Career Profiles: Chris Irwin

My occupation: I am a final year student studying for a Masters Degree in Structural Engineering and Architecture at Queen's University, Belfast

My degree studies: In the first two years, I studied subjects such as water supply and treatment, soil analysis, structures, technical drawing, computers, engineering maths and surveying. After that, I decided to specialise in structural design and was accepted on to the four-year Masters Degree.

The Structural Engineering course provides a range of design studies for buildings and bridges. Some of my projects have included the full design of buildings both structurally and architecturally, which has involved working directly with architectural students. This experience has taught me how to solve architectural problems by being structurally innovative instead of trying to rely on textbook solutions.

What inspires me: I have studied the work of great engineers such as Santiago Calatrava whose projects such as the Alamillo Bridge (Seville, Spain) displayed how innovative structural design can become great architecture in itself. Peter Rice, often cited as the greatest structural engineer of the twentieth century, worked on the Sydney Opera House for his first project, and later as chief engineer on the Pompidou Centre, Paris. He was a structural innovator who had an amazing comprehension of how structural design should relate to architecture. It is the tremendous projects of engineers like these that have influenced me to become a structural engineer and given me a passion to follow in their footsteps.

My summer job and sponsorship: I found summer vacation work with Doran Consulting, an engineering design consultancy in Belfast. I learnt to use computer software for the structural analysis of a 60 metre steel-trussed footbridge in Coleraine. This experience has been beneficial in my final year studies. My employer has sponsored me through my final year, which has given me a huge financial boost and the assurance of employment upon graduation.

The best thing about my degree course: The final year of my course has included exciting projects designing a modern structurally innovative house, a canal amenity centre and an atrium for the civil engineering block at Queen's University.

My plans for the future: When I have obtained my degree, I hope to go on and become a chartered engineer following the Institution of Structural Engineers' training programme. Belfast has experienced a construction boom in recent years with developments around the Lagan side, and I hope to work on some of the exciting projects of the future.