The Future Of Designing

Written By: Muhammad Zainudin

In April, the University of Sheffield’s Engieering Faculty organised a prestigious conference in collaboration with the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. The whole day event was held in the Diamond Building with a dinner and networking session afterwards. The organising committee consisted of our dedicated lecturers who hoped to bring great ideas and networking opportunities to both industrial engineers and students. The event attracted big company sponsors such as ARUP, Mott Macdonald, EADON Consulting and OASYS with IStructE and Eckersley O’Callaghan being the prize sponsors.

The opening address was by Ian Firth, the President of the IABSE British Group and IStructE. He gave an inspirational speech about how he wanted future engineers to strive forward and make the world a better place for everyone, both aesthetically and functionally. Then, the conference started with the first keynote speaker being James O’ Callaghan, the Director of Eckersley O’Callaghan. He talked about the revolution of glass structures and the company’s collaboration with Apple Inc. in making the world’s largest glass building without joints. The second keynote speaker was Nick Francis from EADON Consulting and the last was from Steve Webb, the Director of Webb Yates. He talked about revolutionary stairs made from timber. After a coffee break the conference continued with a session from a member of the Government Security Advisor regarding Infrastructure Security. He gave a strong speech about how companies ignore infrastructure security while terrorism is an ever-present threat, which can potentially destroy lives and buildings.

In the afternoon, we had a delicious lunch prepared by the Diamond Café with a variety of different cuisines on offer. The day continued with two parallel Interactive Workshop sessions to choose from; Optimisation by Professor Matthew Gilbert and Andy Tas or Sketching-The Art of Approximation by Ron Slade, Hugh Morrison and Peter Debney. I attended the latter session and learned how to sketch and analyse a structure from different angles. I found this challenging as I am still a student but other, more experienced engineers eased their way through and their drawings were flawless. Then came the Young Designer Competition and I was eager to see the participants and what they were showcasing. Among all four competitors, I was most inspired by a female student from Sheffield Hallam University. She was the only student competing against working engineers and she presented her recent project, The Magnolia Grid Shell, very wonderfully and full of enthusiasm.

The last session was by John Roberts, the Executive Director of Operations of Jacobs UK. He is a very experienced engineer and he presented his project, Brighton i360, very professionally. Brighton i360 is the tallest moving observation platform in the world at 162m and the world’s most slender tower at diameter of 3.9m. The tower is high in aesthetic value and attracts tourists from all over the world to Brighton. The day ended with a closing ceremony by Ian Firth and awards presented to the winners of the Young Designer Competition: Adam Rich of Cullinan Studio and Ian Shepherd of Elliot Wood. They both received a year’s worth of IStructE membership and a Designer Book.

I learnt a lot at the conference and I really hope that Future of Design Sheffield will continue in the future for fellow engineering students. Many thanks to the University of Sheffield’s Engineering Faculty for organising such a wonderful event.

SusSed

Written By Muhammad Zainudin

The Sustainability Skills and Education (SusSed) Series

SusSEd is an initiative project by the Green Impact Team in the University of Sheffield. What exactly is Green Impact? Their website describes it as, ‘Green Impact is a simple, rewarding and fun sustainability accreditation scheme’. The definition outlines the clear aims of the University of Sheffield to make a huge impact on the environment whilst maintaining its integrity and values. Nicholas Nuttgens, mentioned during one of the SusSEd’s talks that apparently people talk about climate change for less than 5 minutes, when it is in fact one of the biggest issues facing humankind. Even the United Nations addressed climate change as one of the problems to be tackled in their 17 Sustainability Goals.

SusSEd includes 11 inspiring motivational talks by renowned professors and experts in their own respective fields. They are trying to attract as many people as they can by hosting the talks during lunchbreaks, 12:10pm to 1:00pm every Tuesday and Thursday. University students can attend talks for free and register their name for each session to get HEAR Recognition.

