Civil engineers have a direct impact on society through the design and construction of the nation’s infrastructure—buildings, highways, railroads, bridges, airports, dams, tunnels, pipelines, municipal services, water resource systems and more. Civil engineering is perhaps the broadest field in terms of engineering professions.

Professors and students at the Department of Civil Engineering conduct research aimed at improving the physical infrastructure of our society, with a particular focus on sustainable infrastructure, infrastructure security and water resources. State-of-the-art laboratories and other major facilities support research in six sub-disciplines: construction engineering and management, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, sustainable materials and construction, and water resources engineering. The program’s broad scope gives its graduates a wide range of career options, not only in the technical fields of design and construction but also in management and science.

Established in 1984, the Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Civil Engineering (OCICE) combines the research strengths and resources of the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carleton University with that of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Ottawa.

The Institute offers graduate programs leading to the degrees of Master of Applied Science (MASc), Master of Engineering (MEng) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Civil Engineering.

Research facilities are shared between the two campuses. Students have access to the professors, courses and facilities at both universities, however, they must enroll at the ''home university'' of the thesis supervisor.