Educating and Inspiring the Future Designers of Major Bridges

This paper outlines some of the aims, methods and outcomes of the Long Span Bridges module of the MSc course at the University of Surrey. It outlines the development of the current course and some of the key issues to be addressed to be able to produce the young designers required by industry who can think both technically and creatively and also articulate their designs to others. The paper also looks at some of the research innovations resulting from the course.

As part of the ‘educating, inspiring and developing creative and innovative designers’ topic a number of important issues are looked at in more detail, these include: The ability of students to sketch and draw by hand in the age of CAD. The importance of having an historic perspective of the development of long span bridges, their design and designers. Approximate methods vs. computerised methods for design. Bench-marking design proposals using data from existing bridges. Lastly, but not least, keeping up with modern developments. .