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WIT team win Chartered Institute of Building Student Challenge
Posted: Mon, March 29, 2010 |
A four-strong team from Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) has won this year’s Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) Student Challenge at finals held at the Institute’s headquarters in Ascot.
The WIT team consisting of fourth year BSc (Hons) in Construction Management & Engineering students Gavin Ennis, Wexford; Michael Harty, Tipperary; Gerald Hoare, Kildare and Seamus Richardson, Limerick previously won the Irish regional final and came out on top in Ascot ahead of teams from several leading UK universities and colleges.
Second place in the final went to Anglia Ruskin University while a team from University College London (UCL) finished third and Northumbria University were highly commended.
The challenge set for the 11 teams in the final required students to take on the role of consultants retained by a local authority to provide specialist advice on retrofitting housing dating from pre-1920, 1950s-1960s and 1980s-90s. The advice had to include details of how they would improve the thermal performance, comfort and living space of three types of houses. The works were required to meet the needs of a community with both young families and an ageing population.
Teams had to complete a number of exhaustive exercises, including the production of a detailed written report that had to demonstrate that different house types required different approaches, including the financial benefits and costs associated with each one. To complete the challenge, the students gave a 10-minute presentation to industry experts that covered the findings and recommendations for the proposed projects.
Dr Sarah Peace, Scholarship & Research Manager, Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and a member of the judging panel, said: “This year’s challenge produced some really innovative and insightful solutions. The type of challenge these students faced has become an increasingly familiar one as we look to upgrade existing housing stock from different eras. The need for our industry to tackle this issue is paramount if we are going to reduce our C02 emissions.
“What impressed the judges the most was the passion and awareness all the student teams showed throughout the event. But for us, Waterford gave the most complete and creative set of solutions for all three types of houses.”
According to Ken Thomas, Head of the Department of Civil & Construction Engineering at Waterford Institute of Technology, “It was a tremendous achievement for Gavin, Michael, Gerald and Seamus to have won through to represent Ireland in the final. To go on and win it outright in the face of very stiff competition from across Britain and Northern Ireland is fantastic and reflects very well on the team as well as on Kevin Ryan, Anne-Marie O’Connor and John Carney - the group of mentors who worked with the team members – and our Institute more widely.
“The CIOB has over 42,000 members around the world and is recognised as the international voice of the building profession. With a history going back to the early 19th Century, it has a proud record of providing leadership in this industry. Given this, it will be a huge plus to the careers of the team to have come through as overall winners of the CIOB Student Challenge. Their many hours of preparation over several months were clearly well spent and this is especially noteworthy as they combined it with their final year assessment schedule.”
The Department of Civil & Construction Engineering at Waterford Institute of Technology offers BEng in Civil Engineering; BSc (Hons) in Quantity Surveying and BSc (Hons) in Construction Management & Engineering degree programmes and can be reached on (051) 845512 or by emailing cce@wit.ie.
