Reflections: the future of engineering and staying one step ahead
Reflections: Can you draw a bicycle?
Contributor
Simon Lovell
BSc
Communications Director
Partner
This year, we're celebrating the 60th birthday of our practice, which Max founded in his Camden home back in 1966. We've been busy capturing our projects, culture and our people's most insightful thoughts.
Drawing a bicycle is a great test of specific skills useful for being an engineer, and for many years, it has been a standard challenge during our interviews. This used to be kept as a secret, so that we could catch interviewees off-guard, but in recent years it's become widely known that it's a core part of passing the test to become a Max Fordham engineer.
A test of engineering thinking
A bike is a simple but genius machine, utilising the basics of physics to propel riders forward. How does drawing a bicycle relate to engineering thinking?
1. Understanding how things work. How many of us think about how and why things are built the way they are? Engineers do!
2. Thinking about 3D objects in a spatially accurate, diagrammatic way. This is the way we convey designs.
3. Designing machinery that minimises impact on the environment and benefits human health. Oftentimes, the simplest solution is the best solution.
Many of our people ride a bike every day, but haven't had to draw one again until now...we thought it would be fun to see how our own engineers, consultants and administrators could do under pressure (and in some cases, with many more years' experience!).
Watch to see how they did and whether they remembered all the most important parts.
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