London Schools respond to Engineering Challenge
This event has finished
ConstructionSkills, the Construction Industry Council and the Institution of Civil Engineers challenged 14 year-olds from across London to a day-long event on 22 June at University College London (UCL).
The Rapid Response Engineering Challenge provides the students with a natural disaster scenario in which they investigate the disaster, complete engineering designs and then construct shelters and transport water. The aim of the challenge is to raise awareness of the challenges that face engineers when they are called in to deal with natural and man made disasters.
The day focused on a recent natural disaster, such as Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, and used it to demonstrate the key role that civil engineers play in such situations. The whole event was supported by University College London who will be running an MSc course in Earthquake Engineering with Disaster Management (EEDM) from September.
A winning team was identified based on the speed and efficiency of their solutions.
Commenting on the day Steve Miller ICE London Chairman, said:
“These Challenges are vital to the profession. Here, students are able to gain an insight into three key branches of civil engineering – water engineering, transportation engineering and structural engineering. It really gets across the message that civil engineering is challenging and varied, and that Engineering is essential for survival.”
The original concept (devised by ConstructionSkills) has been running for a number of years, with the event run by construction industry graduates, in schools across the country.