Directly affiliated to the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Chang'an University is one of the State Project 211 universities jointly run by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Land Resources, Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Construction, and Shaanxi Provincial Government. Chang’an University is also one of the 985 Innovative Platforms for Key Disciplines Project, and is participating in the state construction plan of first-class disciplines. The university was officially established in 2000 by merging the former Xi'an Highway University, Xi'an Engineering Institute and Northwest Institute of Construction Engineering, which were founded in the early 1950s. Chang’an University is located in the historical and cultural city of Xi'an and covers an area of over 3,755mu(approximately 250 hectares). The university comprises two teaching campuses and two practice bases. Through its 60 years of development, it has become an influential, comprehensive higher education institution in China, with engineering as its main discipline focus. It combines engineering with sciences, multidisciplinary development in economy, management and humanities. It has graduated more than 250,000 students in different levels, mainly in the fields of highway transportation, land resources and environment and construction engineering.
The College of Geological Engineering and Geomatics (CGEG) is one of the key colleges in Chang’an University, consisting of four disciplines, namely Geological Engineering, Applied Geophysics, Surveying and Mapping, and Safety Science and Engineering. CGEG is a high-level higher education college with engineering as its main discipline focus, and combines engineering with sciences. With this prominent advantage and strong research capabilities, it has become a key regional and national foundation of talent in Western China, in its’ four disciplines.The Geological Resources and Geological Engineering, and, Surveying and Mapping are among the first-class discipline construction projects in Shaanxi province. Geological Engineering is one of the national second-level key disciplines, while Geo-exploration and Information Technology, Disaster Prevention and Reduction Engineering and Protective Engineering, and Geodesy and Survey Engineering are the key disciplines in the provincial and ministerial levels. Geological Engineering, Surveying and Mapping Engineering, Exploration Technology and Engineering are the first-class subjects in Shaanxi province.
CGEG owns several theoretical and technological innovation platforms such as: (i) Key Laboratory of Western China's Mineral Resources and Geological Engineering, Ministry of Education; (ii) Open Research Laboratory of Geotechnical Engineering, Ministry of Natural Resources; (iii) Geophysical Information Technique Laboratory; (iv) State Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Engineering; (v) Measurement and Remote Sensing Laboratory, and; (vi) Safety Engineering Laboratory. CGEG has and continues to lead several key research projects at the national, ministerial and provincial levels, including 973 Plan Projects, 863 Plan Major Programs, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese National Programs for Science and Technology Development，Land and Resources Survey Project, National Western Traffic Construction Science and Technology Project, International Cooperation Program of the Ministry of Education, Major Projects of National Hydropower Projects, Energy and Disaster Geophysical Exploration and Urban Geological Disaster Monitoring.
Below are the awards CGEG has received in the past few years:
· 2010, First Class Prize of the Shaanxi Science and Technology Award: Study on the Genetic Mechanism of the Land Subsidence of Ground Fissures and its Prevention;
· 2011, First Class Prize of the Surveying and Mapping Science and Technology Progress Award: Key Technology and Application of GPS and InSAR in Geological Disasters Monitoring with High Precision;
· 2012, Second Class Prize of the State Science and Technology Progress Award: The Genetic Mechanism and Key Mitigation Technology of Xi’an Ground Fissures;
· 2012, First Class Prize of the Shaanxi Science and Technology Award: New GPS Technology Based on Network and Information Technology and Its Application in Western Engineering Construction and Disaster Prevention;
· 2015, Second Class Prize of the Satellite Navigation and Positioning Technology Progress Award: Research and System Construction of the Quality Inspection Technology of High-Quality GPS Measurement Results;
· 2015, First Class Prize of the Land and Resources Science and Technology Award: The Distribution, Genetic mechanism, and Mitigation Technology of the Ground Fissures in Fenway Basin
· 2017, First Class Prize of the Hunan Science and Technology Award: Key Technology and Application of Millimeter-level Surface Deformation Monitoring with InSAR;
· 2018, Second Class Prize of the Satellite Navigation and Positioning Technology Progress Award: Study on the performance evaluation method and clock offset model of Beidou/GNSS satellite clock in orbit;
· 2018, Second Class Prize of the State Science and Technology Progress Award: Key Technology and Application of Millimeter-level Surface Deformation Monitoring with InSAR.
There are 185 staff members in CGEG with 35 full professors and 53 associated professors. The total number of faculty members is 150, 92% of which hold PhD degrees. There are two part-time academicians, 3 scholars having received awards in the national level and over 15 scholars having received awards in the provincial and ministerial levels. CGEG owns 2 Post-Doctoral Research Stations, 3 first-level discipline doctoral degree programs (i.e. Geological Resources and Geological Engineering, Geophysics, Surveying and Mapping), 13 second-level discipline doctoral degree programs, 14 Master’s degree programs, 2 programs with Master of Engineering, and 7 undergraduate programs. There are over 2000 undergraduate students and about 790 postgraduate students in CGEG. In the past sixty years, CGEG has graduated over 20,000 students in different levels.
