Experiencing Education 5.0 for Civil Engineering

Abstract

Nowadays, the construction industry's digital transformation processes are challenging civil engineering education. In general, students and society underestimate the civil engineering field as an outdated and archaic knowledge area. Despite the defragmentation and heterogeneity of the sector, advances have been made on the path for Construction 4.0 and 5.0 scenarios. From this perspective, the CONSTRUCT-Gequaltec group of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto have been sponsoring research and technological development using hardware and software targeting construction management solutions. This paper presents the work in progress mainly connected to the curricular units regarding project management in the Construction Section of the Civil Engineering Department. It also targets assumptions of some expected results across the research and innovation priorities from ECTP Innovative Built Environment and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Two fundamental elements of the teaching practices are presented as the Construction Sites of the Future (Laboratory-Based Education initiative) and Digital products catalogue targeting Digital Twins in Construction (Project Based Learning initiative). The learning outcomes address increasing knowledge of innovative solutions, delivering skills to deploy 5.0 actions, and targeting human-centred and sustainable attitudes and values.