This summer, Craddys have hosted 11 Work Experience students at various stages of schooling to complete an intensive 1-week course on Civil and Structural Engineering led by the team of Graduates & Engineers from our Bristol and Cardiff offices, overseen by Project Engineer Tom Minett.
Kicking off like any good engineering project, the students started the week off with a ‘site-visit’, touring the various structures of our local area Pill. After completing the subsequent site-appraisal, the students continued their learning by designing an extension to our Pill office and sizing key elements.
Principles of sustainable and inclusive design were driving factors behind designer decisions. This was topped off with an embodied carbon calculation to determine the impact of their material choices. Civils work was also incorporated in the form of a levelling exercise teaching the students about flow path principles.
The week finally ended with testing the practicality of their design intentions by constructing a bridge using skewers and marshmallows, load testing their bridges with office equipment; unsurprisingly the highlight of their week!
It has been an absolute pleasure hosting these students – watching them grow in confidence across the week is genuinely one of the highlights of our year. We look forward to inspiring many more in years to come.
