Build Camp, a collaboration between Think Up and Constructionarium, gives 16 to 18-year-olds a snapshot of the world of civil engineering enabled. Over four days on site, students: survey the route; design the railway, cuttings and embankments; plan and carry out the construction of the line; assemble and lift into position a bridge; ride a train along the route on opening day.

In the early days of Think Up we identified the need for an intensive hands-on activity that would inspire school-leavers to study civil engineering. And what better way to get an introduction that industry than to build a railway? Planning and constructing a railway involves all the main disciplines of civil engineering, and comes with the bonus of being able to ride it when it’s finished.

Constructionarium, ICE, CITB and Balfour Beatty bought into the idea and in Easter 2014 Constructionarium and Think Up piloted the first ever Build Camp. Over four days of students on site a group of Arwright scholars and UTC students planned, built and rode a scale version of a railway using real construction materials, processes and plant.

Think Up’s role in the development of Build Camp was to develop the initial concept and business plan, and to find a group of stakeholders to invest in and develop the pilot. Once funding was found, Think Up developed the learning approach for the event and worked with Constructionarium to design the on-sight activities. An important part of the design was the creation of a strong visual identity, which helps to communicate the key messages of the event. This visual identity then informed the design of the resource pack given to students and how the Constructionarium site was dressed to host this new kind of event. The pilot event was co-facilitated by Think Up and Constructionarium.

Following the success of the pilot we are now working to build an industry consortium to help support the long-term operation of Build Camp. For more information visit the Build Camp page on this website.

We created the Big Rig back in 2010 as a pop-up construction training venue to host an event called Low-Carb, in which participants built a low-carbon shower from waste construction material. Since then the Big Rig has proven itself as a versatile and robust training environment for delivering transformative learning and training.

Think Up works with training providers to establish Big Rig facilities on their premises, and then designs and facilitates training events to that take place in those facilities. The key to the success of Big Rig events is careful orchestration of the activities to allow just the right levels of challenge, excitement and jeopardy so that participants have a highly engaging and memorable experience.

The first Big Rig was hosted by the National Construction College in Newham. The success of that first commission rapidly led to two more Big Rig commissions from CITB: the Winter Water Warmer,  in which school children built a biomass boiler within the confines of the Big Rig to heat water for a low-carbon shower; and the Retrofit Rig, in which the Big Rig was used as an exhibition stand to demonstrate low-carbon construction processes and techniques.

The first permanently hosted Big Rig was established at the College of Northwest London. The Construction and Technology faculty at the college uses the Big Rig to host a week-long low-carbon construction challenge in the run-up to their annual industry day.

Following the success of the Nuclear Island Constructionarium project, we were asked by Cogent to think about how we could design an event that would attract mechanical and electrical engineers into the nuclear new-build sector. Our proposal was to create a new kind of Big Rig challenge, in which students would be given a week to plan and build a mock-up of a nuclear reactor under the simulated conditions of a nuclear-licensed site.

The first nuclear-themed Big Rig opened in Bridgwater in 2012, close to the construction site for Hinkley Point C. Shortly after, we were commissioned by Sellafield to create a Big Rig in Cumbria to attract undergraduate engineers into the nuclear reprocessing sector. That Big Rig opened in 2013 at Lakes College West Cumbria and is now being used as part of Sellafield’s recruitment process.

Think Up is now working with industrial partners to create a Big Rig industrial project board to help grow the scale of Big Rig operations in the UK. Members of the board include ECITB, Cogent, EDF, Sellafield, Atkins, Imperial College, University of Leeds, Bridgwater College and Lakes College Cumbria.

We were commissioned by the Royal Academy of Engineering to design and facilitate a day-long creative design exercise for a group of 60 top engineering students from around the world.

In groups of ten, we set students the challenge of developing engineering responses to one of six of the Global Grand Challenges. At the end of an intense day of activity, students presented their ideas to a team of Angel investors. The winning team won the opportunity to present their ideas to the Global Grand Challenges Summit.

Think Up’s role was to design a programme of activities, develop a visual design for the event, create briefing materials, produce delegate packs, dress the workshop space and facilitate the whole day.

Our programme was shaped around helping students develop design skills in the context of solving one of the Global Grand Challenges: access to clean water; preserving urban infrastructure; advancing health informatics; enhancing virtual reality; protecting cyberspace; and, advancing personalised learning.

We created a carousel of different work spaces, each intended to focus on a different part of the design process. In the ideas incinerator students focused on rapid idea generation.

In the drawing room students discovered the power of sketching for exploring their ideas.

We created the tech room was a space for online research and creation.

And thehe Angel booth was a space for testing ideas with an expert.

Student feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive. See what they had to say on the Facebook page we created for this event.