Ove Arup Foundation

Ski trip sets course for engineering future

The Institution of Civil Engineers is celebrating another successful year of its popular snow-based event, ICE & Snow.

The initiative, which is supported by the Ove Arup Foundation, has been running since 2004, and uses skiing and creative projects to enthuse and inform under-19s about a career in engineering.

The December 2010 event saw graduate engineers accompany a group of eager young skiers to Saas Fee, Switzerland, where a programme of knotty engineering challenges awaited them.

Each year, a grand challenge is set, and this year’s prestige problem-solving competition involved constructing a wind generator and a house in order to produce sustainable energy.

ICE & Snow organiser Richard Armstrong said, "It is extremely important to create an understanding of what civil engineering is all about among our youth if we are to attract the right talent into the profession in later years.

"There are some major challenges ahead that will rely on civil engineers coming up with sustainable and innovative solutions; it is a very exciting time to become a civil engineer. Hopefully by combining skiing with engineering challenges we can show it can be fun and maybe encourage some of the attendees to consider engineering as a career prospect."

A video documenting the 2010 visit can be found here.

More information about the initiative can be found at the Institution of Civil Engineers website.

For video of last year's challenge, click this link. The 2009 challenge involved constructing a corrugated plastic mountain with a minimum height of 1.8 metres, and then concocting a method of transporting a marble from the top to the base at the slowest possible rate, and covering a distance of at least 3 metres.