Swinburne's civil engineering research ranks as world-class

Swinburne has been placed in the top 75 worldwide for civil engineering in ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.

Professor Aleksandar Subic, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) says the new rankings reflect the university’s commitment to high-quality, outcome focussed research.

“Swinburne has long been a leader in civil engineering research. These rankings confirm that our research in this area is innovative, collaborative and globally-focussed,” Professor Subic says.

“The Smart Structures Laboratory at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus has allowed our researchers to undertake large scale testing of civil, mechanical, aerospace and mining engineering components and systems.”

Swinburne joins five other Australian universities in the top 75 for civil engineering, including University of New South Wales, Monash University, Curtin University, University of Adelaide and University of Sydney.

Engineering research in the spotlight 

Swinburne’s civil engineering researchers are renowned for research that has a real impact. 

Earlier this year, Swinburne engineers  turned used coffee grounds into building materials for roads. Professor Arul Arulrajah and PhD candidate Teck-Ang Kua compressed a mixture of coffee grounds and slag with a liquid alkaline solution. 

The mixture was compressed into cylindrical blocks that proved strong enough to use as the subgrade material that sits under a road surface. 

ShanghaiRanking subject rankings methodology

The ShanghaiRanking measures research performance, based on indicators including:

• research productivity
• research with high quality
• average global research impact
• extent of international collaboration
• extent of academic corporation and collaboration
• researchers with global academic influence
• academic awards.

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