Principles of sustainability to create viable systems:

I was able to design a driveway to a residential house in Sydney. The house was located northwest, and my target was to design a sustainable driveway for the house and also designing accordance to the Australian Standard. Therefore, one of the requirements was to calculate according to the area of the land and I took this as an opportunity to learn a new software that calculates the maximum slope. The slope calculated was around 20% and the difference of the slope between each drainage should not be greater than 11% and that was according to the standard. Moreover, an AutoCAD drawing of the whole driveway was requested from the client. I took a scale of 1:100 while I was sketching the driveway on AutoCAD. The challenging section of the project was to design an efficient driveway that would not go over the client’s budget. The best part about this project was communicating with my other interns and discussing the design. This project required a lot of group work and we all shared different ideas to come up with a quality design. According to the criteria there were more than ten different sections of the driveway and it was a challenge to find the adequate design. Also, we were restricted with 5 days period to come up with a perfect design and so we had to work hard for whole week to get a suitable design. This was a hard task as it was my first time design a driveway and my knowledge was minimal and so I had to do a lot of reading and research to meet my client’s expectations.

We worked as a team on the AutoCAD drawing and we used a 1:100 scale when we designed the driveway. We created a couple of different models and showed them to our client to choose. This designed was by far one of the hardest tasks I have ever done, and I have to admit that I did learn a lot from this experience. Also, it was a chance to build my communication and engineering skills with me from colleagues. After a few days, we came up with 20 solutions and out of the 20 we picked the best 5 designs. Then we designed a 3D model of the driveway on AutoCAD. By the end of the week, we had everything ready and my manager checked our designed and he was pleased with our work.

In construction the main material used was concrete and of course steel bars were used a reinforcement aiding the concrete to stand all the tension force applied. This concept of construction applies to all structures in civil engineering for instance bridges, walking or road paths, bridges etc. This concept mentioned earlier is universal and that is the cheapest and effective way nowadays in construction. However, concrete is not environmentally friendly and thus 5 % of the CO2 emission is generated by concrete. Engineers nowadays try to minimise the usage of concrete when designing any structural. Therefore, as a team while constructing the driveway we saved around 1200 kilograms of concrete and so the client was satisfied with reducing the quantity of concrete used as the client was able to save money.

After each step taken during the project, I had to go and show it to my supervisor to make sure I was designing according to the criteria provided and also to rate my performance during the process of designing. Even though this was first ever project to work on, I was able to gain a lot of knowledge. My supervisor was pleased with the overall design, however, due to my lack of experience there were minor errors in the final design and credits to my supervisor he was able to help me visualise them. In addition, my supervisor said that I need to contribute more with my team and try to come up new ideas to the design even if it is not in the criteria provided. He said that I have to strictly stick to the client’s demand. However, adding to it would not harm the overall result. His feedback did not surprise me as I this was my first major project to work on and the lack of experience was a factor against me. Also I scared of the responsibility on my shoulders as this was my first design and I could not imagine that my design was going to be constructed and will exit in the real world.

I took the feedback given my supervisor into consideration and I took this internship as practicing platform so in future I would be able to fully engage when I get a permeant position in the engineering industry. After the first project, I was able to gain more trust from my supervisor and we had a lot of short discussion after that project. These discussions helped boost my confidence and build my engineering knowledge. This internship helped me know the difference between studying and working. It was harder for me as I was working and studying at the same time. However I was able to manage my time perfectly and I worked my way through both university and studying. I have to admit that the company I have chosen to work for was the best one for a student. Even though it is a small company, I learned and gained a lot of experience. Luckily there was not of staff in the company and so my supervisor was able to show me and give me a lot of his time. Overall, during my internship, I have learnt the importance and enhanced these valuable qualities and I am curtain that in future I will more confident when I start my first full-time permeant position in another company.

It is essential to be proactive and be able to contribute new ideas to the company you work for and so it is crucial that you adapt to the new workplace. Unfortunately, my internship was very short that it took me around a month to adapt to the working environment. I was lucky to take that internship as an opportunity to adapt to engineering industry. Based on the research I have done, these website provides an accurate explanation on how to be productive and proactive

“Ways to more innovative at work”:https://managementhelp.org/innovation/index.htm

“How to be creative at work”https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/7-steps-you-need-take-creative-work.html

Engineering is all about creativity and innovation. Therefore, in civil engineering we are always tackled my complex issues when designing or working in the field. Therefore thinking outside the box is considered an important skill.

