It’s amazing what you find on Twitter when you’re not looking. Today I was just idly browsing when Go Construct’s Open Doors caught my eye:

Did you know that from Monday the 13th to Saturday the 18th of June nearly 50 construction sites around the UK are opening their hoardings and offering free tours?

It’s a fantastic initiative, primarily aimed at educating the public on what construction is about and how the built environment is, well, built. With so much of our work put into finding ways to minimise the impact our work has on the public and hiding away our sites under construction; it’s great to see campaigns like this opening them back up again and engaging the communities these works are for.

With a huge number of participating sites, Open Doors has an impressive coverage of the country; and it should be pretty easy for anyone even remotely interested to find something near them. There’s also a good range of sites, with some famous names included such as Battersea Power Station, the Forth Replacement Crossing, and No 1 Spinningfields in Manchester.

The sad fact about the construction skill shortage is that so many potential engineers aren’t getting into the industry because they just don’t know what we do. It’s nothing personal, they just didn’t even consider it- did you look up every job in the world before picking your career? Initiatives like this give some much needed visibility to the oft hidden work we do in the built environment; and that’s why they’re so important.

So if you want to show someone what you do, know someone (teenager or adult) looking for a way into the construction industry, or perhaps even a school/youth club that needs a trip sometime soon…

Checkout Open Doors

The post Open Doors: Construction Site Visits For Everyone appeared first on Being Brunel.

About the Author

Jason Hyde

• Jason is a Chartered Engineer working for Mott MacDonald’s Bridges in Manchester. Outside of work he is a STEM Ambassador, Past Chair of ICE Manchester Branch and currently a member of the Executive Committee of IABSE UK.
• Find out more: LinkedIn

I was lucky enough to be invited by Alison Watson of Class of Your Own to give a presentation with a different audience than my usual. I’d be talking to a room full of teachers and industry leaders rather than my usual group of office colleagues or students. What followed was an afternoon of fantastic viewpoints from all sides, looking at what both the education and construction industries needed to do (or weren’t already doing) to engage with the next generation of skilled workers and construction professionals.

Jocelyn Underwood from the Manchester Chamber of Commerce gave a figure of 185,000 skilled workers needed on construction sites (and that doesn’t include the design professionals) over the next couple of years. That’s a staggering amount for the North West alone – it’s not a national figure! There is a fundamental need for our two industries to figure out why we are finding it incredibly difficult to talk to each other.

It’s as simple as talking – honest.

For both the education industry and the construction industry, our primary method of communication is verbal – and while we’re not always the best at it, we’re pretty good. So why exactly is it that we can’t talk to each other?

The revelation for me during the discussions over the afternoon is that both sides don’t believe that we have the time to engage with each other. Teachers have a long list of things to do when they are not teaching and equally, construction professionals have a seemingly endless supply of deadlines that only ever get closer.

For me, while it was a revelation, it was also the most frustrating comment of the day. For construction professionals, were supposed to be a the height of our game. Able to multi-task, hold complex and technical multidisciplinary meetings and manage a programme of works that’s ever changing. So, if we can do all that, why can’t we programme into our calendars two hours a year for talking to our local school.

Now, I admit, it does seem like an insurmountable task. But only because there are only a few people who are pulling out all the stops to find opportunities to talk to the next generation (and he likelihood is that’s the people reading this article). But let’s think about it for a moment. If every member of the engineering profession spent two hours per year talking to a class of 11-16 year olds, we’d have all our bases covered with very little effort.

The Proof is in the Pudding

To round up the afternoon, we heard from some pupils from St Ambrose Barlow RC in Swinton (Manchester) who talked us through some of the work they had been doing on the DesignEngineerConstruct course (run by Alison). While it’s always interesting to hear what’s going on in school, what was by far more fascinating was some of the statements they made while talking to the room (I might also add that 15 year olds talking to a room full of professionals and not phased is amazing and a testament to their abilities – and potential future careers).

