Academic works have indicated which didactic methods to teaching engineers fail in the professional preparation, despite the international effort to create competences for engineering students. Studies about teaching in engineering in general, and in civil engineering, specifically, are scarce, or is in the incipient period, at least in relation to and compared to the material dedicated to the same subject by mathematicians, then, the aim of this paper is to discuss if some aspects of the modern technique of mathematics could be applied in engineering teaching, in specific case for the problem solving methodology.