Our thinking
Summer Placements
We had the great pleasure of welcoming three engineering students as summer interns this year. Here is what they had to say about their experience.
Jade
Having completed my second year at the University of Leeds studying Civil and Environmental Engineering, I started at Engenuiti hoping for a summer placement that would show me how the industry works in practice. Making projects as sustainable as possible has always been very important to me, so I was quite picky with the company I chose – in retrospect, I can say that I absolutely made the right decision.
I soon grew to appreciate the incredible learning environment the office offers. I was encouraged to work on tasks that I would be enthusiastic about, and the whole team never failed to take time out of their day to help me.
Over the course of my placement I was integrated into a multitude of projects, lending a hand with scheme design, preliminary member sizing, carbon analyses, and so much more. I enjoyed being able to vary my workday between calculations, research or sketching.
I gained direct insight into the industry by joining three site visits, which gave me a much better understanding of how designs are executed. I also attended a RIBA Stage 3 meeting that demonstrated how architects, engineers and managers have to communicate to produce a design that suits the client’s needs and wants.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Engenuiti and believe that I was able to be an asset to the team. The experience has certainly developed my engineering knowledge and is sure to prove beneficial in my upcoming years at university and beyond.
Owen
The course at the University of Bath prides itself on being forward-thinking in the domains of the built environment and the responsibility of engineers. In this way Engenuiti is a perfect fit for me as they specialise in timber structures and are beginning to strongly embrace sustainability considerations.
I enjoyed carrying out some structural design for a leisure centre. I was tasked with optimising a long-span roof structure over a pool. I was able to assess the practicality of various designs and their associated emissions, using both metrics to inform design choices. I designed a composite timber and steel truss and some key connection details, and modelled it in Robot and Revit.
I also updated and produced sustainability assessments for some of the practice’s leisure centres and saw how the company is improving its sustainable design over the long term.
Working with the Civils team I explored the carbon impacts and helped develop a carbon calculator for different drainage strategies. I also carried out a flood risk assessment for a leisure centre in Deal, establishing the risks for the site with different modes of flooding.
I quickly settled into the enthusiastic and supportive work environment at Engenuiti. I have learnt plenty from the many people in the office who were always happy to discuss concepts with me in detail. I strongly benefitted from many insightful conversations and am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such interesting and passionate engineers.
Chloe
My interest in buildings is what originally drew me to the engineering field, and the problem-solving nature of the industry is what kept me here. There is no greater puzzle than the climate crisis in the current day – and what better way to assist in slowing the impact than working inside one of the industries with the most negative effects? Because of this, I’m currently studying Architectural Engineering at the University of Sheffield, a degree specialising in sustainability and streamlining the construction process from cradle to gate.
The most surprising thing about Engenuiti was how friendly and diverse the office is. Everyone I worked with has been incredibly helpful, patient and approachable. I’ve learnt that engineering is about continuously learning and adapting, and that there’s no shame in not knowing everything.
My time has been split between the structural and civil teams, with emphasis on the former. I’ve practised doing calculations by hand, as well as in both TEDDS and Robot. Alongside this, I’ve learnt the ins and outs of project stages, how to sketch and markup plans, what constraints we look for onsite, all about SuDS, and more about the whole team required to deliver a project.
The project I have most enjoyed has been Berkhamsted Leisure Centre as it has been great to follow the project from site, to plan, and through new schemes to see how it evolves and situate that in what I experienced from the site myself.