Every session was amazing; a few talks really touched my heart and passionately inspired me. The first one was from Nicholas Nuttgens, his topic was ‘Talking About Climate Change: Developing Our Skills’. He began the talk, by telling us how the world perceived Climate Change in one word, based on his life-long survey. The words were SLOW, HUGE, COMPLEX, INVISIBLE, INTERGENERATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL and CHALLENGING. I think all these words perfectly describe climate change because it is reacting slowly and is rarely seen by the naked eye.  Perhaps, it will not be us who will experience the hellish effects of climate change but it may be endured by future generations. To help tackle climate change, we can change small actions from our normal and comfortable everyday routines like switching on the AC, using less air travel for holidays and encouraging more car sharing to make a difference. However, the sad truth is, probably, only a few people will do it. Nicholas split everyone into groups of five to dicuss various scenarios. The discussion had a huge impact on me as I reflected on all the petty decisions I had made during my life, risking the lovely Earth. It made me more aware of changes I could make, such as shopping online rather than driving a carbon-releasing car to an air-conditioned mall to buy one shirt.  

The Sustainability Skills and Education (SusSed) Series

SusSEd is an initiative project by the Green Impact Team in the University of Sheffield. What exactly is Green Impact? Their website describes it as, ‘Green Impact is a simple, rewarding and fun sustainability accreditation scheme’. The definition outlines the clear aims of the University of Sheffield to make a huge impact on the environment whilst maintaining its integrity and values. Nicholas Nuttgens, mentioned during one of the SusSEd’s talks that apparently people talk about climate change for less than 5 minutes, when it is in fact one of the biggest issues facing humankind. Even the United Nations addressed climate change as one of the problems to be tackled in their 17 Sustainability Goals.

SusSEd includes 11 inspiring motivational talks by renowned professors and experts in their own respective fields. They are trying to attract as many people as they can by hosting the talks during lunchbreaks, 12:10pm to 1:00pm every Tuesday and Thursday. University students can attend talks for free and register their name for each session to get HEAR Recognition.

Every session was amazing; a few talks really touched my heart and passionately inspired me. The first one was from Nicholas Nuttgens, his topic was ‘Talking About Climate Change: Developing Our Skills’. He began the talk, by telling us how the world perceived Climate Change in one word, based on his life-long survey. The words were SLOW, HUGE, COMPLEX, INVISIBLE, INTERGENERATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL and CHALLENGING. I think all these words perfectly describe climate change because it is reacting slowly and is rarely seen by the naked eye.  Perhaps, it will not be us who will experience the hellish effects of climate change but it may be endured by future generations. To help tackle climate change, we can change small actions from our normal and comfortable everyday routines like switching on the AC, using less air travel for holidays and encouraging more car sharing to make a difference. However, the sad truth is, probably, only a few people will do it. Nicholas split everyone into groups of five to dicuss various scenarios. The discussion had a huge impact on me as I reflected on all the petty decisions I had made during my life, risking the lovely Earth. It made me more aware of changes I could make, such as shopping online rather than driving a carbon-releasing car to an air-conditioned mall to buy one shirt.  

The second talk that inspired me was by Christopher Jones who discussed public perception towards carbon dioxide. Jones is actively involved in making the public face of Carbon Dioxide Utilisation (CDU) a forethought. During his talk, he quoted Apt & Fischhoff (2006), “without public acceptance, it may be impossible for electric sector innovations such as CDU to gain regulatory approval, find sites or secure funding”. Based on his research, using focus groups he found that CDU awareness was very low. The discussion covered three areas: Conceptual (should we do this?), Technical (can we do this?) and Societal (what will happen?). As a result, conceptually, he found that CDU is valued as part of mitigation effort and is accepted generally with significant caveats and technically, CDU may be possible.

In conclusion, I found all the talks very motivating and they helped the attendees realise that an environmental crisis is very real and needs to be tackled imminently. Furthermore, SusSEd staff are dedicated to keeping the events running smoothly for the presenters and audiences. I hope that Green Impact will continue this noble initiative to educate young peoples’ attitudes towards improving the environment.
The second talk that inspired me was by Christopher Jones who discussed public perception towards carbon dioxide. Jones is actively involved in making the public face of Carbon Dioxide Utilisation (CDU) a forethought. During his talk, he quoted Apt & Fischhoff (2006), “without public acceptance, it may be impossible for electric sector innovations such as CDU to gain regulatory approval, find sites or secure funding”. Based on his research, using focus groups he found that CDU awareness was very low. The discussion covered three areas: Conceptual (should we do this?), Technical (can we do this?) and Societal (what will happen?). As a result, conceptually, he found that CDU is valued as part of mitigation effort and is accepted generally with significant caveats and technically, CDU may be possible.
In conclusion, I found all the talks very motivating and they helped the attendees realise that an environmental crisis is very real and needs to be tackled imminently. Furthermore, SusSEd staff are dedicated to keeping the events running smoothly for the presenters and audiences. I hope that Green Impact will continue this noble initiative to educate young peoples’ attitudes towards improving the environment.

