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ACE Society Yearly Review
By Konstantinos
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I am the proudest outgoing chairman in the world: 2 years in ACE we have transformed our department and student body.
Last year we won the Best Departmental Society of the Year for going from almost disaffiliation to two very successful events and doubling of the committee size. This year the change is even bigger: Events were consistent. Attendance was fantastic. Engagement with the students (what we are really after) was spectacular. The topics discussed are very important and we invited great professionals to inspire us.
Harbinder Birdi, a partner at Hawkins\Brown, delivered an incredibly useful lecture on the engineer-architect collaboration based on his experience as principle Architect in three Crossrail stations. The event was attended by a record of more than 150 people!
A very successful networking “Grab-a-Grad” event was run in collaboration with the ICE, IStructE, and BuroHappold, where younger students had the chance to informally meet graduate engineers from excellent firms.
The Society’s first ever debate was run this March where students argued for and against “Is Sustainability Just A Brand?” in front of a fantastic audience, composed of ACE students, researchers and staff, as well as professionals from BuroHappold. It was recognised that sustainability is an overused term of a wider umbrella of issues, including environmental, financial, and social aspects. The engagement of the audience was phenomenal. It took 1.5 hours after the teams finished presenting to reach a vote, with the majority agreeing with the opposition: sustainability is certainly not just a brand, there is a lot more to it, but maybe a ‘rebranding’ would help a lot clarify the true objectives of sustainable construction.
Most importantly, however, we have the first year students involved. I cannot stress enough how important – and exciting –this is! When I was in first year, sadly nothing was going on. Now there are peer mentors, industrial contacts, networking events, PaperspACE, and a buzz about our department like never before.
The new committee are very well placed to continue this success and I am sure they will do their absolute best – there are some great ideas in the pipeline! If you happen to meet them, notice their enthusiasm and drive; they represent our department’s nature and I wish them all the best to take the ACE Society to new heights.