Daniel (one of the students) recounted how the course and the exposure to industry professionals during visits to his class gave him he opportunity to try something new – and opportunity that other course wouldn’t have given. Luke simply stated hat he found engineering to be interesting and Bradley echoed Daniel’s comments about the opportunities that the course and the subject are presenting them with.

In summary, the proof is in the pudding. The students enjoy hearing about our exploits as engineers (mainly because there is always a physical thing they can relate our jobs to). As far as having time goes, a couple of hours a year really isn’t that much time at all – just plan it (and remember to plan it with the teacher). As far as engagement with teachers goes, even if the school isn’t lucky enough to be running the DesignEngineerConstruct course, remember engineering is the application of maths, physics, English, art, design technology and IT (to name the main ones).

Some go ahead, speak to a teacher, offer to come and talk to their classes and inspire some young minds to join the engineering profession.

The post Engaging the Next Generation? Talk. appeared first on Being Brunel.

Every now and again I get my ego stroked by someone who thinks my blog is important enough to be a credible news outlet for their latest promotion; it’s touching, and just one of many reasons why more Civil Engineers should start blogging. This time, it is the ICE; who are evidently looking to top the success of that amazing video with a new TV series that puts engineers at its very heart.

The premise is an exciting one- each episode will place an engineer somewhere around the world where there is there a desperate need for the work we do. The series will follow them around as they meet the affected community, understand the situation and engineer a solution; the research, the funding, the challenges and the implementation. It’ll all be there; engineers making the world a better place, for all to see.

It’s an exciting prospect; the world is full of TV shows showcasing other career options- the endless cop shows, airport lounge docu-dramas, animal hospital. Engineering is starting to make its début with some fantastic documentaries showcasing the difference we make to the world- but so far there has been very little focus on what it’s like to be a civil engineer.

So if you think you’ve got what it takes to be parachuted (not literally, I assume) in and start building infrastructure for refugee camps, getting clean water for dying communities or WiFi to a rural village (for example); then you are who the ICE are looking for. It’s a unique opportunity, not only for experience of delivering real engineering solutions under those conditions; but also to make a real contribution to the flagging image of engineering by giving the profession a human face.

Don’t worry though- you don’t have to be the star; we all know that engineering is a team game, and the ICE is also looking for experienced engineers to act as consultants; providing technical support to those in the limelight. Members from Fellows to Students are all welcome; all you need to a lot of enthusiasm and a willingness to try something new; no previous experience required!

Find Out How To Apply Now

The post Engineers: Become A TV Star appeared first on Being Brunel.

About the Author

Chris Noonan

• Chris is an L&D Engineering Consultant at Thales Learning & Development. He has 25 years’ worth of experience in systems engineering, 12 of which have been spent within Thales. Today he brings his wealth of knowledge to the learning and development sector by writing, developing and developing systems engineering training courses. Chris is a regular contributor to Enhance – The Magazine for Learning and Development.
• Find out more: Thales Learning & Development

Considering it can be such an exciting career – for instance, where else could you put your stamp permanently on an area in the form of a new bridge, dam or skyscraper – there seems to be a consistent shortage of people with engineering skills in the UK. A report produced by Engineering UK states that, at all levels of education, the UK will not be capable of meeting the forecast number of engineers needed in the years up to 2022. 257,000 new vacancies will have to be filled, and it currently doesn’t look likely that this will be an achievable target.

What are the factors currently contributing to a shortage of UK citizens with engineering skills, then? The situation doesn’t become as dire as it looks to have become without a number of issues contributing to its decline, and if we are to continue to conceive the most impressive engineering projects ever embarked upon, it needs to improve quickly.

Disjointed training programmes

One of the features of the engineering industry has seen the government and various members of the industry launching development and incentive programmes independently of each other, which results in something of an isolated scattergun approach that has brought fairly poor and disjointed outcomes so far.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Erik Bonino, the chairman of Shell UK, said “It’s partly because the myriad programmes designed to address this issue are often fragmented and uncoordinated. Some schools benefit from multiple activities, others receive none. To put it in blunt business terms, the UK’s approach uses an inefficient delivery model and delivers a poor return on investment.”

