Arup Ltd

Dr Alvise Simondetti, Global Leader of Virtual Design

The EngD VEIV programme helps to enhance the design benefits of Arup Foresight by supporting a doctoral student in evaluating design tools for complex engineering challenges. Our office seeks to advance Arup’s performance by driving radical innovations in major infrastructural projects. The success of our innovations depends on their adoption or acceptance among the public, so capturing support is, in this regard, a key driver for success.

Arup Foresight’s EngD student has dedicated his efforts to deploying a social-media public engagement platform, upon which Arup’s 3D assets are provided as enriched models of structural innovations. This web-enabled platform allows Foresight to engage a massive and diverse population of participants, which represents a qualitative shift in the scope and validity of our design consultations.

A key advantage for Arup of sponsoring an EngD VEIV student is the inclusion in our team of a researcher who is dedicated to evaluating virtual design tools. Our success as engineers depends in part on the effectiveness of our tools. With so many available to us, it is essential that we make clear, informed judgements about their appropriateness to the task at hand. Testing new tools involved prototyping, which is a valuable task for an EngD student to undertake. In this way, our EngD student helps Foresight to think in new ways, and to imagine solutions to the problems of the next generation.