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Newcastle pupils victorious in civil engineering contest

Students from a school in Newcastle have proven themselves the victors in a regional engineering contest.

The team from Sacred Heart School showed off their skills in the final of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) North East’s annual Creative Construction competition.

Nine schools from across Tyne & Wear, Northumberland and County Durham took part in the final at Newcastle University, after ICE ambassadors toured the region, holding competitions in schools.

The best team from each school progressed to the final, which saw them design replacements for the High Level Bridge in Newcastle.

The Sacred Heart team were deemed to have produced the best combination of load carried, design and associated costs.

Three other awards were presented to St Leonard’s School, Durham, for design economy; to Alnwick Lindisfarne School, Alnwick, for sustainability; and to St Cuthbert’s School, Newcastle, for the most creative solution.

Mike Gardiner, ICE North East’s regional education co-ordinator, said: “The future of the High Level Bridge is a real life, high profile issue which faces civil engineering in the North East. The children who took part in this project will be a generation which will see the effects of the reality of this situation, so the challenge has allowed them to be among the first to put real effort and consideration into finding a solution to the problem.

“The youngsters at all of the schools put great thought into the project and I hope it will have helped them to see what a real difference you can make to the world when you follow the career path of a civil engineer.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .