After visiting India, China and South Africa the study tour of study association ConcepT will now visit Brazil. The committee chose to visit this country because of the interesting contrast between the relatively developed and capitalized South-east part, compared Western and Northern parts of the country. This will all have their separate influence on the way the civil engineering practice. Another important reason for choosing the country are the major infrastructural plans at development. The country needs to realize large infrastructural, water related and construction related projects in order to prepare for the FIFA Worldcup of 2014 and the Summer Olympic games of 2016.

Theme

Nowadays, it’s almost inevitable to ignore the human impact on the environment. Last years’ climate conference in Kopenhagen emphasized the importance (as well as difficulty) of creating policies to deal with climate problems. However, a developed country as the Netherlands tends to forget that the care for conservation of natural resources is also fed by discussions related to economic and social development. This people, planet and profit discussion is very current in developing countries like Brazil. This led to the definition of the study tour’s theme ‘Foundations for a Sustainable Future’.

Tour

The ‘Booming Brazil’ study tour has a duration of three weeks. In these weeks, 27 students and 3 academic researchers visit companies, projects and universities related to civil engineering. We visit Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Manaus. These three cities offer a great variety between rural and urbanized areas in which civil engineering is conducted. It will be a great source of interesting information for respectively students of the water, construction and traffic engineering and management tracks. In these cities, the delegation will visit political institutions (like the consulate or ministries), (technical) universities, and interesting companies related to sustainability problems and to the development of major civil engineering masterpieces. 

Main goal

The main goal of the study tour is to exchange knowledge about the central theme, to complement the research and verify the results of the preliminary research done in the Netherlands.

Education

To facilitate this, students follow preparatory master courses and conduct research on the different aspects of civil engineering in Brazil within the central theme ‘Foundations for a Sustainable Future’. The extensive preparation and the tour itself enable students to expand and deepen their knowledge and academic skills, and experience new cultures.  All the 27 students conduct the research, which is guided by a professor and two academic researchers of the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Twente. This research is a course valued at a total of 12.5 European Credits which students participating in the study tour will follow as a master course. The course is divided in three classes, each with its own goals and focus. The results of these studies on macro, meso and micro levels will be published in a preliminary and final report.