This paper presents academic efforts aimed at integrating methodologies associated with the use of mobile devices, the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT), and the role of experimental education in civil engineering. This integration is developed by encompassing the use of sensors, microcontrollers, civil engineering problems, app development, and fabrication. The proposal provides an explorative way of approaching the numerous possibilities that arise in civil engineering when it comes to IoT, automation, monitoring, and control of civil engineering processes. The used tools represent accessible and affordable ways for application in classrooms and in educational laboratories for beginners. The initial explorative approach implies the fusion of three realms: (i) the phenomenology and mathematics of varied civil engineering problems; (ii) the systematic use of digital fabrication technologies and electronic prototyping platforms; and (iii) the creative and visual way of developing codes provided by block‐based development platforms. This integration of perspectives is an attempt of approaching civil engineering mathematics to technology and arts with a rigorous scientific approach. A set of different examples is presented with the corresponding findings in educational terms. These examples are developed in a constructive, scaffolding‐based way and may contribute as a potential alternative in the development of open‐source teaching labs in civil engineering schools.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [ Chacón R, Codony D, Toledo Á. From physical to digital in structural engineering classrooms using digital fabrication. Comput appl eng educ. 2017;25:927–937. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.21845 ], which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cae.21845/full. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.In this paper, a set of digital artifacts related to simple examples of structural engineering are presented. The artifacts are real-time applications and visualizations of typical problems students from the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) schools are acquainted with. The real-time nature of the examples allow a high level of interaction between humans and the classic visualization of results, namely, bending and shear force diagrams, internal stresses distributions, and contour plots. These artifacts may provide in AEC a twofold educational target: (i) for users, to provide visual understanding in real time of typical problems that must be understood in classic lectures of structural engineering; (ii) for developers, to provide meaningful applications of applied digital fabrication using sensors, microcontrollers, and GUI's and their potential in the development of tools related to Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and the Internet of Things (IoT) among students of the AEC sector.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft