Unlock 200+ Years of Structural Engineering Secrets in under 30 minutes!

During my visit to the IStrutE headquarters, I had the privilege of conversing with some of the most knowledgeable structural engineers in the world. With a collective experience of more than 200 years, they imparted invaluable advice that can change your career trajectory.

We discussed
- Why you should be A Structural Engineer
- The future of engineering.
- What are the mistakes that most engineers make,
- The Career advice we never had
- What we wish we had known earlier about structural engineering.

Thanks for taking the time to provide your insights:
David Ian Harvey FIStructE
Prof. Don McQuillan
Elizabeth Visser
Matt Byatt FIStructE
Navid Assemani
Tan Choon Wei

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[malikdaniyel]

Great video Brendan, we need more interviews like this where engineers giving their experiences and the choices made. In addition, it's a reminder of the love for what we do as engineers.

[allanjonathan]

Great video 👍🏾 what stood out to me was that it seems that variety of projects helps to give better understanding of utilizing the problem solving process and it's more fun to choose a niche I'm interested in and do that.

Towards the end there it was mentioned about "how someone would verify a design by first principles" And somewhere in the middle it was said something about "over designing the wrong solution" and "just because the computations and calculations are complex doesn't mean it's the best solution"

I appreciate the thought that first and foremost to be an engineer is to embody and consciously apply the "problem solving process" not just to problems structural (physics and mathematics) in nature but also in the broader sense of both science and humanities problems.


To embody the Engineering process is to have to one ring to rule them all lol

Thanks again!

[jefftc]

Great video Brendan. Prof Dans closing words are important. The most concerning trait in graduate engineers, I’ve found, is perfectionism. They believe what the models tell them, they have an stoic faith in their ability. All great engineers carry secrets of failures that they won’t share, but that forms the foundation of experience. This is why AI can never replace good designers, only conservative safe ones. I was told that everyone makes errors, even the best. A checkers job is to find those errors which are invisible to the designers. Knowing that changed my perspective and allows me to keep my secrets, which didn’t see the light of day. ( of course, there are always they ones that got away.)

[julianlineham]

Fantastic set of interviews, Brendan, it would be great to get this in front of lots of middle and high school students somehow. This is very useful for undergraduates and also graduates early in their careers.

[njabulozimba]

Marelize is my chair for Southern Regional Group. So proud of her. Great engineer. Video was very informative. Great work Brendan.

[takundatapfuma]

Great video Brendan, this channel has grown into something to be proud of.

[DeepakKrishna]

Very insightful information and thoughts from some of the very best minds. Thanks Brendan.

[TheunsGideonJudeel]

Great video! One of the best things to do as engineers, especially young ones, are to collaborate and learn from others. Having been involved with the IStructE South African committee, there’s great value in this institution!

[DR-gehp]

I'm about to complete a 2 yr. degree in design and drafting. This video is super neat for someone at my level.

[mohamedabdullah]

We need more of that, love your channel.

[MARTINPANDZOU-fizn]

Depuis le Gabon je suis un fane de l'ingénierie structurelle j'ai 19ans d'âge

[ekkycecil]

Thank you so much for this. Very interesting and informative. As a younger engineer this gives me more drive and resolve to keep learning.

[ernestochristianmoralesp.]

Thank you very much for this excellent video👏, although it would be interesting to make a video exclusively of the lessons they have learned.

[romliahmadabdulnadzir]

The era of modern structural engineering; the use of computer modeling, advanced technology, and composite materials etc. for safer strength and cost (from 25 years ago and revolutionary changes in the last ten years and now)

[-wv]

Great video, Brendan. I really love your channel.

[romliahmadabdulnadzir]

Today, computer technology and modern software, automation, BIM modeling, and advanced structural analysis and design methods have catapulted structural engineering to its modern age with new potentials and possibilities. Any structural modeling and advance dynamic or interaction problem can be solved. By using computer modeling, advanced mathematical models such as finite element methods, we can design almost anything. Some iconic and famous buildings in this age are the “One World Trade Center” in New York (2013), Tokyo Skytree steel telecommunication tower (2011), Swiss Re (The Gherkin) Building in the U.K. (2003), Burj Khalifa in Dubai (the world tallest building) (2010), and the world tallest wood building with 18 stories in the University of British Columbia (2016),

[Meeshell]

Funny how every video on engineering has the same run around answers when the question about income comes up... "don't worry about it right now", "you gotta put your time in", "its not about the money, its about helping humanity". Glad if that works for some people, but I wish I would have known this before I had invested the money and time into this job.

[erikmeyer]

"...You can get into a situation where it is possible to overengineer the wrong solution ..." That just about sums up human nature in one short sentence. Who said Engineers are all didactic materialists?

[chandreshmalewar]

Is there any way...to teach us while showing every single details of your whole work how. To start a project with baisc to completion of that project....how to excess every single thing...while becouse no one explain things ...its becoming tough to actually know how to work

[ragsdev]

What softwares are currently in uae for building and Bridge designs ?