Civil Engineering Design Projects

If your organisation has a design challenge which could benefit from the insight and skills of our master-level Civil Engineering students, we welcome your project ideas.

Civil Engineering Design projects are a key part of the Civil Engineering curriculum. These group projects provide an opportunity for students to work on real-life design briefs proposed by external clients. 

Suitable Projects

We accept project briefs which are ideally RIBA stage 1 or 2, with some design challenges and beyond residential developments. Residential developments would also be relevant if there are any specific requirement that would make the project challenging enough for students to tackle something that requires specific research such as special structures, bridges, hospitals, refurbishments in which a new building has to be linked to an existing structure, projects involving significant geotechnical challenges, tunnelling, development of multi-purpose projects with more than one structure, etc.  

You can see some examples of previous project briefs here: 
Civil engineering design project example briefs (PDF, 136kB)‌.‌

Our ask of you

As a project client, the commitment from you is minimal, but there are the following expectations:

  • Meet (in person or online) with students to check on progress at least twice a year. 
  • Provide a minimum amount of information and data for the student to go ahead. Give feedback to students, if necessary. 
  • You are welcome to attend our poster session, where students will be showcasing their work done during the first teaching block. 
  • You will not be involved in any marking. 
  • Primarily this project forms students development and assessed work, so do not provide any projects critical to your company/organisation that may conflict with learning outcomes. 

Why get involved?

Organisations that take part benefit from:

  • an opportunity to explore new ideas. 

  • dedicated student effort to focus on a problem or an opportunity that you have identified. 
  • establishing a relationship with group of highly skilled students.
  • raising the profile of your company by publicising participation in the scheme. 

Timeline

This is a rough guidline of the stages of the project cycle. You will be emailed with more information should your project be selected by our students.

Mid-September – Deadline to submit project briefs.

Beginning of October – Student project selection, successful project briefs will be contacted by the students.  

December – Poster session, all project proposers are invited to attend to give feedback to our students 

March – Students may contact you for some feedback on their report draft 

How to get involved?

If you have a project idea, please let us know by completing this form. 

Please let us know:

  • Your organisation, with contact details.
  • What you want the students to design.
  • If you have any solutions/limitations in mind.
  • How restrictive your proposal is, or whether the students have free rein with their design.