The issue of addressing innovation and change in engineering students' assessment is the target of this paper. The contents are an overview of the issues related to the evolution of the engineering learning requirements, a review of the traditional student evaluation methods in practice, a description of a current experiment in engineering student assessment and an analysis of the possible consequences of the generalized adoption of the innovative method. The pilot project consisted of the experimentation of an evaluation system without a final exam for a chosen discipline per semester and per each year of the several undergraduate degrees. The comparison is made in statistical terms and relevance when comparing the results of each chosen discipline between the actual and the previous year. (Contains 6 tables.)