To improve the application-oriented capability of undergraduate students in civil engineering, some exploration and practices of training innovative ability were carried out by organizing a structural model design competition. This paper presented a systematic introduction of the structural model design competition, including the competition design, main process of structural model design and manufacture,competition results and problem analysis. Through this competition, students deeply understood and mastered basic theory and analysis methods of mechanics, basic properties and applicable conditions of engineering materials, mechanical properties and calculation principles of structural members, and their innovation consciousness and scientific research ability were improved. To promote the training of applied talents, the competition guided students to initiative innovation through flexible use of professional knowledge to improve the irinnovation consciousness and scientific research ability. At the same time, teachers realized the importance of teaching and practice in the training of applied talents, and actively thinked about new directions of discipline development.