On 18 September the University of Surrey played host to the first IET Surrey Network's event for the 2013-14 season.
Close on a hundred people packed the Lakeside Restaurant in the Business School of Management for a lecture on the structural design of the Shard in London.
The event, introduced by Surrey Chair Amy Longo, featured a presentation by Dr Richard Mawer from Shard designers WSP. Richard, a consultant structural engineer, played a major role in the structural engineering process for the 306 metre high building which is now an unmistakable part of the London skyline.
His presentation featured the engineering challenges that had to be solved to carry out this mega-cost project. It certainly captivated the imagination of the audience who provided Richard with a barage of questions in the extended Q&A session at the end.
It was a brilliant start to our new season of lectures. Our next lecture on 16 October 'Our renewables and climate policies have failed - what next?' presented by controversial figure Dr John Constable promises to be another sell out.
"This was a fantastic and very interesting evening and I found Richard a very engaging speaker. Structural engineering is not my area of experience but I took a lot from the lecture. Overall an excellent and informative evening." JR
"An entertaining and interesting speaker. A good evening." MT
"The presentation was interesting and very well presented by the speaker. It was technically enough to indicate the technology used to build the Shard like the dynamic slip-formwork, construction of the core, foundation, post-tension floor slab, connection system, scheme design by Renzo Piano, history of the building and area. He tried hard to answer all of the questions, he went well. So far one of the best talks I have attended." CB
"I felt this was a superb presentation supported by extremely good visual aids. As well as providing a wealth of technical details the speaker injected a stimulating blend of humour into his presentation. I was particularly impressed during the question time. Richard provided in depth answers to an extremely wide range of technical questions. Top marks to all concerned! " PM.
Blog by Mike Prewett and Peter Muller
Photograph by Colin Cunningham