Senses:// Re-engineered

Over the past couple of weeks the term "Dunkirk Spirit", or the lack of it, has been overused by the media in slating the public service's inability to cope with the onslaught of white stuff. I have always imagined the essence of that to be "EVERYONE chipping in at the times of adversity" (e.g. how every sea-worthy ship, big or small went out to rescued those stranded on the French coast). A lot of people seems to be under the impression that since they have paid their dues, the council should do everything for them.

Sorry but this is a 1-in-30 years snow for Britain and on very rare occasions are systems designed to cope with such probabilities.

No councils would hire the amount of staff or stock the level of grit, on standby, to cope with this kind of weather. And even IF there is enough staff and IF there is enough grit, the geographic locations of some places would probably mean that the logistics won't reach them until all the snow has melted.

Some people even questioned why the army has been drafted in to provided relief to the local councils, since good tax money has been paid in the form of council tax. Why can't the council take care of themselves? The simple answer would be: Civilian Infrastructures are designed for "Return Periods" much shorter than those of the military. It is therefore natural for military resources to be deployed during freak weathers such as this.

The local councils are all struggling, some worse than others, because it is uneconomical to cater for 1-in-30 year occurences like the one we are experiencing. It wouldn't make sense to stock up on grit and ploughs for one year and having them go to waste in the other 29.

Government/military and other mission critical installations (power plants, water pumps) are designed for 1-in-50. This is the reason why some roads are fucked but we still have the basic essentials like gas and water. The entire Gloucester was fucked over by that 1-in-50 years storm and even the military struggled to cope with the rescue operations.

Same with the flooding up in Cumbria which have washed away a couple of bridges last year. They were all designed for 1-in-20 storm and they got washed away by a storm beyond 1-in-20 occurance... So the Military came in and built a 1-to-100 year temporary bridge, within 5 days, because they are equiped to do so.

Pretty much everything we are seeing now are unfolding like they are meant to. All the numbers are pretty much laid out like poetry on paper...

Had another good week. The encouragement from the Divisional Director to explore new avenues in going about engineering problems has lead me into experimenting with using Google Sketchups for the construction some of the drawings. Lukas, one of the CAD tech, who has been semi-promoted to dish out the work, caught a glimpse of what I was doing and joked that since I am going some CAD-related work, I can be considered to be a CAD asset. I replied that I am that I am always up for a challenge. Couple of days later, I was up and running doing some basic detailing on train station schematics. Did a pure rave scene with the work: Whacked on some dirty, heavy beats on my iPod, wired in and blasted through the job. My new Line Manager was quite impressed with the my motivation and the work load I was going through. Words came from two colleagues that she was so impressed that she is hoping of trying to retain me for the next two summers then possibly try to employ me when I am done with my degree. It's strange how things can take a turn like that! Last summer I was getting completely blasted all over the show by Kasia, the work was dull and the people were drones. I was almost completely broken by what happened in Birkenhead, the experience was so negative that I was only too glad to see the back of the place. The Ferry trip back to the home side felt so bad that it was like my very own Dunkirk. I was demoralised, unfocused and was so put off from the industry that I was literally dragging my arse through the second year. This year, I have hit the beach running and am making head way in one of the top 5 company in UK to the extend that I am making a noticable splash within the company. I guess there were several good calls that helped decide such a radically different result to date:


Cutting Down Play
Compare to the five festivals of 2007, having just one mother-of-all festival has paid dividend. Glastonbury was more than enough to satisfy my lust for partying and instead of coming to work all hollowed out, weeks after weeks like last year, the afterglow was more than enough to kept me going for a long while. Plus keeping myself relative clean from toxins have no doubt improve my performance a lot in comparison to my hollowed-self of yesteryear!

An Early Start
Commencing my work placement early and taking a pre-emptive strike no doubt made a difference to the overall position between me another the other work placement. I would like to think that we are mutually supportive and have respect for one and other. During her first couple of days, I did my part to help introduce her to the office with the motivation that she was a fellow budding engineer-to-be (and that she was cute :p). However, as pointed out by a member of my team, to think that there is absolute no competition between us would be too complacent and naive. If the resources and workloads were limited (which it was!), then the ability to secure the best works would provide a good platform on which I can display my ability. Being there early meant that by the time the other placement started, I have already established an understanding with members of the team, enough that I was fed some of the more interesting leftover scraps. That in turn have kept me more interested and motivated so I was able to plow through the work with more vigour and purpose.

