First Year Sketching Award – The Winners, Sponsored by Curtins Consulting

Sketching is a key skill that civil engineers need to hone to be able to communicate ideas and designs throughout project delivery – to varied audiences and different levels of detail.  It is crucial first-year students on Civil Engineering programme courses understand the importance of sketching and are actively encouraged to do this.

Curtins is an award winning, leading consultancy having specialised in the built environment for 60 years. The diverse range of services they provide include civil & structural engineering; transport planning; environmental; infrastructure; geotechnical; conservation & heritage and principal designer. This full spread of expertise is delivered from fourteen offices situated across the UK and Ireland, with key centres of excellence for the related services. As part of the working breakfast the Curtins team outlined a range of current projects they were currently working on and explained how the different disciplines in the company worked together on projects. 

Winner Jacob Barnes said:

“The sketchbook competition gave me the opportunity to explore parts of Leeds I had never visited. The architecture of the building in Leeds is very diverse and shows how engineering can affect the built environment. Winner the award gave me the chance to be invited to Curtins and here from them the real-world civil engineering problems and solutions. This will lead me to decisions that will progress my career in engineering as it has opened the great opportunities there is in this sector”.

Andy Buckley, Associate at Curtins said of the students:

“It is great to see students passionate about sketching.  Advancements of technologies are the ‘go-to’ for the younger generation these days.  These three students showed a high level of sketching ability but also understood the fundamental basics of communicating the design away from the computer”.