This is a sponsored article for Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
Do you know a London engineer of the future?
ICE's #ICanEngineer competition invites secondary school pupils to put their heads together, and come up with life-changing practical design projects based on real life civil engineering.
In 2019, entrants were asked to design a flood defence for London. Over 50 candidates considered innovative technologies, economic considerations, environmental impact, social benefits and materials used — before revealing their final designs.
The results were incredible — and included a dual flood defence and water storage scheme (Queen Elizabeth's School); a London flood defence project (Kew School); and a new river crossing linking up Essex and Kent with a retractable dam (Sutton Grammar School). Not even WE'D be clever enough to dream up something like that.
ICE London Director Jonathan Baggs said:
The #ICanEngineer Competition has shown that our schools are full of budding engineers and innovators. I hope that these students now see the creative and practical applications of engineering to solve some of the biggest challenges in society.
Your chance to get kids involved
In 2020, the #ICanEngineer competition returns to tackle another topical challenge. It's free to enter — and helps develop children's critical thinking and problem solving as well as teamwork and communication skills. What's more, the competition opens doors to meeting real life engineers, and seeing amazing engineering happening in London right now.
As Mr Shane Maheady, Teacher of Technology at Queen Elizabeth’s School said: "The opportunity to extend beyond the curriculum was an exciting challenge and an experience which will aid them in the future... We’ll certainly be entering this competition again next year."
If you're a parent or teacher interested in getting kids involved, email [email protected] for key competition details, or to arrange a school visit/workshop.
