Abstract:

The proposed experience consists in the organization of an idea competition for the design and calculation of a footbridge on a stream of the Madrid municipality of Talamanca de Jarama. This project is designed within the framework of educational innovation projects of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid carried out in the School of Civil Engineers. The project has been structured in several phases, all based on experiential learning and collaborative work.

There are five teams for the competitions. Each one formed by a student of the last year of the Master of Civil Engineer, who has to make his/her academic final project, and a teacher of the School of Civil Engineering of Madrid, who would do the role of tutor.

The first months are dedicated to collaborative work of all students through workshops and visits to the location of the footbridge. Later, the students work with their tutor generating the idea they will present to the competition.

This experience allow the student to have contact with the real profesional activity, to talk with social agents and to obtain data from the land by measuring flows or distances. On the other hand, municipality benefits with semi-professional projects without costs.

Some students present their project using virtual reality thanks to a workshop dedicated to this issue.

In order to select the best project, a court is created. Specialists in different areas of the projects take part of this court. Also, a percentage of the final poll depend of popular criteria in two ways: by the election of the student of the School, and by the election of the citizens of Talamanca. This part of the project is based on gaming, an educational innovate technique based in the concep of game (competitiveness, motivation, rewards). One hundred thirty five people have participated in the voting.

In summary, this project reproduces the phases of a real project ending with an idea competition but also incorporates a collaborative work that enriches and motivates the student.

Keywords:

Footbridge, ideas competition, experiental learning, virtual reality.