The Works
Without a doubt, the work given to me during this summer placement was A LOT more interesting than what I had to sit through last year. Knowing that the end product would somehow be of use to the public, that this work could potentially outlast our own lifetime was a great incentive indeed. Even when given some of the drier content to sieve through, the nature of the project was enough to have kept me going at a reason pace while producing work of a reasonable standard.

The People
I honestly can not think any more highly of the people who works in the company. Before I started, I heard rumours that people from the top 10 company in UK tends to have a chip on their shoulder but I didn't get any of that during my time on the placement. People were friendly, interesting and very encouraging. Each have their own personality, aspirations and cool things to talk about. During my adventures, I have came across leaders who would later go on to lead soldiers into battle, teachers who would continue to be shepherds of future generations and medics who are healers of the hearts and minds. Even when place side-by-side with such people, some people from the company shines just as brightly, displaying similar (if not higher) degree of charm, grace and integrity. They are people, I should aspire to become and compare to the people at the last placement, this all feels like a world apart! Needless to say, that the positive atmosphere the company have foster played a key role in allowing me to perform to the best of my abilities.


It is definitely a little too early to be chalking up the scores on the board but the above are nevertheless worth taking notes of because I believe they played pivotal roles in helping me be a better prospective engineer and could serve me in becoming a good engineer in the future.

This entry is kind of dry, I guess this is more for me than anyone else. A kind of nav-point to help me backtrack when I want to do a memory recall years later.

The work placement have kind of slowed down back to the average documentation stage now. Most of the meats have been roasted and its all about writing it all up nice and neat for the client. The mistiming on some of the documents were quite comical though. Corrections were requested from a third-party consultant in regards to documents provided for the contractors building the footbridge. The only thing is, the footbridge is at the last stage of assembly! So I am sure the documents presented were pretty well received by the contractor if they are that far in the game. I suppose its just down to getting it perfect and professional at the end of the day. I would probably have understood the general idea of Lord of the Ring even if it was peppered with spelling and grammatical mistakes but I doubt it will attain its place in the English literacy world if thing were not at the highest of standards and I guess the company is where it is now for a reason!

Committed the mistake of updating documents in an old folder, possibly because of the notes I have made on week 1. Either the guy has given me the wrong directory or I have skimped on the note taking and I screwed up. One of the document was affected, otherwise the damage was limited and damage control has been implemented. In all honesty, the existing folder system is a mine field. There is no logic to which the files are arranged and it would often take in-depth knowledge into a certain project in order to fully appreciate the location of documents and how they are networked.

On a brighter note, during a chat with my Divisional Manager - Faisal, it seems like I will be taking a much more active role in the footbridge design for the next project! Asif, one of the main engineers who has been looking after me, expressed his concerns in my ability (gave the whole "he is too green! he can't handle the G-force, he will die" speech) but Faisal seems keen on pushing me through. This is going to be fucking great opportunity and a worthy challenge to prove my valour! Another one of those "finest moment" scenario and honestly, I can not fucking wait! Its hard not to feel that Asif thinks of me as somewhat a burden. He's got enough on his plate already and to have to show a summer place the rope on top of everything else must be a real drag. Credits to him though for acting so professionally and patiently throughout his ordeal. Even though it feels like he sees me as a nuisance, he nevertheless would give me the time of his day to go through things with me.

During uni, doing an all-nighter in the library was not something unusual and I am not just talking about those desperate pre-exam cramping sessions! Engineering soon changed from bring a career to a lifestyle choice as it bleeds into other areas of your life. The upcoming battle will hone all my existing skills to a new level as well as bestowing me with many new ones! I will be learning to apply my engineering knowledge using Staad Pro, an engineering package I have had no previous contact. In order to excel and achieve, I will need to re-evaluate everything I have learnt, fine-tune all my knowledge and evolve! During this new adventure, I will be overwhelmed, I will suffer failures, frustrations and disappointments, but I will stay strong and focused! I will learn and grow, taking another major step to becoming a full fledge Structural Engineer! If engineering has bled into other aspects of my life during uni, then may my life be stained, forever red! It's time to stop being a student and to start seeing myself as a future engineer!

Have also started my training session for the marathon. Managed to push to it to 8 miles start and stop so that is something that needs improving on. The state of my ankles also raise some concerns as pain started to develop within 30mins of running. Hopefully, additional training and the dietary supplements will help push back its onset. Once fully warmed up, the endorphins seems to mask the pain which would return the following morning.

