"Our civil engineering discipline is facing major challenges." At the inaugural Infrastructure Engineering · Taishan Forum held on July 13, Qian Qihu, winner of the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, opened with remarks full of concern. He then posed a rhetorical question: some students are unwilling to apply for civil engineering majors, and some say civil engineering programs have fallen out of favor—but is that really the case?

The forum brought together ten academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering as well as overseas academicians. It is understood that the forum was initiated by Shandong University, aiming to create a distinctive brand conference featuring three major segments: keynote special reports by academicians (focusing on interdisciplinary integration and innovation), reports by leading discipline deans (focusing on discipline transformation and upgrading), and invited expert frontier reports (focusing on academic frontiers and hot topics).

Academician Qian Qihu's concerns are not unfounded. In recent years, civil engineering programs falling out of favor has no longer been an isolated phenomenon. Not long ago, the civil engineering major became a trending topic on Weibo. Beihang University canceled its professional master's degree category in civil engineering and water conservancy; Tsinghua University refuted rumors that it was suspending enrollment in civil engineering... The once highly sought-after civil engineering major seems to be gradually "cooling down."

"Civil engineering is a great discipline." As a renowned expert in protective engineering, Academician Qian Qihu said, "Energy development, transportation, farmland irrigation and water conservancy, aerospace launches, ecological protection, rural revitalization—which of these fields can do without civil engineering?"

In addition to supporting the national economy and people's livelihood, civil engineering is an important cornerstone of national security, and protective engineering is the last line of defense for the country's active defense. Moreover, behind one "world's largest" after another—the world's largest wind power and photovoltaic power generation bases, the world's largest west-to-east power transmission grid absorbing renewable energy, the world's largest compressed air energy storage—civil engineering underpins Chinese-style modernization, high-quality development, and high-level security.

The emergence of bricks and tiles, the use of steel, and the rise of concrete led the first three leaps of civil engineering. Academician Qian Qihu stated that the fourth leap is marked by the comprehensive cross-integration and innovation of civil engineering construction technology and digital technology.

"People-oriented green and low-carbon design, minimally manned and unmanned autonomous construction, and preventive and even predictive maintenance management of civil engineering are comprehensively reshaping the content system of the civil engineering industry and science." Qian Qihu said the traditional construction industry of civil engineering must transform.

The path he proposed is: accelerate the empowerment of digital technology to comprehensively advance intelligent manufacturing—that is, accelerate the deep integration of information technologies such as AI, big data, cloud computing, 5G, and the Internet of Things with the entire process and all elements of civil engineering construction, to achieve digital transformation and intelligent upgrading.

What is the transformation goal of civil engineering? Qian Qihu believes that the objects of construction projects have not changed—they are still buildings, roads, railways, tunnels, bridges, and so on. What has changed is the science and technology for building various engineering facilities—from traditional construction technology to digital and intelligent construction methods. The transformed civil engineering discipline is an interdisciplinary integration of traditional civil engineering technology, civil information engineering technology, and automatic control technology including robots.

For some time, large models have become a hot technology. How can they serve the civil engineering industry and discipline?

"I particularly agree with exploring a path of large-model development with Chinese characteristics—that is, 'walking on two legs,' developing both general generative foundation models and specialized large models for different scenarios." Academician Qian Qihu said that based on the general scenario needs of the civil engineering field, and engineering challenges such as sudden water inrush in underground engineering, rockbursts, and large deformation of weak surrounding rock, it is necessary to combine the scenarios of these different engineering risks with big data, and on the basis of cooperation between civil engineering universities and artificial intelligence companies, develop specialized generative large models for civil engineering.