Civil Engineering BEng (Hons) / MEng

 My name is Mimi Nwosu and I'm a civil engineer. 
 
 Growing up, I always wanted a career that saved lives. However, at the time, I only knew of medicine and being a doctor, so I aimed towards that way. It was actually a friend who told me about civil engineering. I attended a lecture and I fell in love and I started studying civil engineering at the University of Portsmouth. 
 
 Our lecturers at university are very supportive. I didn't have the prerequisite grades to study civil engineering, so I didn't study A-level maths or physics. However, lecturers believed in me more than I actually believed in myself, which therefore spurred me on to be the best person I could be. 
 
 After my second year, I took a placement year in central London, where I worked on Amazon's HQ as an undergraduate engineer. I don't actually work too far from it now, so everytime I walk past it with my family and my friends, I can tell them I built this and tell them all the technical know how behind it. 
 
 With civil engineering, I feel like most people see buildings, see bridges, see tunnels, see roads, but they don't know the technical details. So having that speciality to be able to pass it on to somebody else and educate them really makes me proud. 
 
 Before I finished university, I went to the Careers and Employability service to help me with my CV, my cover letter and interview techniques in order for me to find graduate jobs. I attended loads of different workshops, spoke to the advisors who offered fantastic advice, and also sent me jobs to apply for, for top engineering firms. Before leaving university, I was actually offered five jobs. 
 
 In June, as part of International Women in Engineering Day, I was named as one of the top women in engineering in the UK. I'm really proud of that because I love my job so much. It's not just a job, it's a career for me as well and I really love advocating for women in engineering. It's a career for absolutely everybody and I'm so proud to be one of the faces of that. 
 
 I like to describe civil engineers as undercover superheroes. I've always wanted to contribute to people's lives, save lives and have an active impact on sustainability measures, the economy and actually do something that means something to me. Civil engineering just means a lot to me. 
 
 Since leaving the university, I still feel very much part of the community. At times, the lecturers have called me to come to speak to the first years students to talk about my career, my time at the university and my time studying civil engineering, which I think is really, really important. People need to see the link between the university and the industry. Without the University of Portsmouth, I just feel like I wouldn't be the passionate civil engineer that I am today. 

Welcome to the hydraulics lab.

This is a powerful piece of apparatus that can show you what happens really when flow, like in a river, passes over a weir. You can get the sense of typical flow patterns.

If we've got a given flow rate, what happens when an obstacle is placed in the flow and also what happens downstream of it. So we get a different sort of flow regime on one side compared to the other and you'll see this as it fills up, that we get a flow rate of something like 20,

The flow builds up on one side, passes over the weir and then reaches the other side like this. So it's the same flow rate, but you can see it's kind of smooth, and then it degenerates into a much rougher profile on the other side.

We call this subcritical and supercritical flow. Subcritical flow is just typically what we might find in a water treatment works during distribution of water around different parts of the works. The other side, this supercritical flow, we have to be quite careful because it can cause damage to the environment. It can cause what we call scour or erosion.

Weirs are really very important in civil engineering because what we're trying to do is to obtain a relationship between flow rate and water level. Pretty obviously really, the higher the water level is, the faster the flow rate.

There are some very precise mathematical equations that can relate that flow rate to the water level here.

If you are thinking about the soil and the soil mechanic, the load of the house needs to transfer into the ground. So the structural element, which helps you to transfer the load of the structure into the ground, is a foundation.

We are going to teach you how you should design the foundation and everything, so you should know about the soil parameters.

In the first year of your study, I'm going to talk about the different types of soil, the soil classification, and also how we are going to take a sample from the site and doing some sieve analysis, classify the soil as a coarse material and defined soil. So this is the basic stuff that you need to know about the soil mechanics.

So when you are starting your second year of your study, you have a chance to do more experimental tests, doing some probability tests. You are going to do some odometer tests or the direct share to figure out what is the soil behaviour when you are checking the bearing capacity of the foundation, or what is this soil behaviour when you are loading or unloading.

When you are starting your third year of your study, you have a better idea about the soil mechanic, so you are going to do more traxial tests using the GDS test. And also we are going to teach you some numerical modelling because when you are graduating, you should have a nice CV.

As part of your final year, you have a chance to do some research work which will help you to become independent in the research. If you're thinking about the great material that we have, which is improving the tension of the soil, we can see that the soil particle is moving between the descript and this information is very important for the manufacture to find out what is the best shape of the descript or what is the best shape of this apparatus.

So this is a type of research that you are able and you have a chance to do, as a final project.

I hope I see all of you here in the future.

As a council we decided to take on placement students and form a partnership with the University of Portsmouth with a view to building relationships with with undergraduates through our bursary program.
And then when they graduate potentially considering them for permanent employment with the County Council I decided to do a placement due to employers required in Real World experience and it's hard to go into a field without any background knowledge.
Good way to get early experience whilst you're still learning.
I felt that it would help with my study.
But also I could come to a workplace learn a lot from people and not have too much pressure on some of our undergraduates.
They've never had a real job.
They come in.
They're quite fresh to the working environment, but they quickly get to grips without we will make them feel relaxed.
We'll help them to establish themselves within the workplace.
One of the most important things that you can't be taught in class is the importance of good communication skills and good interpersonal skills.
I learned how to liaise with members of the public counselors other members of staff and the contractor as well.
So sort of really getting a broad range of that communication side of how we're skiing should work and how it should run.
Advice I'd give to students considering doing placements is absolutely go for it.
Like you will not regret it.
It is one of the best things you can possibly do to prefer yourself for a career and civil engineering afterwards.
Hampshire County Council actually offered me my current role as a drainage engineer.
I came back to Hampton County Council after my pleasure because they've offered me a role essentially.
It was amazing.
It was the most fun exciting year of my University degree.
I enjoyed my time here.
I thought like I was a good member of the team so that sort of made me want to come back and to try and Branch out into various other departments to see what else Hampshire has to offer.
I mean incredibly proud of how far we've come with our scholarship program, and I'm equally proud of the relationship that we built up with the University of Portsmouth.

My name is Josh Mason and I'm a third year civil engineer at the University of Portsmouth.
I chose University because I wanted something bigger than the campus university, something with a bit of life but I wanted something compact enough that it was going to become my new home.  
I've just finished my placement year in between my second and third year. I've just finished with Jeffrey Osborne, they're a huge contractor in the UK, and I've actually been offered a graduate scheme and sponsorship out there so I've got that link into industry.
I would definitely recommend Portsmouth to anyone thinking about further education whether you're seventeen and you're scared about your undergrad or you're like me and you're about to start a master's next year.
I think it's a city that's easy to make friends in, and you become part of something bigger.