2012

The Water Zone was a popular one. Chat rooms were buzzing from beginning to end. The questions originally came in drips and drabs as students got to grips with the engineers’ specialisms, and then gushed in before drying out a bit again towards the end. The live chats were full of admiration for the charitable work that the engineers undertook throughout their careers and concern for the sustainability of their projects. Showing a conscientious student body! You can download the full zone report here (PDF).  

The transport zone was fairly consistent throughout the event in terms of busyness. The engineers were all friendly and engaged well with the students. The live chats in this zone were animated and fast but seemed to have a good level of interest and engagement. Lots and lots of questions were asked, repeatedly, but the engineers were quick to respond and got into a good flow. How much do you earn was asked A LOT in the live-chats. You can download the full zone report here (PDF).  

The High Performance zone was ironically one of the slower zones. The questions came in at a steady pace whereas the chat rooms were sparse but fast paced! In the Live Chats, the students obsessively quizzed the engineers and especially Kayleigh about cars and formula 1. They were also very curious about Rain’s involvement in space travel. In their questions, the students were interested in the day to day experience of the engineers, wanting to know the furthest, the fastest, the highest, the biggest and the best things that the engineers had done and seen. Rain also humoured the incessant puns about her name very well! You can download the full zone report here (PDF).

The Health Zone had an initial busy week with many questions and comments, which then calmed down in the second week. The engineers in the zone were very engaging with the students. The chats were sometimes very hectic. Several chats had only one or two engineers present facing a large volume of questions from students. Popular topics in live chats included intense debate on animal testing (vivisection), gender balance in engineering, the role of nanotechnology in medicine (and in general) and cures for cancer. Students were also interested in career advice for a role in engineering, earnings, lifestyle and the future plans of the engineers. You can download the full zone report here (PDF).

Energy was a lively zone, and one of the busiest in the I’m an Engineer event. The engineers were all friendly and engaged well with the students. Popular topics in this zone included why the engineers chose engineering (What interested you about Engineering?), what an engineer actually does (Do you enjoy your job?), and lots of questions about why they should vote for the engineers (State all your reasons for winning), and what they would do with the money, and a fair few energy related questions (what is the best non renewable rescource, As the world is always developing and we are using up energy sources, how long until all are natural energy sources will run out?). You can download the full report here (PDF).