I would like to think that things are going well in many aspects of my life. The new house is awesome! I have had my reservations at first over the size of the room but it is relatively cosy even with the wardrobe put in. Chris, my new house mate is really cool. I have known him as a brief acquaintance for close to three years now, we share common grounds in term of music and I have been socialised with him a couple of times but I have never had much in-depth contact with him. Always gave me the impression that he is the boring, silent type but he turned out to be quite a laugh. Good to have an intelligent conversation with but also shares my passion for the Nintendo Wii. Our hunt for Mario Kart has taken us across many supermarket megastores across South of Manchester.

The job is developing steadily, it is not without mistakes but I am slowly learning the ropes and its all starting to fit in nicely. I am getting on very well with the people there and I seems to have left a positive impression on Faisal, who is a well rounded team leader and respected by most. He will be leaving us shortly for a position in Dubai. Emidoyo is almost like a brother to me. His humour might rub people the wrong way but he has a clean soul and is a competent engineer! Roxanne is kind and gentle, verging on to being timid but she does the job and she does it well, the only problem is that she need to establish her presence and really communicate. Tarun is the "cool kid" in the team, well-liked by the whole office and a budding engineer with huge potential although he never fails to amaze with the number of arguments he gets into with Faisal. His presentation on Climate Change being exaggerated was pretty controversial. Daniel is a "man's man", beer drinker, good to talk to, a football loving average Joe who have recently found out that his ex is pregnant with his kid. Amed is fresh off a part time MSc, academic in appearance, an echo of Bill in many ways. Lucas, Greek, a cool friendly expert on CAD who will be getting me some Ouzo when he is next in Greece! Kristian, a quiet reclusive Poles who also specialises in CAD. Chris, another typical English gentleman, father, mature and friendly. Overall this team is so so much more interesting and "normal" than the team I had to work with last summer. And nothing can be worse than having Kasia on my back half the time, but thats another story altogether. I guess the only thing I need to watch out for is the amount of partying I have been doing. Some financial issues are in desperate need of sorting out! Possibly because I have been put on the emergency tax, I am effectively getting paid £4 per hour!!! I could have been working in Poland for this kind of wage! :p

Work has been so cool! Spent Monday checking up schematics for train station platform and footbridge designs to see if they comply with the regulations aimed to satisfy the Disable Discrimination Act. Might sound boring but its amazing how much care and considerations have been put into the rules to ensure people with difficulty in movement can have access to the train station platforms. Lifts access to platforms, ramps will need to be below a specified gradient, even handrails will need to be fitted a certain way to ensure that people with partial disabilities can make use of the train station. This is especially special for me since I have had personal experience in travelling with people with physical handicap. For voluntary work I have had the pleasure of being assigned to a particular gentleman in an elderly visit programme: Jeff, ex-army, full of life and a very classical sense of humour. I would not be surprise to see him in an episode of Dad's Army. During our times together, we have form an interesting friendship and he was often kind enough to show me around different towns and cities. Even though confined to a motorised wheelchair, he took me on many adventures to many places. It was interesting to see the world through his eyes and his thick glasses. During a trip to Heaton Park in Manchester, even thought it was equipped to deal with disabled people, one of the lift on the leading to the platform was inoperable and we had to resort to boarding a train in the opposite direction, cross to the other side at another station before getting a train back to Manchester. As a twist of fate, several stations down the line didn't have the facilities to cater for disabled passengers which meant we had to stay on the train for a couple more stops before we could disembark, cross to the opposite platform and board a train back into the city centre. It would have been pretty much impossible for the disabled within the area to utilise the public transport and there was no end of complaints from Jeff for days that followed and quite rightly so!

I guess I have spent quite a lot of my time try my best to make a difference in the past but this project is almost like a godsend! Having hundreds of pounds donate to Oxfam, saving someone's life by putting him into the recovery position and raising the alarm, years worth of voluntary work are waned in comparison because the work I will be involved this summer will last for a long time and will serve many people for years to come! To actually make sure that new train stations will be capable of catering for people who are weighed down by their disabilities and offer them to chance to go out and enjoy the world, to see new things and new places just like Jeff had shown me. Honestly, it feels good to get up in the morning!

Third day at work, the job itself have progressed nicely from yesterday. Nice learning curve, smooth but enough to kept me on edge. Same problem to solve: design a lintel which will support the weight of the bricks above, instead this time a simply-supported reinforced concrete beam will be used. Very straight forward but a chance for me to experience an alternative design and different document set.

