Student investment the key to the future

‘I was doing the Dartmoor hike as part of my Duke of Edinburgh award and it was a good opportunity for thinking about my future,’ he remembers. ‘Languages had looked like the most likely course for me to take as I was studying French, German and Russian and enjoying it. But I realised that I liked mathematics even more and there were more career opportunities, so the decision was made.’

From there it was a short step to discovering an interest in applying maths to model real behaviour, which led to a choice of engineering as a career. ‘I’m not one of those engineers who spent hours as a child playing with Lego or Meccano sets,’ he confesses. ‘Interest in engineering grew from an interest in maths and physics.’ The great outdoors once again played a key role in his career choices:’ I found that I liked mechanical as well as civil engineering, but civils meant that I might be outdoors a bit more, which was what I wanted.’

The influence of inspirational teachers while studying at Birmingham University, where he eventually took his PhD, led him towards structural engineering, and also towards an academic career. ‘I felt more comfortable with the structures stream, it seemed to me to be a more pure discipline whereas I always felt that there were more fudge factors in fluid dynamics.

‘The high profile projects always seemed to involve structures, either buildings or bridges, so it seemed an easy choice.’

A short period in practice with a small Birmingham consulting engineer was time well spent. ‘It was a fantastic experience. We were involved with small projects but the variety of experience was excellent, involving all aspects of design and all stages of the construction process. It was ideal. Had I been on a big project I would probably only have experienced one small aspect of it.’

Roger joined Sheffield University in 1976 as a lecturer in a department that was already strong on the structural use of steel. By the time he retired from his post as professor last year the department was one of the biggest and liveliest in the UK with close ties to industry, particularly the steel industry. British Steel, and later Corus, sponsored two teaching posts as well as a Chair in Structural Engineering and Architecture, which was occupied by Roger.

Structural fire engineering soon became his principal interest, following a meeting with Jef Robinson, a metallurgist from British Steel, who challenged the traditional approaches which today look expensive and time consuming. ‘Great advances have been made in this area and we have come a long way from what was the traditional approach 30 years ago,’ says Roger, helped in no small part by the research undertaken by him and his students over the years modelling structural response to fire. ‘New design methods mean that the amount of fire protection can be significantly reduced, and it can be easily applied offsite during fabrication.’

Significant knowledge was gleaned from the Cardington programme of large scale fire tests which Roger was closely involved in planning. Data was used to validate design models and subsequently used to develop Vulcan fire engineering software which is in widespread use today. Although structural fire engineering is well appreciated for use on large projects, Roger says there is potential for a lot more use of it on smaller projects where a prescriptive approach still prevails.

Future research might also focus more on sustainability he suggests, as developers and other building owners come to realise that it is a market opportunity rather than a cost. ‘There is still a lot of confusion on sustainability though and a lot of work needs to be done.’

A post retirement career in consultancy promises to keep Roger busy after what will be an extremely busy year as President of the IStructE. He has several themes to pursue during his Presidential year. A key message is that the future depends on investments made now in young engineers, and Roger stresses the importance of getting the right messages across to students. ‘One of the things we did successfully over the past 30 years or so was to focus on undergraduates, making sure that teaching materials on the structural uses of steel were widely and easily available.

‘If I had a single message for the industry then that is it – make sure that you maintain your investment in students. That is what has been done over the past 30 years and it has certainly paid dividends for the structural use of steel.’