Insufficient STEM training

At the basest level, there are not enough young people being educated in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) that are essential for any career in the engineering industry. This is perhaps because of the perception that they are “boring” and “geeky” as opposed to the arts and humanities subjects like English, Art, Drama and History – a recent study of 1,500 14-18 year olds by Mondelez International indicated that 44% considered STEM subjects uninteresting.

While the figures are perhaps not as discouraging as they might be without the influence of television programmes like The Big Bang Theory and anything presented by Brian Cox, schools and colleges have to do more to encourage boys and particularly girls to take on STEM subjects and highlight the benefits of a career in engineering.

Erik Bonino goes on to recommend in the Daily Telegraph that the government and industry firms concentrate on working together via the Tomorrow’s Engineers programme, which aims to give every 11-14 year old engineering experience with a local employer. This should help to start bringing the number of studying and employable engineering graduates up.

Image problems

While it is difficult to attract boys into engineering at a young age, it is even more difficult to attract girls. Engineering undoubtedly feels (and has done for a long time, to be fair) like a bit of a boys-only club, with only a comparative handful of women possessing top jobs within the industry, much less entering it at a lower level.

Steve Holliday, chief executive of National Grid, said: “It’s incredible that while 12 per cent of parents stated they would like their son to become an engineer, only 2 per cent said the same about their daughter. By failing to inspire girls, we’re cutting ourselves off from an enormous pool of potential talent.”

It is patently obvious that, as in every other industry, women are just as capable of performing the same roles as men in. One of the challenges for schools, the government and engineering firms will be to attract them into an industry that may previously have appeared closed-off to them.

Little or no development of existing engineers

In addition, it appears that not enough is being done to develop the existing engineers in the UK to their full potential, according to a study by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME).

The study suggests the engineering industry is more focused on attracting the next generation of engineers as a means of plugging the skills gap, and the result of this attitude is that over 40% of engineers will leave their current firms in order to move up the ladder. According to the research, employees in their thirties are less engaged; 45% believe there are substantial obstacles to doing their job well, compared to 35% of twenty-year olds.

The development of an engineer does not cease once they have graduated and found their first jobs – skills and experience are only developed through on-the-job training courses and workshops, which should be carried through on a constant basis to help engineers reach their potential.

Migrant labour?

While it’s often used as an unfair claim by opponents of immigration, there is no doubt that the construction and engineering industries are two of the biggest employers of foreign, skilled labourers in the UK.

The construction industry, however, admits that it needs more, not fewer, workers from abroad. Richard Steer, chairman of construction firm Gleeds, believes it is actually getting harder to attract foreign workers, saying, “There’s less temptation for foreign skilled and unskilled labourers to come over now as their own economies have improved.”

This creates a paradox – the jobs are clearly available and free for UK citizens to take, but they are not doing so. The indication is clearly that there is a shortfall of UK nationals with sufficient training and experience, showing even more that something has to be done to rectify the situation. As a contributing factor to the UK engineering skills shortage, though, migrant labour is NOT an issue.

There are clearly a number of issues that are contributing a shortage of people with engineering skills in the UK, from schools through university to the engineering firms themselves, and the government has a big role to play as well. A coordinated, assertive campaign to attract new talent into the engineering industry from a young age will pay dividends, but the challenge is seeing whether educators, employers and government decision-makers can work in tandem to improve the situation in both the short and long-term.

The post The UK Engineering Skills Shortage appeared first on Being Brunel.

The ICE has commissioned a music video. And you know what- it’s pretty damn amazing. Honestly; I’m not joking.

I’ve known that a video involving engineers dancing had been in the pipeline for a while, and frankly my natural cynicism grown from too many years in the industry left me fairly nonplussed about the whole affair. Social media is a difficult game to play, and it’s an even harder one when you target is the “yooof of today“.

