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UEL students build iconic structures at Olympic Park site

Thursday 2 July 2009

UEL third year BEng Civil Engineering students

University of East London (UEL) third year BEng Civil Engineering students were the first to finish an exciting challenge set by the Olympic Delivery Authority gaining hands-on experience of building iconic structures on the London 2012 Olympic Park site.

The Constructionarium project involved more than 80 undergraduate civil engineering and construction students from across four universities including the South Bank University, Greenwich University and Imperial College London.

Students had to work with Olympic Park contractors to plan and build scaled down versions of structures such as the Barcelona Tower, Kingsgate Bridge in Durham, the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield and Brewery Wharf footbridge in Leeds.

The project was designed to provide students with practical experience of all aspects of delivering a project while working with the contractors building the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park.

Mike Hurst, Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering said: “I’m delighted that our students had the opportunity to take part in this challenge. They all worked extremely hard and successfully completed the construction of the bridge with time to spare. This is a real achievement for them and shows the high level of skills and expertise they have gained during their time at UEL.”

Student Anila Smajlaj took on the role of joint project manager. She said: “This project was a great learning experience. Working on the Olympic site meant that the construction standards were really high and we became really aware of health and safety.”

Constructionarium has been running annually at Europe's largest construction training provider, the National Construction College, in Bircham Newton in Norfolk since 2003. This is the first time it has taken place on a construction site.

UEL is one of London's leading universities for civil engineering, and is ranked in the top 10 in the UK by the Guardian University Guide. UEL's School of Computing, Information Technology and Engineering is based at the Docklands campus.

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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