Program overview
Urban Underground Space Engineering is essentially about how to build underground. The subway you ride every day, the underground passages you walk through, and the underground malls you visit are all achievements of this major. Core courses include geotechnical mechanics (understanding the behavior of soil and rock), underground structure design (how to make underground buildings stable and safe), tunnel engineering (the art of digging), and underground construction techniques. A solid foundation in math and physics is essential because you'll be doing a lot of stress analysis. If you enjoy hands-on work, don't mind getting dirty, and are curious about large-scale engineering projects, this major is a great fit. Chinese universities have unique strengths in this field—for example, Tongji University, Southeast University, and Beijing University of Technology have dedicated underground engineering labs, and some even have simulated tunnels on campus for practice. Plus, China is building subways and utility tunnels on a massive scale, so the techniques you learn will be cutting-edge and highly practical.