The Monash-Warwick Alliance was celebrated recently, when students from University of Warwick were chosen to be the first from the UK to be invited to compete in a biennial international civil engineering competition. The 8th Inter-University Invitational Civil Engineering Competition (IUICEC) took place between 7th and 9th July and was hosted by the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University, Australia.

Warwick was represented by a team from the School of Engineering, lead by Professor Toby Mottram. The three students were Hazel Needham (4th year MEng Civil Engineering), Katherine Thorne and Joe Wesley (both 2014 graduates).

There were 14 other teams competing from the top universities in the countries of Australia (5), China (4), Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.

Working to a specific set of rules and with only 23 hours allowed, the 15 teams competed to design and build a bridge structure from 1mm thick balsa wood which would be able to withstand various forces applied to it. These were static, dynamic, geotechnical and hydraulic conditions, testing the bridges to destruction.

The Warwick team competed hard and gained much understanding and experience on how to construct elegant and efficient bridges using balsa wood. It was also a great networking opportunity for all competitors.

From left to right: Hazel Needham, Joe Wesley, Katherine Thorne and Professor Toby Mottram (leader) with Joe and Katie holding the Warwick bridge

Katherine commented: "The competition was a great experience to visit an area of the world I may never have made it to otherwise. Meeting students from all over East Asia and all corners of Australia was awesome, not just for keeping in contact, but also learning the way they have been taught civil engineering and how different their university experience is to that in the UK.

As well as the competition, we were encouraged to travel the area and get to see Australia which was one of the primary reasons I wanted to go. If given the choice, I would definitely volunteer for the trip again. A great experience, with an ace team that laughed a lot!"

Joe and Hazel, reflecting after the competition said: “It has been a great opportunity to travel to Australia and meet students with difference cultural and academic experiences. It was an amazing challenge to build a balsa wood bridge in two days which met the requirements of four different load cases.”

The School of Engineering looks forward to sending a team to the next IUICEC in 2016. The 9th competition will be at Shanghai Jiaotung University and led by Associate Professor Song Xiaobing.