Essay: The Role of Civil and Structural Engineers in Society
Even though the origins of construction engineering with its subdisciplines of civil and structural engineering can be traced back to antiquity, the founding of the "Society of Civil Engineers" by John Smeaton in 1771 is generally regarded as the actual birth of the independent profession of "civil engineer" - from which today's civil and structural engineering disciplines developed. Coincident with the foundation of the Society of Civil Engineers and triggered by the further development of a steam engine by James Watt (1769) and the associated progress in the fields of transport, mechanical engineering and production linked with industrialisation, a rapid process of development was set in motion which was to define the new professional profile of the "civil engineer".