MY GEC EXPERIENCE 2017 - by Muhhamad Zainudin

It’s been two weeks since the first day of Global Engineering Challenge (GEC) week but I can still vividly remember every single detail of it. After a month of not having to care what time to wake up, I had to be ready by 9 in the morning. I was not exactly sure what to expect from GEC but there was one thing I was hoping for, great teammates. As I was walking through the misty cold morning, I encountered a friend of mine and we walked to the St George’s Church Lecture theatre endlessly talking about our Christmas Holiday experiences. As we arrived, people had already started to find seats and fortunately we managed to grab empty ones. There were a lot of new faces I hadn’t met before because people from different courses across the Engineering faculty were grouped together in this lecture theatre.

Prof Harm Askes started the morning with an energetic introduction and invited a guest speaker from Jaguar Land Rover as an industrial speaker. He was very experienced and wise, telling us about what to expect in the industry. After that, came a speech from Engineers Without Borders (EWB) from an enthusiastic speaker named Dan Craddock. He shared with us some of the projects that EWB has engaged in and it really broadened my horizons about how people are in dire need of help all around the world. Then, we are introduced to Bambui, Cameroon, the small village that everyone was going to work on, finding the best solutions for 26 different problems. My group was tasked with designing an electrical supply infrastructure based on renewable energy sources. The one hour GEC introduction ended with us being briefed about our logistics such as the hub we were in, where it was located and the time management. So, I went to my designated hub which is CIV Workroom 2 on the E floor of the Mappin Building. It was quite challenging to find the room. As the students of The University of Sheffield would know, the Mappin Building could be quite tricky.

I sat down and was introduced to my group mates, Matthew Morrel, Matthew Harding, Matthew Owen, Christopher Liu and Brian Githiga. They were very welcoming and we became friends in a split-second. Morrel and Owen were from Chemical Engineering, Brian was from Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, Christopher and Harding were from Aerospace Engineering and Computer Science respectively. Our facilitator was a very nice man, his name was Matthew Dwyer, another Matthew.

We had team building exercises to know more about our team mates before proceeding with the project. It was a bit awkward to work as a team because we were asked to build a 75 cm tall tower with straws and newspapers and everyone was giving ideas. Out of 8 groups in the hub, none won the challenge. Our facilitator said not to worry about that as we would see the beautiful result at the end of the week and I was looking forward to what he meant.

The days went on with us exchanging ideas and giving our equal contribution to get the project done. We started with Understanding the Problems in Bambui which really helped us get moving. We discovered a whole new world. If we thought 5,000 kWh of electrical consumption and annual income 41,000 USD per capita was normal, then imagine Bambui with a contrast of 200 kWh and 500 USD. We also got familiarized with the proper steps in creating a perfect solution. After we knew the problems, constraints and the stakeholders of the project we moved on to the Design Questions. Asking ourselves what will our design achieve, listing down all the data we have researched and using ballpark estimation for important data we couldn’t find from any sources.

On the next day, we focused on the Design Criteria and each one of us gave our own Design Concepts based on the criteria we had agreed on. We had 6 design concepts and we had to choose the best one by weighing out all the options carefully. It seemed difficult at first, as all the designs proposed by each of our team mates were perfectly reasonable, but our facilitator paved the way as he showed us how to use Decision Matrix to evaluate all our options. Finally, we came up with Biogas Power Plant as the ultimate option. We acknowledged the disadvantages of Biogas Power Plant and we even came up with great solutions to tackle them.

We got our laptops on and started to Develop the Design, laying out all the pros and cons of the idea, the solutions to all the problems, how to implement it, who is funding the project and how to approach them, will it be sustainable and the short and long term effect of the project in terms of politic, environment, economy and social. We submitted the report at the end of the fourth day, feeling exhausted but extremely satisfied with the result. On Friday, we came to the presentation. We had a bit of experience talking in front of an audience because for the last four days, there had been some presentation exercises and we learnt a lot from it. By 4 pm, all the groups finished their presentation and received valuable feedback and comments from our facilitator and the Alumni presented on that day.

