Hi hi hello engineers! Welcome back to my fifth blog, anddd congratulations on finishing week 10 of semester 2! We are slowly approaching exam seasons, and it is indeed that time of the semester where everyone is SUPPERR busy (me included). So this blog is going to be sort of a short one (my apologies), and is going to be more of a visual diary than a written one.
So I present to you, a compilation of all my favourite moments studying Structural Engineering in 2024:
Camera dump time!
Studying Civil/Structural is a journey of its own. The good part about this year was that I got to study courses that I was genuinely interested in and enjoyed. Thereee were times here and there when I was about to lose my mind trying to understand topics; But overall, compared to part I, I did not have any courses that I genuinely disliked or did not enjoy studying at all.
Here are some of my favourite moments studying Structural Engineering:
Live loads demonstrated with Shaq
A lovely glimpse to the world of Structural Engineering, our lecturer used Shaq’s weight as an introduction to the concept of live loads.
Theodolite used in our CIVIL 203 lab
One of our first labs, where we surveyed the domain with the many different and cool instruments we were shown in lecture. (Did have to wake up at 8AM tho 😔)
Building a stable structure in STRCTENG 200
My very first structural lab! After learning about degrees of freedom (DOF) and determinate vs. indeterminate structures, we were handed a bunch of sticks, a glue gun, and tasked with building a stable structure using as few sticks as possible. Challenge accepted! 😛
My favourite quote presented in CIVIL 202
One of my favourite aspects of our CIVIL 202 lectures, were the water related quotes presented at the end of each lecture. And this one was in fact, at the end of a bouyancy lecture. With the one and only Archimedos’ famous one liner when he figured out about the concept.
“Build a Better Beam!” Lab for STRCTENG 200
Our second structural lab consisted of us crafting a strong beam out of the limited materials given, which was later to be tested under a load cell. And for our beam… lets say the Mishki in the photo did not really stay there for that long….
Bringing our EPANET design to life
EPANET is a water modeling software that you will be using for your CIVIL 202 assignment. After individually designing the pipe network, you will get to use your model in real life. The goal of the assignment is to design a pipe network that will fill up three tanks with the same flowrate (all tanks get full at the same time!)
Coming 2nd for CIVIL 202’s quote competition
Yep, you heard that right! Anonymous Mule is your friendly author here. So, if you take Civil or Structural next year, you might just see my quote pop up in one of your lectures 😉 As for the winning quote, I’ll keep that a secret—consider it extra motivation to choose Civil and Structural!
A very yummy STRCTENG 201 cake
Our STRCTENG 201 lecturer made a really interesting comparison, describing concrete as being like a cake! Just like a cake is a mix of ingredients that can completely change depending on the amounts you use, concrete’s properties shift based on how much of each material is added.
Titrating our hearts away in ENVENG 200
My first enviornmental lab was all about the water treatment process. We had a closer look at two stages of the process, being coagulation and flocculation. This cool pink liquid you see in the photo, is a result of a very tiring titration process which I was actually quite bad at cause my hands shake alot 😛
CONCRETE CONCRETE CONCRETE CONCRETE
What kind of Structural Engineer would I be if I didn’t talk about the concrete twice in my blog, huh? This lab is probably my favourite out of all of the part II labs I had (yep no lies). Pretty simple, we made concrete. Then we put our mix through a variety of tests to analyse its behavior.
Flownet sketch suffering
Definitely not my favorite moment… probably my least favorite, to be honest—drawing flow nets is PAINFUL (currently struggling with it as we speak). I noticed I don’t have many CIVIL 200 photos in my camera roll, so I’m including this one as a reminder to brace yourselves for this part of geotech next year!
Concrete cylinder undergoing compression test
Yea… sorry guys. I just love concrete too much. THIS IS THE LAST ONE I PROMISE. For the same concrete lab, I analysed how a concrete cylinder behaves during a compression test. The photo you see is taken after it reached failure.
Choose structural engineering PLEASE
Pretty self-explanatory right? WE NEED MORE STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS GUYS! And yep, our STRCTENG 201 lecturer did in fact present these slides including the Gen-Z translation.
Wrapping it up
WELL! YOU DID IT! After hourss of tiresome scrolling through this veryy longg blog, you made it to the end.
Alright jokes aside, I apologise for this short blog. It is indeed that time of the semester where every university student’s schedule is in shambles. So I hope this mini-blog of compliations was enjoyable for you.
Since the next blog, will be my 6th and final one, I would like the next blog to be a final chance to answer your questions (if you have any) about studying Structural Engineering. So feel free to use this link here to drop any questions that you have: https://freesuggestionbox.com/pub/xbqlhcb
I hope your week is not as horrifying as mine, however I do recall October being a painful month in Part I, so sending you all my positive energy and strength (if I have any left) through this screen. As a friend of mine says:
“Le sigh… we cringe on…”
James, my friend, who does not do engineering, who also stole this quote from a meme
So keep le sighing and cringing on, I shall now return to my CIVIL 200 project and try my best to not lose my mind. I will see you in my 6th and final blog where I wrap everything up and officially say goodbye to you beautiful readers. Stay le sighing slaying.
– Sonia <3