Computing Documentation

The Civil and Environmental Engineering Computing Group supports 50 faculty, 22 staff, and over 750 students. The Computing Group maintains 2 computer labs, a remote access lab of virtual machines, server infrastructure supporting department operations, a suite of web applications, and the department website. We are dedicated to constantly improving departmental capability and productivity using the latest computing technologies.

Computing Resources


Department Computing Environment

The Civil and Environmental Engineering department maintains two instructional computer labs with workstations providing engineering software for student use: 345 Davis Hall and 541 Davis Hall. The labs may be used by students enrolled in CEE classes. Please review the CEE Computing FAQ for information about using the computer labs.

345 Davis Hall Computer Lab

The computer lab in 345 Davis Hall has:

  • 40 Dell Optiplex 7050 workstations with Windows 10 Enterprise
  • scanner
  • HP LaserJet M506 duplex printer
  • HP LaserJet 600 duplex printer
  • 2 video projectors with audio

541 Davis Hall Computer Lab

The computer lab in 541 Davis Hall is available by remote access only. The lab has:

  • 16 Dell Optiplex 7050 workstations with Windows 10 Enterprise
  • video projector with audio

VM Computer Lab

The department maintains a remote access lab of virtual machines that offer access to the same software that is installed on the workstations in 345 Davis and 541 Davis.

Department IT Infrastructure

The CEE Computing group maintains an extensive IT infrastructure supporting faculty, students, and staff in instructional, research, and administrative functions. The department utilizes virtual servers hosted in a data center with backup power and environmental management.

Department Web Applications

The CEE Computing Group creates, maintains, and extends a variety of full-featured custom web applications and databases essential for the department's activities. These applications include:

  • GSI/Reader Hiring: Web-based software handling student GSI/GSR applications, faculty review of applicants, requests to hire, AAO validation, approval, and final hire. This custom software covers the entire hiring process.
  • Course/Teaching Data Reporting: Web software allowing reporting on course data in a wide variety of formats, including multi-column, calendar grid, FTRs, and a variety of teaching load statistics such as FTEs and Civil Points. These reports allow faculty and staff to better coordinate course offerings, and students to plan their studies. Data entry occurs via a highly-responsive spreadsheet-like AJAX interface.
  • Graduate Student Funding: Web software facilitating the graduate student funding and acceptance process. Features include tracking and accounting for all funding sources, flexible disbursement of funds, at-a-glance disbursement reporting, powerful review/auditing features, and automated generation of offer letters.
  • Faculty Hiring: Web software facilitating the entire faculty hiring process, from initial data collection through multi-file upload, faculty review of candidates, and final selection. The software includes separate entry points for candidates, faculty, and HR staff, and a robust set of features for each.
  • Publication Storage/Reporting: Web software allowing entry of publication history for all faculty members. The software supports extensive metadata records, initial data entry in multiple formats, and later review/approval of records. Staff use the software to create customized reports for faculty advancement cases, and the publication data also appears automatically on our website.
  • Student Contact: Web software allowing faculty to contact prospective students and record information provided by students. The application then reports student responses to AAO staff, allowing the department to better serve students and faculty alike.

This list represents only a portion of the software we provide. Our flexible development framework allows us to develop web applications optimized to the specific needs of the department. We also maintain a department database to back our web applications, and we import data from variety of campus sources. We improve and extend existing applications, as well as develop new ones, leveraging the web platform to create gains in departmental effectiveness and efficiency.

Computing Guidelines

For information about the services and resources you should expect to receive, please see our Service Level Agreement.

In addition to the UC Berkeley Campus IT Policies, please be aware of the following CEE computing rules:

  • CEE computing resources may not be used to store or transfer audio or video files except for instructional or research purposes. This policy applies regardless of the legality of such transfers. Users in violation of this policy will be reported to the Vice Chair and Chair. Penalties include revocation of access to CEE computing resources.
  • Software may only be installed on CEE department-owned computers by members of the CEE Computing group.