For the closing ceremony, we had to go to the St Georges Lecture Theatre and the Vice Chancellor of the Engineering Department gave us few words of wisdom and presented the prizes for the winning team. Even though my team did not win, I felt happy because I can finally understand what our dear facilitator meant on the first day of the GEC. From not being able to work as a team and messing things up, my team and I did finish the project wonderfully and apparently still kept in contact with each other even after the week had ended. I would recommend GEC to be implemented every year as it teaches new students that teamwork is important part of the future and I am thankful for this beautiful experience.

Meet our International Engineering Ambassador: Muhammad Aqil bin Zainudin

Name                    : Muhammad Aqil bin Zainudin

Course                  : Civil and Structural Engineering (MEng)

Nationality             : Malaysian

Who am I?

                Name, done. Nationality, done (you can guess where I am from, it’s Malaysia). If you are still reading seems that you are interested in me and you wanted to know more. Heads up, I am a 20 years old proud married man, yes you heard me right. I’m married to my lovely wife. So you can expect me to be very matured and visionary. ‘Strive forward and conquer all’ is always my motto but fret not, I am not a dictator nor a selfish person. Behind all that, I love to make friends, oh my, did I just use the word love. Not a typo my friend. Meeting new people, making acquaintances and forming relationships are the priorities in my life because I believe connection is one of the most important thing in the world to gain success. Furthermore, I am a hard-core coffee lover so if you want to be my friend, grab a coffee or else. Kidding. And last but not least, I am a sport freak. How freak? Let’s say I can name the sports I didn’t play. I would say sports make everyone healthy and fit, yes I can’t deny that fact but I treat sports as something more meaningful, a network building platform which comes back to my nature, friends making machine.

Why UK and University of Sheffield specifically?

                Other than being the land of beautiful culture and history, I am a Potter fan. Flying here has always been my dream since I was a kid. And Sheffield? I can say that the living cost here is cheap, in fact the cheapest in UK according to a student budget website, look it up. Not just that, for you who hates the crowded hectic city life, do come here. The lifestyle is very calm and relax, you could enjoy the city centre without being shoved or pushed. But that does not mean the city is any less, top branded shops are here. I could sum up Sheffield is an ideal city for a simple guy like me, not too much or not too less. And the best part is the Peak District, a wonderful breath-taking view of the nature and it is just half an hour drive. Stressed out studying? Take a break and chill there.

                Here comes the serious business, my learning institution, THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD. As proud as its name, it is. Providing the best learning environment for all students is like a promise here. You won’t be left out and if you are, you are something wrong. The system here is very efficient, you have the online learning environment(MOLE) where you can easily access anything about your university, course, email and any related services here. It’s a balanced learning environment where coursework is meant for your future and super beneficial and the lecturers are friendly, knowledgeable and career life-equipped (means you can ask for career advice and CV improvement, they are great at it).

Why Civil and Structural Engineering?

                Civil and Structural Engineering is not as what people depicted, boring and not challenging as other engineering branches. Do you see the city that you loved and enjoyed so much? The tall buildings that make your nation proud? Or even the water coming from your shower pipes? It will be my responsibility one day. You control the city development and where does the majority population lived in? Exactly, the city. Means you have the power to shape the society and not just that, the environment counts on you too. Companies need you, people need you, everyone needs you. I am in the first year and I am learning Autodesk Revit, Matlab and constructing bridges, I could tell you it’s superbly interesting and challenging in a good way. You are literally enhancing your life skill technically and socially. Moreover, you are expected to work in a group, not just between your course mate, but soon later in life, you will be working along architects, mechanical engineers, land tenure etc. I would say civil and structural engineering is an ideal course (just like me ;) ) where it will mould you into a holistic person in the future.

Some Piece of Advice?

                Do come to the University of Sheffield and enrol in any of your desired engineering subject. It will guide you automatically. Isn’t that so simple. I can guarantee it. Make your steps here and just follow the great tides of the learning experiences and you will be landed on a luxurious life island. Any hesitation contacts us, that is why we are called the Ambassador. Give us jobs, we love it.