The CIOB London, Southern, and Eastern regions ran the annual Novus Bright Futures Challenge
2018 in February when winning college and university teams from regional heats gathered for the grand final.
The BFSC was established to give built environment students the opportunity to showcase their talent and enthusiasm for the industry.
The regional competition consisted of three different rounds of tasks including building a bridge, producing a presentation to encourage young students to pursue a career in the built environment, and a construction general knowledge quiz.
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For the bridge build the teams were provided with a variety of materials such as, straws, string, paperclips, pieces of paper, and empty bottles – the teams then had to construct a bridge that had a minimum 30cm span, was 30cm tall, and 10 cm wide. It also had to hold weight and be water and wind resistant.
The final of the Challenge took place at the Ballymore site, The Wardian in Canary Wharf. The top eight performing teams from the three regional rounds were invited to attend: Team LSBU from LSBU; MKC from MidKent College; Architectulize from LSBU; KU1 from Kingston University; Team RSME from Brompton Barracks Chatham; Volkers from Nottingham Trent University; Southampton International from Southampton Solent University; and a team from University of Brighton.
In the final, each of the teams were led on a site visit around The Wardian by the Ballymore team. They were then given time to put together a presentation based on their choice of two questions about the site. Teams could choose to discuss offsite manufacturing or facade and the issues surrounding each.
At the end of their allotted time, teams made a 10-minute presentation to a panel of five industry judges. Judges scored teams on team work, content, creativity, presentation skills and innovation/technology. Novus mentors observed and encouraged the teams throughout the process.
Team Volkers took the top spot, with the University of Brighton coming second and Team RSME coming third, narrowly ahead of KU1. The Outstanding Student prize went to Elizabeth Lecorgne from Volkers.
The top three teams received medals, certificates and gift vouchers. The overall winner also received a trophy and work placement opportunity from Ballymore.
The Challenge Final sponsors were Hays Recruitment and Ballymore with Sirio D’Aleo from Ballymore assisting in organising, planning and running the event.
Judges were: Ballymore’s Terry Arnold, Andrew Cromwell and Mark Mannerson; Micheal Butcher, London Hub vice chair; Gerard Hayes from John Sisk & Son Ltd and the London Hub Committee.
