We are thrilled to announce the launch of our newest Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), FIBE3: Unlocking Net Zero, which welcomed its very first cohort this October. Our new cohort brings together a diverse group of 10 talented students from six different countries and represents a range of academic backgrounds, including Civil Engineering, Architecture, Computer Science, Mathematics and Environmental Engineering, enriching the multidisciplinary nature of our program.
These students have now settled into Cambridge, joined university societies, and begun forming friendships from their colleges and the Engineering department, creating a collaborative and vibrant learning environment.
As part of Induction Week, Cohort 1 participated in a Wellbeing session of games and collaborative team challenges. One of which was a team challenge to build the tallest structure out of spaghetti and marshmallows within a time limit. Team Pasta Pioneers, comprising Luke Morris, Cameron Watson and Felix Baker won bragging rights with their hardy super-structure but everyone had fun outdoing each other with their civil engineering skills amid much laughter and collapsed spaghetti towers.
The Communications Skills Training about improving interpersonal interactions and teamwork was delivered by Sue Duraikan and her team of 3 actors. Sue explained the DISC personality model which categorizes individuals into four primary types of Dominance(D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S) and Conscientiousness (C). Each type reflects different behavioural traits and communications styles. Cohort 1 then did individual assessments to ascertain their own personality types. As practice, Cohort 1 was put into various teams who had to learn how to use different communication styles to communicate with different challenging personality types as played by the 3 actors.
Cohort 1 also had a session on Team building games with Alison Judge, a Culture and Communications Coach who is part of CLIC, the language unit in Engineering. In these games, they learned what they had in common as a cohort and what makes them unique as an individual. As they are all new to each other but will stay as a cohort for the next 4 years during the MRes + PhD programme, this session builds on getting to know each other better and cohort-bonding skills.
Paula Block, FIBE3 Centre Coordinator then presented a session on the Cambridge Festival games and the many past successful games the CDT students have delivered since 2018 as part of the Cambridge wide annual festival to inspire young children into STEM subjects. As part of the MRes course, the new cohort will learn project management skills while they design, implement and deliver their own game due in the March 2025 Cambridge Festival games. FIBE and FIBE2 are well known for their unique and innovative games with a civil engineering twist and we certainly look forward to Cohort 1 putting their stamp on the FIBE3 Cambridge Festival games!