Abstract:

This article shows the different stages of a final project that a pair of students carried out. The final project is the last step for the students to get the degree of Civil Engineering. Specifically, the project which is described in this article is the fabrication and analysis of a concrete structure.

Students have to put into practice several specific competences which were acquired in the degree:
(1) Conceive, design and construct structures of reinforced concrete based on the knowledge of the fundamentals aspects of the structural behavior
(2) analyze and understand how the characteristics of structures influence their behavior by apply the knowledge about the structures mechanics,
(3) design them according to the existing regulations and using analytical and numerical calculation methods.

The innovation of this final project is that students built themselves the reinforced concrete structure and could entirely develop in a realistic way the specific competences aforementioned. Bearing in mind the current requirements of the European society where we live in, and taking into account that the working context is becoming more and more global, a practical approach to the last stage of our learners' studies was needed to adapt our curriculum to the actual world. This way, we carried out a pilot project in order to develop this new approach, having the possibility of obtaining information about this experience to assess its convenience.

Keywords:

Specific competence, pilot final project, engineering.