News

CIOB Novus London held their 2012 Student Challenge Regional Heats, in the stunning Queen Mary Undercroft at Greenwich University. 8 teams took part from 3 Universities across London. This year we were fortunate to be supported by United House in Swanley Kent. Tony Martin Construction Director for United House and his team set and introduced a challenging and thought provoking challenge, on their impressive Clapham One Project in South London. The stunning £80 million landmark Clapham One PPP (Public Private Partnership) Project for the London Borough of Lambeth encompasses two sites in Clapham. United House secured the contract to design and build a new community library, primary care medical centre and 136 private sale apartments as joint developer and investor with Cathedral Group plc on the site of the former Mary Seacole House, on Clapham High Street.

The teams were set 4 questions covering secant piling, risk assessment, take off and environmental issues associated with developing a brownfield site. After 2 hours the teams presented their work to the marking team, the standard of work this year was again exceptionally high with only 11.5 points separating first and last place. This is a fantastic indication of the standard of graduates who will be entering the industry within the next couple of years.

After much debate the winners were announced:

1st Place: Greenwich University Team D: Jack Hawes, Lauren Milton, Ryan Boshell and Lloyd Worsley

2nd Place: Greenwich University Team B: Jack Davies, Ben Findlay and Mat Glendenning

3rd Place: ACE University of East London: Oanh Le, Kumba Chhantyal, Kazl Nikita and Aneesha Reddy

Team D from Greenwich will go on to represent the Branch at the National Finals held at Englemere on Wednesday 14th March 2012.

The student challenge continues to be one of the most enjoyable events we organise and the Branch would like to offer their sincere thanks to Tony Martin and his team from United House for their hard work in preparing the questions and support on the evening, and to Neil Spiller the Dean of Architecture Design and Construction at Greenwich University for allowing us to hold the event in the stunning Queen Mary Undersroft. Without the support of United House and The Dean we would not have been able to provide our students with such a fantastic event. Our thanks also go to our CIOB Novus Members (pictured below) who attended on the evening; Celeste Williams-Condor, Tommy Buckley, Chulu Kamalondo and Jason James. And finally a big thank you to all the teams who took part, we know from your comments that you found the evening enjoyable and beneficial.

For more pictures of the evening, please visit our Facebook page www.facebook.com/cioblondon

GOOD LUCK TO GREENWICH UNIVERSITY IN THE NATIONAL FINALS, IN MARCH.

Tony Martin Introducing the Challenge
Our winning team, hard at work!
Up and Coming! The Team from Kingston University
Novus Members  L-R Tommy Buckley, Jason James and Chulu Kamalondo

Please find below some comments from the CIOB Student Members who took part in the event:

"We were overwhelmed by how useful the event was. The task was real life. We were able to utilise our university gained knowledge" ACE Group - University of East London

"Very interesting event, I really enjoyed it! As a full time student with no experience, this was a glimpse of what to expect once I graduate" Gabriel Sowah Greenwich University

"I have found this exercise particularly useful as today has identified alternative piling methods which I did not know about. I will take now take this and incorporate on site" Jay Holmes Greenwich University

"As our group was made up of 4 first year students we didn't fancy our chances of winning. I was pleasantly surprised with how much we achieved. I would personally recommend the event to any year group as it really does test your knowledge and introduce you to a working environment. It is certainly something I would like to do next year" Daniel Ferguson Kingston University

"Competing in the Student Challenge 2012 as a 1st year student was a little daunting at first, but we were mainly just hoping to learn comething and also have a bit of fun! It turned out to be an excellent day and we got far more out of it than we hoped! The event was well structured and the questions gave us a great opportunity to apply what we have learnt at university so far. Thank you very much to United House and CIOB London" Etienne Le Roux Kingston University

All 4 of us from Kingston University had an amazing time. Not only did we learn a lot of valuable skills that I now find myself using in my day to day studies but the atmosphere and food was superb. I defiantly took advantage of the buffet that was on offer. Especially the chocolate filled deserts. I scoffed at least 4! I felt that as first years we were to expect to struggle and find ourselves near the bottom of the group but the work involved incorporated not only knowledge but also teamwork and numerous other life skills. Because of this we found that once the results were totted up that our score was much better than we had hoped and in fact compared to other groups of older students we gave them a good run for their money. Other than the competition itself it was great to meet a group of graduates and professionals in the work place. Also hearing stories from graduates has given me a lot of ideas on where to look for employment and what I should be doing to get my foot in the door. This event like many others the CIOB have to offer is great for getting your face out there. The more hands you shake the better your changes are on getting work experience and ultimately work in the not too distant future. I know that our team will be competing next year and we intend to come back with 1st prize. Thanks again CIOB - Jack Piccaver Kingston University