Our thinking
Summer Placements 2024
We had the great pleasure of welcoming two engineering students as summer interns this year. Here is what they had to say about their experience.
Francesca
Having finished my second year at the University of Bristol studying Civil Engineering, I was looking for a summer placement at a company whose values and motivations matched my own. These values include placing sustainability at the heart of all designs and working in a progressive, creative, and inclusive office environment. Now, looking back after completing the 6-week placement, I don’t think I could have found a better fit!
The majority of my placement centred around a large residential development in Tottenham. I followed this project from the initial kick off meeting to the RIBA Stage 3 deadline. I had a variety of roles during this time, which drew on my knowledge from university as well as exploring some concepts which were new to me. One of the highlights of this project for me was joining the Stage 3 design review. This experience emphasised the wealth of knowledge and passion that the team at Engenuiti possesses, and made me excited to see there is so much more for me to learn.
In addition to being part of the structural team for most of the placement, I also worked within the civils and structural modelling teams. During this time, I learned to use Civils 3D, Flow, and Revit software. All of these were new to me at the time, but by talking to the team, listening to their expert advice, and using the software on active projects, I was able to develop my skills and love for their benefits. These skills will be invaluable for future projects both in and out of university.
One of my favourite tasks was structural modelling using Revit; I built a full model of the structural elements of a houseboat using only the architect’s floorplan and the design criteria. I found this process to be incredibly rewarding, creative, and satisfying.
The company’s commitment to sustainability was emphasised through the work I did surrounding carbon. My tasks included researching industry standards to support future project development and conducting my own carbon calculations for a full-scale project. This gave me insight into how the company approaches reducing carbon and how sustainability plays a role when working with and for clients and architects.
In addition to all this, I was also fortunate enough to attend multiple site visits, including large-scale office and residential developments. Seeing the projects up close and chatting to the project managers about ongoing issues and design changes was very interesting.
Overall, I had an amazing experience during my summer placement, which was fully due to the innovative projects and incredible team that work here!
Vlad
During my placement, I got a taster of all three trades of work Engenuiti specializes in – structural design, civil and drainage Design, and computer-aided design.
My main focus on this placement was on the structural side, where I explored the feasibility of adding photovoltaic (PV) panels to the roofs of some of our past leisure centre projects. This involved doing research on PV panel design criteria and weights, followed by tabulating the relevant information for each project. That included the roof type and area, loading criteria, and member size and spacing.
During my week within the civils team, my main task was verifying a proposed drainage design for a large-scale residential project. This involved modelling the catchment areas, manholes and pipes, verifying the report’s findings and working to optimise it. It was my first real experience with hydraulics, and seeing the theory from university put into practice made me consider this path more. This was one of my favourite parts of the placement as I got to contribute to an ongoing project.
I have to say that the community feeling within Engenuiti is quite apparent. The Thursday activities (especially Sports Day), Tuesday Fika break, occasional Monday lunches, the office space itself, and the momentum of people coming into the office are all highlights that made the workplace that much more welcoming – it’s really a great place to work!
My favourite part of the placement was a small task in comparison to everything I worked on, but the spontaneity and involvement in a real project made it very exhilarating and enticing to be part of. It involved checking whether a truss could be designed in S275 steel instead of the usual S355. Not a big task, only took half a day, but the context around it, and the fact that it was for a deliverable, made it a priority in my mind.
I am now progressing into my final year at the Uni of Bath studying Civil and Architectural Engineering. My self-awareness of the change in environment from moving to London from Moldova back in 2014 created my interest to pursue engineering and work within the built environment. It sounds clichéd, but people often choose civil engineering because they want to have an impact within the built environment – where they can say “yeah, I designed that” and be proud of it, just like another form of accomplishment. This is definitely the case for me.