OBJECTIVES
The objective of this Master’s Degree course is to train professionals and academics in the fields of construction and soil engineering, with the aim of meeting the growing demand for experts which has arisen as a result both of an increase in the construction of infrastructures and of the interest shown in environmentally aware management of hydraulic resources in terms of soil and structures. The course offers a wide range of options in the fields of Materials and Soil Engineering, and represents a cross-disciplinary training which integrates Hydraulics as a dynamic agent affecting the materials involved in engineering and the natural processes which influence structures and the soil on which they are built.
The Master’s course consists of practical and specialised courses which also address the specific needs of the various branches of Materials Engineering (“Special Concretes” and “Durability of Concrete Structures”, among others), of Soil Engineering (“Rock Mechanics” and “Foundation Pathologies”, among others) and Hydraulic Engineering (“Hydraulic Structures”).
It also includes subjects which serve as a point of connection between Hydraulic and Soil Engineering, through the flow of dense fluids (“Advanced River Engineering”), and between these and Materials Engineering, through an examination of coastal dynamics, how the coast is affected and the tools available and necessary for its protection (“Innovation in Maritime and Coastal Works”). These subjects have been designed in order to provide the experience and basic tools necessary for undertaking research.
In addition to providing a training in theoretical research and practice specific to different fields of application, the individual subjects offered within the subject areas provide a training which covers generic, cross-disciplinary needs, focusing on topics common to the different branches of Engineering such as the use of cartographic tools for land management (“Introduction to GIS”) or numerical methods (“Finite Elements Method as an Approach Applied to Engineering Problems”, “Numerical Methods and Symbol Manipulators Applied to Engineering Problems”, “Statistical Methods Applied to Engineering”). A series of courses has thus been established enabling students to choose their area of study, and which contributes to a specialised, cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary training.
The principle objective of the programme is to train specialised professionals and researchers in the application of methodologies and techniques for detection , diagnosis, analysis and representation, decision-making, assessment and the preparation of studies and projects in sustainable engineering in relation to the natural environment and the natural processes that occur therein.
Complementary to the students’ curriculum, the Master’s Degree course offers a number of activities aimed at providing students with multidisciplinary opportunities and experiences, similar to those offered on the Master’s courses in “Soil and Seismic Engineering” (Polytechnic University of Catalonia) or “Architecture, Structures and Technology” (Polytechnic of Milan), among other national and international benchmark centres.
Besides attaining abilities, skills and knowledge in areas of engineering pertaining to the interaction of construction materials with soil and water (which is of great importance when undertaking research in related areas in order to obtain a doctorate), students will also acquire the professional skills described by national and international networks and organisations, enabling a deeper understanding of civil engineering.
Having successfully completed their Master’s Degree, students will have attained a sufficient scientific, technical and methodological level to undertake design, planning, management, maintenance, conservation and exploitation, and will be able to apply their technical capacity to R&D&i projects or to advanced technical professional practice.
The fundamental objective of this Master’s Degree course is to offer students an advanced, multidisciplinary training aimed at professional research, which will equip them to successfully enter the following rapidly developing fields of engineering:
Research in Hydraulic Engineering.
Research in Materials Engineering.
Research in Soil Engineering.
Research in Hydraulic Engineering (projects, construction and maintenance of hydraulic structures, management, planning and exploitation of hydraulic infrastructures, planning hydraulic resources, town planning based on sustainable development).
Research in Materials Engineering (standards, bases and mechanisms of corrosion, new construction materials and their applications, materials testing, environmental sustainability criteria, techniques for characterising, modelling, reporting and diagnosing structural damage, durability of materials).
Research in Soil Engineering (observation and diagnosis of foundation and wall pathologies, writing reports, constructive solutions, improvement techniques. calculating slope and hillside stability, instrumentation systems, numerical models, testing techniques, geographic information systems, database design).
Application of the appropriate research methodologies to the above lines of research.
For each area of research, a more detailed explanation is given below of these objectives as they relate to students’ training:
- To possess current knowledge of each subject area:
or Research problems which have been resolved, together with the techniques used,
or Research problems which remain unresolved,
or Currently open areas of research.
- To study techniques which improve on the presently existing possibilities.
- To explain the importance of working in these subject areas.
- Demands arising from the scientific community.
- Demands arising from business and society.
- Implementation of one of these techniques in the laboratory,
- Proposal for a new solution to one of the presently unresolved research problems.
