CICES News
New structural carbon tool from IStructE
A new open-source free app has been developed to estimate the embodied carbon in a structure. The Structural Carbon Tool is the result of a collaboration between the Institution of Structural Engineers and Elliott Wood. It enables users to quickly estimate the embodied carbon in their structure and allows comparison of up to six options at once. Will Arnold, head of climate action at the Institution of Structural Engineers, said: “Structural engineers are responsible for around 10% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. The Structural Carbon Tool will help engineers to make positive choices in their work.”
FIG e-Working Week
Early-bird registration has opened for the virtual working week of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG). The conference will run from 20-25 June 2021 with the theme ‘Smart Surveyors for Land and Water Management – Challenges in a New Reality’. The early bird rate of €100 for the four-day programme is available until 3 May. In line with the main working week will be the FIG Young Surveyors Conference. This is €25 for students and €50 for young professionals. www.fig.net/fig2021/registration.htm
Sean Gibbs aids Vis Moots
The vice chair of the CICES Contracts & Dispute Resolution Panel, Sean Gibbs, has been appointed to the Vis East Moot (Hong Kong), ICC Paris Pre Moot and Vis Moot (Vienna). The Vis Moots are international arbitration mooting competitions for law schools and provide practical training for students in resolving international disputes
Sean Gibbs has been sitting as an arbitrator since 2011 and regularly appears before arbitral tribunals as a quantum expert for disputes on construction, engineering and shipbuilding projects.
M&CCE Expo member discount
CICES members are entitled to a 10% discount on attendance at this year’s Marine & Coastal Civil Engineering (M&CCE) Expo. The showcase for the latest equipment and solutions in this challenging area will be co-located with the Seawork exhibition from 15-17 June 2021 at Mayflower Park in Southampton. M&CCE will include the European Commercial Marine Awards, business briefings, on-water demos and purpose-built pontoons for more than 70 vessels and floating exhibits situated outside the exhibition halls. See www.mcceexpo.com/ for details.
Surveyors wanted for COYO challenge
Every year, Class of Your Own (COYO), the social enterprise headed by CICES fellow Alison Watson, creates a built environment challenge for schools that features a specific building project aligned to a particular theme. A designated space is allocated to each challenge and Alison Watson is once again calling on CICES members’ support to help schoolchildren understand the space and orientation of this year’s challenge: ‘Design the COP’.
Aligning with this autumn’s COP26 UN Climate Change Conference, children are challenged to digitally design, engineer and construct the Centre for Our Planet (COP) – an educational building in Glasgow where young people can explore the science of climate change. The COP must be Glasgow’s most sustainable, energy-efficient building that integrates smart sensor technology to monitor itself and the local environment.
Children will work in teams to deliver a professional report describing the building, its usage, energy requirements, accessibility and plans for deconstructing and relocating in three years’ time. They must produce a digital concept model and a physical scale model. The proposed site is 30m x 30m, situated next to the River Clyde and adjacent to Glasgow’s Kingston Bridge. Alison Watson commented: “Trying to visualise 30m x 30m is much harder than people realise, especially when you have to incorporate the proximity of a river and busy bridge. The first step is for children to understand the scale of the challenge and how the location and local environment will impact their designs. I’d love CICES members to offer their services to competing schools, show them how to set out the site dimensions to the same orientation as that in Glasgow so they have a great reference point in the grounds of their school. Not only would they get a real grasp of the important of positioning and bring maths to life, they would also meet real people doing this job. It’s a fantastic way to raise the profile of surveying and inspire young people to explore career pathways into the profession.”
Contact Alison Watson at alison@classofyourown.com to support a school.
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Webinar roundup
Alongside the full programme of CICES regional AGMs, two webinars were held last month. Thanks to CICES member Tim Over of Atkins for his presentation on utility solutions; and to Richard Selby of KOREC for his presentation on the use of 3D scan data in measured building surveys.
Spring programme from BK SURCO
BK SURCO, the institution’s joint venture training partner in Hong Kong, has released the spring dates of its advanced management training courses for using the New Engineering Contract (NEC3 and NEC4) with Hong Kong government standardised amendments. NEC3 became the default choice for the procurement of all new public-sector capital works projects in Hong Kong in 2015, and practice notes and standardised amendments to these became mandatory for all new NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract projects in 2016. With the 2017 launch of NEC4 and proposed government amendments, training is now offered both in the contractual provisions of the various NEC contracts, the management and administrative procedures required to be followed, and also in the philosophy of collaboration, co-operation, openness and teamwork.
Since 2012, the joint venture between BK Asia Pacific and the institution’s commercial arm SURCO has successfully trained over 6,000 delegates. It also manages the BK SURCO Certified NEC Professional training course.
Contact bksurcotraining@bkasiapacific.com for course details.