My support was amazing, very patience, confident and all-knowing, strict Muslim who prays five times a day, good honest bloke! I must have learnt more from him in one day than I have from my lecturer of the concrete module in a one month! Although there was this rather weird look in his eyes when I asked him about having to pray in the direction of Mecca. I think I saw the same look before when I have shown a slight interest in Islam to my friend who later tried to convert me. Oh well. I will never make a good Muslim. I drink, I smoke and quitting pork would mean I won't be able to eat half the food my parents cook.

The process was so much simpler compare to when I first learnt it. Same as the process in the steel lintel, there is a loading due to the Load Triangle plus any additional attachments within the Load Triangle and 50% attachment contribution from within the Interaction Zone. The moment and shear imposed can be deduced from the point load or UDL (wL^2)/8 wL/2. Decide on an appropriate design and then calculate to see if such configuration will satisfy the required moment and shear: Work out the effective depth (d), determine K and then K' based on the redistribution factor. Choose the correct equation to work out the moment capacity based on the two Ks relationship. The necessity of shear links can be determined by working out the shear resistance of the beam + bars. If shear links are required then another equation can be used.

It is important to note that:
1/ The links can not be placed at the end of the re-bars;
2/ Even though compressive bars are not needs, they are often added so shear links can be installed;
3/ Shear links are included for safety issue even though the values suggests otherwise (shear stress<0.5 shear resistance of reinforced beam).

The highlight of my day - My support: "You are a designer now, you don't assume, you design!"

The method itself was pretty straight forward. It is assumed that the only part of the wall exerting a load on the lintel is within an isosceles triangle of two 45 degrees corners. The length of the base would be assumed to be the opening in the brick wall plus a predefined value (e.g. the width of a brick or a value given by the lintel manufacturer) for both ends. The volume of the load triangle can then be deduced with the thickness of the wall (presumed to be the thickness of two bricks) and when multiplied with the density of the brick and mortar, the loading on the lintel is produced. With the engineering industry as developed as it is today, the dimension of the lintel can then be chosen from the manufacturers' brochure. Additional detailing might need to be produced for the concrete padding below the lintel, which will help dissipation the loading into the bricks below, but they are usually specified by the lintel manufacturers.

Also had my medical test today. Considering the abuse I have put my ears through during all those endless raves and concerts, I am please to report that my hearing is only slight off optimal. Eye-sight is normal with my glasses on and so was my bloody pressure. Although the nurse was a little concerned with my high heart-rate which she measured three times. Each and every time, they were over 100bpm! I guess a guilty conscience can have a huge effect on your pulse! All I need to do now is wait for the result for the alcohol and drug test. *dum dum dum!*

Its in the air! Summer have officially began! Although I am still in the midst of the exams, I can't help but cast my mind to what I have install for me in the coming months. I will be working for a Civil Engineering consultancy company with the possibility of participating in the design of train station platform enhancement for the disabled. That would definitely be a dream come true since "making a difference" is one of the reason why I got into Civ Eng in the first place. Funny enough, during an interview I had with another company, the trainee manager was quite blunt in declaring the truth with the industry: "At the end of the day, we are in it for the money. However, every now and then, there will be projects which would give you karma point but these projects are hard to come by". This opinion was echoed by another engineer whom I have met, ironically, on a charity project. So I guess I am really lucky to have the opportunity to get my feet wet on something which means so much to me. I really need to stay focus this summer and give it my all. Three years ago, I moved away from Manchester pretty much with my tail between my legs, this time to be able to return to the city and work for one of the biggest engineering firm in the country is something I should treat with uppermost regards!

Apart from that, there is Glastonbury to look forward to! One of the most celebrated and longest running festival in Britain if not the world. The general opinion on the festival this year is lukewarm at best. Regulars complained that the overall atmosphere of the festival has degraded over the past couple of years and the public reactions to the choice of headliners (Jay-Z) were quite critical. Either way, I am just going to enjoy it for what it is. Fact is, there are still a lot of bands I want to see who will be playing so I am not fussed over who is playing at the Main Pyramid Stage. I will be stewarding with Oxfam for this festival and from my experience from last summer, I honestly don't think there is any other way of enjoying a festival. To combine charity work with fun, getting into the festival for free, the enjoyment of free meals and all the staff facilities like clean toilets/shower. Stewarding for Glade and Leeds last year was amazing and I hope to experience something similarly wonderful again!