Global win for Calibre team

A team of engineers from Perth company Calibre Projects Pty Ltd has become the first group from outside the UK to win a prestigious international construction competition.

The ‘Stop, Calibrate and Listen’ team, headed by mechanical engineer Patrick Scanlon, won this year’s event after competing against 220 teams from around the world.

Hosted by Loughborough University in England, the 2008 Global Management, Enterprise, Risk, Innovation and Teamwork – otherwise known as MERIT – contest is a global computer simulation where participants learn how to manage their own  construction company.

The competition is aimed at giving junior engineers an insight into the activities and degree of judgement needed when bidding for construction projects, and covers many aspects including finance, marketing, estimating and construction management.

Mr Scanlon said there were two aspects to the overall game.

“There’s the training aspect of it; I get to manage a project a few years before the real thing and I also learned a lot about how to mange a team,” he said. 

Three teams from Calibre participated in the first round, with two of those placing in the top six; these teams went to compete in the grand final.

Mr Scanlon’s team, which placed first in the initial round, flew to England to participate in the finals alongside teams from New Zealand, England, and Ireland. 

The teams then competed with each other for fictional contracts and resources over two days, with the teams judged by both the computer program and judges.

Each member of the six-person winning team received more than $1,000 to spend on a training program.