Today sees the release of the ICE’s Engineering Happiness video, and it’s hard to imagine how they could have done it better. From watching Sir John Armitt bust a move, to a couple of engineers strutting their stuff along a sewage treatment plant; the video is a joy to watch. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and for that it manages to get the message across that engineering is fun in a way that no amount of project showcasing ever could. More than that, they’ve created something that I’d feel comfortable sharing with my friends inside and outside of the profession alike.

If you haven’t seen it already, you can check the video out here- just don’t forget to share the #engineeringhappiness when you’re done:

So top-hats off to the ICE; it’s an institution that I’m proud to be a member of.

The post Engineering Happiness appeared first on Being Brunel.

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment I realised I had created the best short film in cinematic history. I mean, who among us can truly fathom the genius that lurks within the heart of someone who can make it through an engineering degree? Let us just say that the likes of Kubrick, had he still been alive, would have quaked at my mastery of-

Well, why don’t you see for yourself:

The ICE Video Competition

I’m sure you have a billion questions; of course, it does take ten to twelve viewings before the many subtleties reveal the true meaning behind this motion picture. But for those of you who are wondering why, well- that one’s easy: The ICE are running a competition to make a one minute video (or six second vine; whatever that is) that will trick inspire the next generation into being civil engineers.

All you have to do is make a one minute video (or six second vine loop) that showcases exactly why you think civil engineering is so great, in a way that might just inspire a Sixth Form student into taking it up as a career. Oh, and then you might win an iPad or a GoProCamera; which is not to be sneered at (although, obviously you won’t because of the greatness of my aforementioned entry… </sarcasm>).

If you are more photogenic than myself, you can simply pull out your phone like Melanie Ogden and talk with passion. If, like me, your media talent is somewhat lacking, there are an infinite number of online animation creators that you can fall back on to make something like Jamie Radford (- who is also more photogenic then myself). For more ideas you can check out #ILoveCivilEngineering on Twitter.

Find out more about #ILoveCivilEngineering

Bonus Features

Despite the pontification at the start of this post on the wonders of my directorship, I think it’s safe to say that my video won’t be seeing an international special-edition release any time soon. Which is a bit of a shame, because as well as the opportunity for a rambling commentary, the world won’t be able to see my truly tragic mock-up. Luckily, however, it doesn’t cost anything to share it on YouTube:

The post #ILoveCivil Engineering appeared first on Being Brunel.

About the Author

Construction Youth Trust

• Construction Youth Trust supports young people whose journey to work can be challenging due to barriers relating to their financial circumstances, lack of awareness of opportunities, low self-esteem, gender or ethnicity. The Trust achieves its goals by undertaking a number of programmes ranging from individual bursaries to construction skills courses, and from work placement schemes to guidance sessions.
• Find out more: Construction Youth Trust Website

I’ve done a lot of work in my time talking about careers in construction to kids in schools, and helping out at STEM promotion events; but it is a real challenge to convince someone to enter the industry when they’ll have to do years of training before they’ll even get a chance to try it. That’s why schemes like the fantastically named “Budding Brunels” are so great, as they make a career in construction accessible and engaging through practical, tangible, experiences.  – Ed.

Budding Brunels is a schools engagement programme run by Construction Youth Trust, a charity aimed at informing and inspiring young people from disadvantaged backgrounds about higher education and career options within the construction industry. The Open College Network accredited programme gives students a unique chance to gain first-hand knowledge of how the industry works as well as the opportunity to gain valuable work experience.

So how do we inform and inspire these students? A great example of how our programme works can be found in our latest initiative we’ve started with Network Rail this year, which we’re very excited about. As part of Network Rail’s work with Crossrail, we will be delivering an extended Budding Brunels programme called Budding Brunels Rail, working with students and communities that neighbour the overground sections of the Crossrail line in East and West London. This will include a series of our standard three-day workshops and further ‘bitesize’ opportunities to maintain engagement with young people interested in the industry.

