School of Engineering News

Civil Engineering graduate Oliver Newth, has been awarded the prestigious Kennedy Scholarship to study MEng High Performance Structures at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The ceremony, hosted by the IMechE in London, was held on Tuesday 9 July.

The Kennedy Scholarship is an academic award supporting high-calibre UK graduates, allowing them to study in the US at the world-renowned universities of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Not only will scholars be able to deepen their existing expertise, but can also explore the diversity of the field, as well as new areas of work altogether. Kennedy Scholars are also expected to spend their time in the United States enriching their lives more broadly.

During his undergraduate degree at Warwick, Oliver has enjoyed studying the duality of function and form in structural engineering and gained a particular interest in high-rise buildings and skyscrapers. He looks forward to the practical relevance of his chosen course, particularly relating to research into construction materials and how findings from such research can lead to improved durability, ultimately saving lives in earthquake-prone environments.

In 2011, the School of Engineering funded Oliver and two computer scientists to develop a lecture resource management application as a six-week summer project. Oliver has also given significant time to teaching mathematics in Ghana through the Warwick in Africa programme over the past two years and has recently spent four months working in Sierra Leone as a project engineer. His exposure to the poor infrastructure in these countries will also inform his studies at MIT and his future as an engineer.

Oliver graduated from the University of Warwick in 2012 with a First Class Honours degree in Civil Engineering.

Details of the research being undertaken by the School of Engineering into construction materials for earthquake zones can be found here.