The Department of Bridge Engineering at Southeast University originated from the road engineering group of the College of Engineering at the former National Central University. It has developed into a major center for the education of high-level professionals in bridge engineering research, engineering design, and technical management. The Department is authorized to confer doctoral and master’s degrees in Bridge and Tunnel Engineering and offers an undergraduate program in Road, Bridge and River-Crossing Engineering. This program was selected as a National Pilot Program for Excellence in Engineer Education in 2012 and as a National First-Class Undergraduate Program in 2019. The Department has a distinguished faculty team led by nationally recognized and internationally recruited high-level scholars with strong academic standing and professional influence in the field of bridge engineering. It currently has 23 faculty and staff members, including 4 national-level talents, 6 full professors, 11 associate professors, 4 faculty members with intermediate professional titles, and 2 postdoctoral researchers.

In response to major national strategies and the needs of large-scale infrastructure development, the Department focuses on digital bridges and intelligent construction and maintenance, disaster prevention and resilience enhancement, and green and low-carbon infrastructure. Its research covers bridge design theory, structural safety, intelligent monitoring, durability enhancement, and operation and maintenance decision-making, contributing actively to national initiatives such as the digital economy, transportation development, new infrastructure, and the Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past five years, the Department has undertaken 24 newly funded national- and provincial-level research projects, achieved 23 outcomes in teaching reform and educational research, maintained annual research funding of over RMB 10 million, published 25 monographs and textbooks, won 2 Gold Medals at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, and received more than 19 provincial- and ministerial-level science and technology awards.

The Department is committed to the fundamental mission of fostering virtue through education. Guided by the educational philosophy of strong foundations, practical training, innovation, and interdisciplinary integration, it emphasizes the coordinated development of students’ scientific mindset, engineering competence, innovative capacity, and global perspective. Looking ahead, the Department will continue to align with national strategies for transportation development and high-quality infrastructure growth, further strengthen its disciplinary characteristics, deepen collaboration among academia, industry, and research, and promote the integration of bridge engineering with emerging fields such as information technology, intelligent sensing, and digital twins. Through these efforts, it seeks to enhance both talent cultivation and academic development, and to build itself into a nationally leading and internationally influential center for bridge engineering education and research.