Jonathan Sebastian Academic Development

Civil engineering is a field respected the world over. No matter the culture, people need infrastructure. Roads and bridges, water treatment and skyscrapers, all the marks of modern civilization require education and training in the field of civil engineering. It did not surprise me to find that in a place as developed and multicultural as Taiwan that my chosen academic field has a strong presence. What did surprise me, though, is that there is perhaps even more emphasis and respect for civil engineering than I have experienced in America.

Taiwan is a small island nation with very little in the way of natural resources. It experiences typhoons, flooding, and earthquakes. The entire country is covered in mountains created by volcanoes centuries ago. The climate is hot, and the vegetation extremely dense. To make such a place inhabitable at all, people have had to go to incredible lengths. Civil engineering does not just improve the quality of life in Taiwan, it allows human life to exist there at all.

I witnessed many marvels of civil engineering over my stay in Taiwan. The Taipei 101, a tremendous structure visible across all of Taipei with an elaborate vibration damping mechanism that allows it to stand even in high winds and earthquakes. A facility built on the Keelung River that during floods, diverts rushing waters over a mile underground and into the ocean to prevent harm to humans living in the river valley. A clean, convenient, and timely public transportation system that reliably took me across Taipei for under an American dollar. All these incredible feats of civil engineering took countless hours of effort and genius innovation in order to produce amazing results.

Back in America when I am asked what I study, I frequently find myself having to explain exactly what it is a civil engineer does. In Taiwan, despite often struggling with a significant language barrier, I never once had to explain what the field of civil engineering entails to anyone who asked. Cultural awareness of civil engineering is much higher, very likely due to all the efforts required to make the island nation habitable. The Taipei 101 is not just a very large building, it is a symbol of national pride. Public transportation is appreciated and well maintained instead of being thought of as inconvenient or undesirable.

It occurs to me that Taiwan’s appreciation for civil engineering likely feeds on itself in some fashion. The struggles of taming such a wild island require talented civil engineers. Transportation, environmental awareness, dealing with natural disasters, planning urban infrastructure, and other civil engineering endeavors are put in the forefront of the population’s minds. Consequently the field garners more interest among students, more funding from the government, and more respect in popular opinion in general. This leads to the incredible feats like the Taipei 101, which serve to inspire a whole new generation of engineers.

I am very excited to have experienced so much of a culture of civil engineering. It is exhilarating to see some of the advances made here in my academic field. I am very glad to bring some of the ideas I have seen here back home with me, and hope they can serve me well in my career with civil engineering.

---Jonathan Sebastian