Gold Medal Address. Creating Engineers

Structural engineering is a fascinating subject with a long and interesting heritage. So why is it not more widely adopted as a course of study? Actually it is easy to understand why. Engineering is not well thought of in most schools as a career option. At the points in young people’s education when decisions have to be made, they are offered the choices of sciences or arts subjects (although art and music are not considered to be serious academic subjects). Engineering is the creative end of science. To take it up, one has to do maths and physics, but the art side is usually ignored or played down. Certainly, it is not an entry requirement for university courses. The focus here is on the maths because of the concentration of maths in the courses, but the skills and knowledge required to be a practising engineer are very much wider.

W.I. Liddell