MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING TECHNIQUES IN CIVIL ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY I. Navarro Martínez 1 , J.V. Martí Albiñana 2 , V. Yepes Piqueras 2 1 Dept. of Construction Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València (SPAIN) 2 Institute of Concrete Science and Technology (ICITECH), Universitat Politècnica de València (SPAIN) Abstract In recent times, a great deal of interest has emerged from different sectors of society towards sustainability and sustainable product design. Decision makers are increasingly encouraged to take into consideration the economic, environmental and social dimensions of reality when dealing with problems. Sustainability is of particular importance in the field of civil engineering, where structures are designed that are long lasting and shall cause significant impacts over a long period of time, such as bridges or dams. Consequently, when addressing a structural design, civil engineers shall account for the three dimensions of sustainability, which usually show conflicting perspectives. Multi-criteria methods allow the inclusion of non-monetary aspects into the design process of infrastructure. In the postgraduate course ‘Predictive and optimisation models for concrete structures’, offered at the Masters in Concrete Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de València, civil engineering students are taught how to apply such tools within the framework of sustainable design of concrete structures. The present paper conducts a state-of-the-art review of the main multi-criteria decision making methodologies taught in the course in the context of sustainability. Articles are searched in recognized databases, such as SCOPUS and Web of Science. The most significant methods, such as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Elimination and Choice Expressing Reality (ELECTRE), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) or Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS) are systematically discussed, identifying the actual trends concerning the use of such methodologies in the field of civil engineering. The review provides a deep insight in the multi criteria techniques that are most frequently used when assessing sustainability of infrastructure designs. Keywords: Postgraduate education, multi-criteria decision making, sustainability, structural design, state of the art review. 1 INTRODUCTION Civil engineering studies have traditionally focused on the functionality, strength and durability of structures, guiding the capabilities of their students towards the attainment of economic results. Recently emerging needs of different sectors of the society call for a paradigm shift in the conventional civil engineering education. Important training gaps have been detected in higher education programs regarding the introduction of new concepts, such as sustainable design or construction management [1-3]. With regard to sustainable design, sustainability implies guaranteeing the satisfaction of current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable design is therefore of paramount relevance when it comes to designing infrastructure projects, given that infrastructures are products meant to serve a significant group of the population during a long, intergenerational timeframe. In this sense, it is therefore unquestionable that engineering education should gradually provide students with the necessary tools to combine the other two pillars of sustainability, namely environment and society, with the traditional economic dimension of their designs. Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods are tools of special relevance when considering sustainability aspects in the design of products, as they serve for the assessment in the decision- making among different alternatives taking into consideration the different dimensions of a problem. In general, such problems consist of four phases. First, the problem to be assessed, as well as the criteria to be taken into account, shall be precisely defined. Then, particular weights for each criterion shall be determined. After that, alternatives are evaluated individually with respect to each criterion for, at last, aggregate the results considering the weight defined for each criterion. Different MCDM methodologies have been developed over time that allow the decision maker to assign particular weights to each dimension of the assessment problem. Proceedings of ICERI2018 Conference 12th-14th November 2018, Seville, Spain ISBN: 978-84-09-05948-5 9798