, landslides, and slope development. They have also assisted the local government in establishing a frontline landslide disaster prevention system, extending education into practice and academics into livelihood.

    The Department plans to continue strengthening ties with engineering industries and apply the plans and operations of the Department to social and national trends through curriculum design, discussions and forums, research projects, visitation and internship, and employment counseling. In addition, the Department emphasizes academic research and development by collaborating with other domestic universities and colleges and actively seeking academic cooperation opportunities with renowned international universities, thereby rapidly establishing the academic prominence of the Department both domestically and internationally. The Department also offers students adequate training in computer fundamentals and applications, so that they gain adequate proficiency in civil engineering upon graduation, and are prepared for the future digitization of the industry.

    The curriculum planning principles of the Department are based on a civil engineering framework encompassing three major domains, specifically, seismic resistance and disaster prevention, environment management, and applied mechanics. Subsequently, theory and practice are balanced in the teaching content. Research domains are categorized into the following areas: Disaster Prevention and Engineering, which comprises the Geotechnical and Disaster Prevention Laboratory, Soil Reinforcement and Landslide Disaster Prevention Laboratory, Structural Seismic Resistance Laboratory, Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and Environmental Mechanics Laboratory; Environment and Management, which comprises the Transportation Planning Laboratory and Water Quality Analysis Laboratory; and Applied Mechanics, which comprises the Materials and Failure Mechanics Laboratory and Computational Mechanics and Computer Aided Design Laboratory.

    The Department of Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Program was established in 1997, and the Master’s and Doctorate Programs were established in 2001 and 2004, respectively. The Department currently employs 14 full-time teachers. All teachers hold postgraduate degrees. The Department plans to expand its faculty to 15 teachers in future. A total of 203 undergraduate students, 22 graduate students, and 15 postgraduate students currently study in the Department.

    The Department endeavors to foster civil professional balanced in technology and humanities. The program curriculum is categorized into three domains based on the specialization of the teachers, namely, seismic resistance and disaster prevention, environment management, and applied mechanics. Research is primarily categorized into two groups, namely, (1) researching seismic resistance and disaster prevention, which aims to integrate practical seismic resistance and seismic reduction research, formulate earthquake prevention policies in Taiwan, implement relevant techniques, and contribute to society, and (2) reinforcing slope conservation and disaster prevention technologies, which aims to assist the government in establishing a frontline landslide disaster prevention system, thereby extending education into practice and academics into livelihood.

    The Department was approved by the Ministry of Education for the Subsidization Plan to Promote the Comprehensive Development of Newly-Established Universities, gaining a subsidy of NT $27.20 million in 2003. The Department then used the subsidy, along with NT $30 million raised by the University, to launch the “Seismic Resistance and Disaster Prevention Laboratory.” The construction of the laboratory is now complete and currently in operation. The laboratory is equipped with a 100-t vibrating table, which is a rare device in Taiwan. By combining the vibrating table with the large-scale landslide simulator and the simple shear tester in the department, the three research categories of “earthquake disaster prevention,” “landslide disaster prevention,” and “environmental disaster prevention” can gradually be visualized.

    The Department currently offers five laboratories for the education and research of soil mechanics, structural mechanics, material mechanics, hydromechanics, and water quality analysis. In addition, the Department offers seven laboratories and instrument rooms for computational mechanics and computer-aided design, failure mechanics, transportation planning, computational fluid dynamics, environmental mechanics, earthquake disaster prevention, and structural seismic disaster prevention. These laboratories and rooms enable students to participate in the basic education and training of public construction and natural disaster prevention, and provide the necessary equipment and environment for research development.