In the second project, our task was to sketch the area and slope of the land which was used to construct a recitational building. I had the chance to work with two other UTS students and we worked together to work out the best design. We also studied the soil of the land. Based on the calculations, we calculated the adequate landscape according to data provided and I have to admit that this task was harder than the previous task. It was harder because dealing with soil can be hard as it would make your job harder in terms of finding the safest landscape for the project. We started with surveying land and luckily, I was studying surveying while I was doing my internship and thus this make it easier in term calculating the area and slope. The project was not easy as we to work after hours and ended submitting late.

We started with taking a survey of the land and as a team we had to ensure that we communicated well with each other to deliver the project on time. It took us 3 days to set up a surveying plan for the land provided. I have to admit it was tough job and luckily my supervisor was helping and working with us throughout that project. After we have decided on the surveying plan, the rest of the project was not challenging and once we established an efficient way of communicating and collaborating, we delivered the project with all the requirement mentioned by the client. I remember that we had to step-up a couple of zoom session after work to ensure quality in the design. The second project was intense and challenging.

Furthermore, there are difficulties and challenges I went through during my internship. I remember we had to go to a rural area far east of Sydney to investigate the soil and geotechnical conditions. We had to write a geotechnical report and explain if the soil in the land is capable of handling a two-level residential building. I had to go through a lot of calculation to test if the soil’s land was adequate for handling the downward force applied from the building. I had to test the settlement of the soil and check if it is safe to build on or not. I had to use a lot of my geotechnical skills I have gained from studying and also, I had the chance to learn a new software called Plaxis 2D and used it to check my work. I always found it fun to use a software in civil engineering as you can use it to demonstrate your understanding and gained new skills. Moreover. I had to sketch a draft of the whole structure alongside with the geotechnical report. My supervisor was checking my work constantly and give me feedback. I had around 3 weeks to finalize the report and have it ready for my supervisor to look at and then I and my supervisor had to arrange a meeting with our client to ensure that we can proceed with the designs and start the project.

Unfortunately, after starting the project, my supervisor had to undergo a surgery and had to take a whole week off. This delayed almost all the deliverables we panned before starting the project. Without his management, we were are unable to take a step forward in the project and as a team we could not work together. As a team we were unorganised, and we could not divide the work evenly. People were complaining about the lack of communication and out of the six other students, it was me and another student that did all the work during the absences of our supervisor. We also had problems with the AutoCAD and the calculations I did, and I could not take any decisions without our supervisor.

Due to the unfinished paperwork and the lack of communication as a team, we were behind the schedule and we had management issue with the sub-contractors as our supervisor usually is in contact with the subcontractors and we never had to deal with them. I was feeling anxious at that moment as it was my first experiencing a major problem at work and we had to leader and we could not take any big decisions.

However, a couple of weeks before the first deliverable, our supervisor was making to the office and we had to organise an urgent meeting to put a strict plan to finish all the deliverables on time and work around the issues we are facing. During the meeting, we divided the work equally and everyone knew his role. I remember that month was very challenging, as we all had to work over-hours and ensure that our work meets the criteria assigned by the client. Although we worked after hours, some of the deliverables were submitted late however, the major ones were submitted late and overall the project was not delayed. The critical path of the project was followed, and we worked hard as a team to make sure that everything was done to the criteria provided.

I have to admit that I have learnt a lot during this project, and I regret not being capable of taking the initiative and worked smarter. It would have saved us as a team and never had to stay after hour to finish our work. However, I am pleased with the overall result and I am happy that I was able to engage with complex issues and find solutions to resolve these issues. Communication skills are essential at work and I am sure that I have enhanced my communication skills during my internship.

It is worth mentioning that one of my intern colleagues learnt civil engineering in Chinese and I am used to the English terms in engineering. Thus, it was hard communicating with him and I found it really hard working with him. For instance, the word “moment” we used this term a lot in university and it is used to express the rotation of an object or beam. My colleagues however, was using the work torque which means the same thing but I just was not used to it.

If I want to be successful in my field, I have to learn to work with a team and luckily during my internship I was able to improve my team working skills and work people from different backgrounds. This did not just improve my communication skills; it also improved my knowledge of other cultures and this would enhance my confidence when working. As an engineer, I will be dealing with complex and complicating issues thus it is essential to improve my management and communication skills. I should be innovative and proactive when I take a permeant position. In my recent work experience, I have done a lot of projects with different people and I was lucky to work with the right group. This pushed me hard to work and make sure I do everything on time. Overall, I have to admit that my internship was beneficial, and it had a huge influence on my personality.