Our Executive Director Christine Townley commented about the new project:

The key initiatives of the programme will take the form of our three-day workshops, which are always based around a construction project. In the past, students have visited the Aquatics Centre at the former Olympic Park, and the Leadenhall building in the city; but as this is a rail focused programme students will be visiting the construction works taking place along the Crossrail line, including Acton Mainline Station, Abbey Wood Station and the fly-over being built in Stockley.

We have already run the first Budding Brunels Rail workshop with great success. Eighteen students from Brentside High School and EHWL College visited Imperial College London where the course began with a talk from the head of the Department for Civil and Environmental Engineering and interactive presentations by Network Rail staff. This is an important part of the project as the advice comes directly from the industry and students are introduced to a range of roles including some that they may never have considered, or associated with construction! Students took part in activities centred on the STEM subjects – a favourite is the spaghetti marshmallow challenge where participants build a structure that will hold with no other support and try and make it as tall as possible!

Students were given tours around the Crossrail Acton dive-under site and taught how to use a dumpy level and a theodolite, while learning how health and safety is managed. This is usually the day that the students enjoy the most, as it’s completely different to any experience that they would normally have!

Tushant, a Budding Brunels Rail student said:

The final day was held at the University of London Union where students delivered presentations on their experiences of the site tours and pitched advertising campaigns to encourage young people into the rail industry. They then took part in interviews with Network Rail representatives, with those students who performed well going on to do work experience placements.

After the three days we have to say goodbye to the students but we keep in touch with them updating them on any further opportunities. Over the years many of our beneficiaries have gone on to become Trust ambassadors and with the Budding Brunels Rail programme we’re creating an alumni – ‘Crossrail Club’ – in order to formalise post-project contact and maintain a more regular dialogue with the beneficiaries.

The Budding Brunels programme has grown rapidly from when it first began in 2010 and 2014 is set to be one of our busiest years! If you are interested in getting involved, or want more information, please contact [email protected] or call 0207 467 9540.

We recently made a film about our work at the Trust which includes footage of our first Budding Brunels Rail course:

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter @ConstructionYT and find us on Facebook to keep updated on the latest from the Trust!

The post Budding Brunels appeared first on Being Brunel.

This week I learnt that professionals blogging within the construction industry has become enough of a thing for there to be paid courses on the subject. This can only be a good thing. As I am a professional with a relatively successful blog, I thought a post sharing my experience and lessons learned might well be of interest…

Before I begin though- I honestly believe that if more engineers took the time to blog and share what they’re doing with the world, the profession would be much easier to engage with. So if you want to know more, need any help, or just want to promote what you’re doing- feel free to send me an e-mail.

Rule One

If you’re going to start a blog, do it for yourself. I have received the odd compliment or two, enjoyed the thrill of going viral once or twice, and even been interviewed because of it- but blogging takes so much more than it gives; and if you can’t do it because you enjoy it for what it is, then you’ve set yourself up for a fall.

You also need to decide if you’re going to write as yourself, or anonymously. The latter is much harder, and probably only worth it if you’re going to be doing some whistle-blowing. If you’re being yourself- having a look at your employer’s policy; if they don’t have one, or it’s needlessly restrictive, I’d recommend trying to hammer out something before, or soon after, you start. As a side note, Being Brunel isn’t anonymous, I just didn’t want the focus to be about me as a person.

First Steps

Taking the view that you’ve already decided to start blogging, the next step is to decide what to write about. For me, it was clear that the world had enough prominent engineers exchanging rhetoric without me attempting to join in; so I opted to try a more off-beat tact. As a good rule of thumb, I’d say try and write articles that you would actually enjoy reading.

