The Berkshire Local Network PATW competition was held at UTC Reading on 21st March 2019, but you could be forgiven for thinking that you had come to an Institution of Civil Engineers’ meeting, as three of the four presenters talked about civil engineering related subjects.
The first speaker, Samuel Hyginus, an electrical engineer who works for Peter Brett Associates, spoke about recruitment in the construction industry, and his enthusiasm for the industry was clear, particularly in the question and answers session.
The second speaker, Louise Batts, an assistant contract manager at highway maintenance contractor, Ringway, spoke about the refurbishment of the Augustus Close Bridge, a bridge in Brentford, originally designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and the issues arising in refurbishing a bridge in such a heavily populated area, and keeping the local population on-side during the project.
The third speaker, Joachim Toftegaard Hansen, a second year undergraduate, studying Mechanical Engineering at Oxford Brookes University, and Danish national, spoke enthusiastically about mathematics, and about accuracy of communication in mathematics.
The final speaker, Cat Terrett, a systems engineering team lead at Ultra Electronics Command and Sonar Systems, spoke about the importance of good requirements. The talk covered how to create good requirements, and how to minimise the risk of missing details which can have expensive project implications. The talk finished with examples of failures of requirements, including a problem on the Mancunian Way road project, where a road ended in mid-air because it was designed to connect with a one way street, running in the wrong direction.
The judging panel, Eddie Maguire, Laura Onyshchenko and Abhaya Sumanasena, and the audience were impressed with all four talks, and the judges awarded runner-up place to Joachim Toftegaard Hansen, and winners place to Cat Terrett. Cat will now go in to the PATW National Final at the National Space Centre in Leicestershire on 13th July.