Each summer, one of the five partner universities in STREAM bring together all the research engineers (REs) across the cohorts for a week of socialising and solving water-based challenges. This year the event was fantastically put together by Jaime and Justine at Newcastle University. The venue was Longhirst Hall and we were set the task of deriving an integrated flood plan for nearby Morpeth. The 35 REs were split into 6 groups to consider the flood plan from the perspective of a flood action group, Northumberland Country Council, EA, Halcrow (the engineering consultancy), NWL and the insurers. The task was set by Geoff Parkin, who suffered from the flooding in Morpeth in 2008. To break up the task, we ventured back in to Newcastle briefly for a conference in the Devonshire, with excellent presentations from Cohort 1 (and a few from Cohort 2), as well as posters from all REs. Following this, we continued to work on our presentations for Thursday. The morning saw informal flipchart presentations from each group to the ‘public’, to gain feedback for the formal afternoon session outlining each group’s approach to the integrated flood plan. Being in the insurance group was pretty tough and lead to some intense questioning from the ‘public’, but it almost paid off, with our group coming second (to the county council) in the task.
But STREAM is far from all work and no play; the first day was spent at Kielder Water canoeing, kayaking and sailing. Although the weather was fantastic – minor ailments were common, with REs suffering sunburn, mozzie bites and the odd trip to the RVI for an x-ray and a sling. From a water engineering perspective, the STREAM team also got to experience the UK’s largest man made reservoir. Wednesday night saw the arrival of Donna and Nigel to umpire a rounder’s tournament that was greatly anticipated by all… Despite the eagerness of Cohort 4 (with star member Justine), it seems matching t-shirts do not help to win matches. On the final night we were taken to a local pub for a meal and prize-giving. I’ve been informed this is usually quite low-key with the challenge week winners and the best student from the induction semester (based on exam results) announced. This year, it resembled the Oscars. Prizes were flowing left, right and centre and I was pleased to receive a gorgeous bunch of flowers for the ‘best fall into Kielder Water’. Overall, Challenge Week was a huge success with most saying it was the best yet… Cranfield have a lot to live up to next year.
Also note- Sarah has her own individual blog related to her work called ‘Prototypes, Pipedreams and Power from Poo… snippets from a sewage engineer on STREAM’