The civil engineer is knowledgeable. He or she understands the
theories, principles, and/or fundamentals of:
• Mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, mechanics, and materials, which are the foundation of engineering
• Design of structures, facilities, and systems• Risk/uncertainty, such as risk identifcation, data-based and knowledge-based types, and probability and statistics
• Sustainability, including social, economic, and physical dimensions
• Public policy and administration, including elements such as the political process, laws and regulations, and funding
mechanisms
• Business basics, such as legal forms of ownership, proft, income statements and balance sheets, decision or engineering economics, and marketing
• Social sciences, including economics, history, and sociology
• Ethical behavior, including client confdentiality, codes of ethics within and outside of engineering societies, anti-corruption and the differences between legal requirements and ethical expectations, and the profession’s responsibility to hold paramount public health, safety, and welfare
The civil engineer is skillful. He or she knows how to:
• Apply basic engineering tools, such as statistical analysis, computer models, design codes and standards, and project monitoring methods
• Learn about, assess, and master new technology to enhance individual and organizational effectiveness and effciency
• Communicate with technical and non-technical audiences, convincingly and with passion, through listening, speaking,
writing, mathematics, and visuals
• Collaborate on intra-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and multi-disciplinary traditional and virtual teams8
• Manage tasks, projects, and programs to provide expected deliverables while satisfying budget, schedule, and other constraints
• Lead by formulating and articulating environmental, infrastructure, and other improvements and build consensus
by practicing inclusiveness, empathy, compassion, persuasiveness, patience, and critical thinking
The civil engineer embraces attitudes conducive to effective professional practice. He or she exhibits:
• Creativity and entrepreneurship that leads to proactive identifcation of possibilities and opportunities and taking
action to develop them
• Commitment to ethics, personal and organizational goals, and worthy teams and organizations
• Curiosity, which is a basis for continued learning, fresh approaches, development of new technology or innovative
applications of existing technology, and new endeavors
• Honesty and integrity—telling the truth and keeping one’s word.
• Optimism in the face of challenges and setbacks, recognizing the power inherent in vision, commitment, planning,
persistence, fexibility, and teamwork
• Respect for and tolerance of the rights, values, views, property,
possessions, and sensitivities of others
• Thoroughness and self-discipline in keeping with the public health, safety, and welfare implications for most engineering projects and the high-degree of interdependence within project teams and between teams and their stakeholders
source : ASCE
