The Rapid Response Engineering Challenge is an exciting and informative one day event which promotes a positive image of civil engineering to high school students.
We are calling for a graduate engineers working towards ICE chartered member status to get involved in this initiative. As well as gaining valuable interpersonal skills, you will promote the industry – one of the ICE core development objectives. The aim of the initiative is to deliver two key messages: that civil engineering is challenging and varied, and that civil engineering is essential for our survival.
The day of the event focuses on a recent natural disaster – Hurricane Mitch in Honduras – and uses it to demonstrate the key role that civil engineers play immediately after disaster has struck. The students assume the role of RedR (Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief) and are forced to think about some of the issues faced when trying to restore order to devastated areas, such as the provision of clean drinking water/sanitation, the restoration of transport links, and construction of temporary shelters. Here, they are able to gain an insight into three key branches of civil engineering – water engineering, transportation engineering and structural engineering.
The day is run as a competition between teams of pupils, with part of the day spent outdoors. The students are asked to build temporary shelters and a water supply system using nothing but bamboo sticks, plastic sheeting and half-cut drain piping – local materials they would expect to find in a disaster-hit area. The shelters are even subjected to water being thrown against them (to recreate the hurricane-like conditions) with volunteers from each group sitting inside the tents, braving the storm. The day closes with prizes for all teams, and the students are left with a lasting impression of the importance of civil engineering.
Half-day and full-day events have been devised by Ravi Azad of Elliot Wood Partnership, with the help of Christina Rigby, Justin Gathercole, Sarah Wadley and Stephanie Bouhala. A number of events have been successfully delivered to Year 9 students in schools across the country for several years, most recently at Newstead Wood School, Bromley.
Several more events are being planned this year, and they will need the support of volunteer graduate engineers to help facilitate and run them.
If you would like to get involved, please register with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network (STEMNET) letting them know that you are an ICE member. STEMNET will be able to tell you about events taking place in your area.
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