On Friday 11 May 2018, Year 2 Civil Engineering students have competed in a bridge model test as part of their Group Design Project. Eight groups have built their own bridges, each spanning 1 meter, using nothing but wood and glue. The winner weighs only 215 g but sustained a load of more than 67.5 kg. This clearly demonstrates the power of civil engineering: with the right design and construction, you can carry very high load with very little material.

The bridge competition is an assessed component of the Group Design Project module (H21GDP). In this module, students are asked to design a bridge with 100 m span and then built a 1:100 model. Applying the knowledge they are learning from the Civil Engineering course, students are able to improve and optimise their design, reducing weight of the bridge while improving strength at the same time.

The H21GDP module was first introduced in the 2016-2017 year and came as part of the restructuring of our BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering course, whereby the approach of problem based learning was implemented. This would familiarise our students with real world problems and allow for in-depth and constructive learning. Students also gain interpersonal and networking skills in their teamwork.