Once you’ve got a vague notion of what you’re going to write, you’ll need a platform. I unequivocally recommend WordPress, which offers simple and free hosting for your blog; making it quick and easy to start writing. At this point you’re going to have to think of a name. Top tips; keep it short and simple, and- if you’re feeling optimistic about the future, have a look on the likes GoDaddy to make sure that no one else owns www.[your-site-name].com already.

The first post is the hardest. Hypocritically, I’d say that you should avoid starting your blogging career with a post about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Do keep it short though- you don’t want to burn out too early. I’d also recommend you just get your head down and write it, leave picking themes, changing the layout, writing an ‘about me’ page and all the other superfluous site-setup tasks for now.

Don’t Stop Believing

I might say it jokingly, but I honestly believe the secret to any success I have has come from making a commitment to write a post once every week. The structure is compulsive; making it much harder to abandon or neglect your blog. If you don’t believe me, check online- the world is full of first-post blogs, or those updated in sporadic ‘new year resolution’ fits of activity, only to be abandoned for another two years.

When it comes to knowing what to write, I tend to just jot down ideas for posts, as and when they come, in the back of my diary; remember, not everything you write need be profound or game-changing. I’ve also learnt not to underestimate the amount of time it takes to write a post; when I started I had visions of doing weekly design guides, but I’ve found these are the sort of things that need a few weeks to pull off. Typically I have two posts on the go at any one time; the one for the week, and the ‘big-one‘ for a few weeks time.

Oddly, I’d also say wait until you’ve written about four posts (that’s a month on my schedule) before you start to tell people about the blog. By then you should have hopefully found a rhythm, a bit of a voice, and a vague idea of where you’re going. Now is the time to maybe pretty-up your layout, find a theme, write a heart-felt “about me” page and all that jazz.

Getting Serious

When it comes to making the world aware that you’re now blogging, I found Facebook helpful in my formative months, then LinkedIn (especially if you target groups), followed finally by Twitter- which requires a more significant investment, but is worth it (if only to see what great work other people are doing) when you’re up and going.

After a few months, once you’ve got a feel for it; it might be worth taking your blog a bit more seriously. Consider buying a domain (www.[your-site-name].com), and self-hosting. Migrating from WordPress.com to your own server is easy to do, and gives you the flexibility to use more professional themes and powerful plugins (honestly, I’m not on commission).

Finally, I thought I’d end with a few “tricks of the trade”: Displaying related posts helps people browsing your site to find other articles that might also interest them; the more advance layouts on Being Brunel are done using shortcodes, which are easy enough to write; and Flickr is a wonderful source of free (Creative Commons) images.

The post Blogging For Engineers appeared first on Being Brunel.

About the Author

Claire Gott

• Claire is a Structural Engineer working for WSP on multidisciplinary projects across the UK covering the retail, health, education and commercial sectors. She is also the co-founder of the engineering charity, Cameroon Catalyst.
• Find out more: LinkedIn

A while ago I joked about how the previous NCE Graduate of the Year award winners were all people who seemingly draw structures from the earth using their bare hands, while simultaneously bringing peace and competent infrastructure to the third world- well Claire is who I was talking about! – Ed.

This is something that I get asked on a regular basis – a question that sings from the lips of everyone I meet beyond the sphere of the construction sector! And however clichéd it may sound, my response is always the same – to make a difference!

Despite being only in my mid-twenties, I’m sure I’m not alone in admitting that it already seems a lifetime ago that I made the decision to read engineering at University. So with pressure mounting on our young professionals to secure and retain jobs, leading to a cultural shift of looking good on paper, is it any surprise that some engineers lose sight of what attracted them to the industry in the first place?

Well, deep down I don’t think you ever forget why you wanted to become an engineer or who your role model was but I wasn’t willing to take the risk! So before I left university – before I got wrapped up in the real world – I made a promise to myself that I would keep my reasoning at the fore of my actions. And so far, it’s actually been easier than I thought!

Since co-founding the engineering charity, Cameroon Catalyst, in 2009, I’ve had the opportunity to work with like-minded, enthusiastic engineering students each year to provide improved medical, educational and microbusiness facilities in an effort to help villages in North East Cameroon on the road to self-sufficiency.

