The School of Mechanics, Civil Engineering and Architecture (SMCEA) is one of the key schools at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU). A combination of Department of Engineering Mechanics (DEM) and Department of Civil Engineering (DCE), the school was founded in July 2003.
The school is staffed with an excellent faculty of over 90 members, who have a high academic level and rich experience in teaching and research. They include one member of the Chinese Academy of Science (Professor Zhu Weiqiu), 22 professors (15 Ph.D. Supervisors), 26 associate professors and senior engineers, and 15 lecturers and engineers. The Dean of the School, Professor Yue Zhufeng, is a chair professor of the Cheung Kong Scholars Program and a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Science Foundation.
The school consists of three departments, the Department of Engineering Mechanics, the Department of Civil Engineering and the Department of Architecture. Also included is the Institute of Vibration Engineering, the Mechanical Properties of Advanced Materials Testing Center and the Institute of Aircraft Reliability Engineering. It offers five programs for bachelor’s degrees, including Engineering Mechanics, Civil Engineering, Traffic Engineering, Engineering Management and Architecture. There are six programs for master’s degrees: Engineering Mechanics, Solid Mechanics, General Mechanics and Fundamental Mechanics (Dynamics and Control), Structure Engineering, Traffic Engineering and Architecture. Three programs for Ph.D. degrees include General Mechanics and Fundamental Mechanics (Dynamics and Control), Engineering Mechanics and Solid Mechanics, as well as one postdoctoral position in mechanics. The Mechanics discipline of NPU a first-class discipline approved by the Academic Degree Office of State Council, and was first authorized to confer doctoral degrees in 1981. It was approved as the special discipline and supported by the Yangze River Scholar Program. Solid Mechanics is a state key discipline and Structure Engineering is a university key discipline. General Mechanics and Fundamental Mechanics is a key discipline of the Commission of Science, the Technology and Industry for National Defense (CSTIND), and Engineering Mechanics is a famous discipline of Shaanxi province.
The school, having strong capabilities of research and world-class experiment conditions, taken research and engineering applications seriously. It gives prominence to the distinguishing characteristics of NPU, Aeronautics, Astronautics and Marine Engineering. The school contains the National Specialized Laboratory for Dynamics and Strength and the CSTIND key Laboratory for Aircraft Structural Mechanics and Strength. SMCEA is also one of six state educational bases of fundamental mechanics for engineering courses in China. Theoretical Mechanics and Mechanics of Materials are National Excellent Courses and Elasticity Mechanics is the Provincial Excellent Courses in Shaanxi province.
In the past five years, SMCEA has more than 100 research projects at the national or provincial level, some being funded by the National Natural Science Foundation, 863 High Technology Program. About 600 papers have been published in well-known journals, and 400 are indexed by SCI, EI and ISTP. In the past forty years, the school has achieved impressive success on scientific research and personnel training. It has become the base for scientific research and high-level personnel training in the fields of Aeronautics, Astronautics and Civil Engineering. Overall, SMCEA has made important contributions for national economy and defence.