Tuesday 3rd December Family Structural Engineers

Inmarsat building, Wikimedia Commons

This afternoon, families joined the NUSTEM team for a drop in structural engineering activity. We challenged you to design and build the strongest bridge possible, and to test this by hanging 100g weights from the centre of the bridge to see how much weight it would hold before it collapsed.

How did you do?

For more building activities to try at home using inexpensive, household resources, click here.

What is a structural engineer?

Structural engineers are focused on all aspects concerned with buildings and built structures, such as houses, hospitals, office blocks, bridges, oil rigs, ships and aircraft. They work to understand, predict and measure aspects such as the strength, stability and how rigid buildings are. They also work to develop new designs or modify the designs of buildings or structures which are to be constructed and are responsible for choosing the appropriate materials, such as concrete, steel, timber and masonry, to meet design specification.

Attributes: observant, committed, tenacious

There are many different kinds of engineers. We have lots more career information and activities related to different types of engineers for you to try at home.  Click here to find out more about wind energy engineers, click here to learn about sound engineers, and click here to discover more about mechanical engineers.