Some might argue that this is a little beyond the day job, but really all of my tangible skills developed at University and every aspect of my role at WSP are applied to my leadership position at Cameroon Catalyst!

For example, many of the thought processes that we follow on a daily basis as engineers are needed for all projects despite size, location or end use; understanding the needs of the end user, developing the clients brief, building health and safety considerations into the design, accommodating construction techniques and construction programme, considering sourcing of materials, co-ordinating with other co-professionals etc.

One area where there is a distinct overlap is communication, and this is ever apparent when we stumble across new ideas – I remember how we (Cameroon Catalyst and local villagers) once resorted to drawing pictures in the red Cameroonian sand before we realised that we hadn’t misheard the village chief – the local well digger really can dig a well up to 20m deep by hand!

Now, working closely with the ICE and having signed up as a STEMnet ambassador I get to talk to the next generation of potential engineers about all of these opportunities and hopefully inspire them to become part of the construction industry too.

So whether it is about improving the quality of life for those less fortunate, promoting best practice across the industry or changing perceptions within wider society, ask yourself, what made you become an engineer and do your actions reflect that?

Ed.: This year Cameroon Catalyst are working to provide a solar panel/diesel generator for the new medical centre they built in 2010.  I asked Claire to provide me with a link to the donation page, so that any readers who want to, can help them reach their fundraising goal:

Donate to Cameroon Catalyst

The post What Inspires You To Be A Civil Engineer? appeared first on Being Brunel.

I spent the majority of my Thursday last week playing with Lego in a professional capacity. Considering that this is the dream for most Civil Engineers I know, I thought I’d share my day refereeing for the FIRST Lego League (or FLL for the abbreviated) with you all.

When it comes down to it, the FLL is a robotics competition for teams of school students using the Lego Mindstorm kits. Don’t let the ‘Final Fantasy-esq’ title miss-lead you; it’s actually the 14th FLL since its inception, with every annual iteration bring a new ‘theme’ to the proceedings. This year’s was “Senior Solutions”, and included such dubious links such as making the robots ‘climb stairs’ and ‘bowl’ (you know, like old people do…).

The Senior Solutions Board

The competition is split in to three, equally weighted, segments. The first being the design of a robot, and it’s performance in a series of matches to complete tasks. The second is an invention that addresses a problem posed by the theme; an aspect that has won groups patents over the years. The final segment is ‘core values’ which consist of a series of trademarked buzzwords (including a hideous portmanteau of cooperation and competition), which ultimately transcribe into not beating up the other teams.

As a referee I spent most of my time on the match tables; scoring the teams on the number of tasks they managed to complete and enforcing the rules (which are lessons in precision cheating if ever I saw any). As you would expect, the combination of working with students, and playing with Lego, was ultimately rewarding. Although the teams that did well were fun and impressive to watch, I found it was the worst performers were the most engaging.

I refereed a team across three rounds (spread along the day) of very young competitors. Their game plan was clearly to pick a task and design and practice to compete and score on it. The first two rounds were a tense two and a half minutes of the robot almost, but not quite, managing to navigate to the task. In the final round they managed to get their robot to the base of the task in the last minute; and if films had taught me anything it was that this was when everything would start to go well for them. It’s possible I was more heartbroken then they were when it didn’t manage the task.

At the end the trophies were handed out, under a number of headlines- and I was glad to see the aforementioned team win a sportsmanship award. I doubt I was the only engineer there who would have easily given up all their accolades for one of those trophies made of Lego. We didn’t get any of the ‘veteran’ high-scorers; but If you want to see the sharp end of the international competition, you can check this out:

It seems only fair that I end this week’s post by pointing out that you, too, can be a STEM Ambassador and play with Lego in the name of ‘Promoting Engineering’.

The post The 14th FIRST Lego League appeared first on Being Brunel.