Press Release

The winners of the eighth international PERI Construction Exercise come from the University of Stuttgart: Matthias Mager and Robert Poller. The two budding engineers developed and presented the best solution for the construction of an IT office building in Stuttgart – the tasks included organizing building site facilities and creation of the formwork solution through to construction work scheduling. As in previous years, PERI selected a real project as the basis for the competition.

During the final round, which took place in the middle of November at the PERI Weissenhorn training centre, the five best teams presented their projects in front of an audience and a panel of experts. Matthias Mager and Robert Poller from the University of Stuttgart won through against tough competition with a convincing presentation and emerged as the winners of the eighth international PERI Construction Exercise 2010/2011.

Strong international participation

In the past two years, around 350 information folders containing assignment details for the seventh PERI Construction Exercise were sent out which had been requested by a wide range of training institutes and faculties world-wide.. Up to the 30 June 2011 deadline, a total of 46 entries had been received from Germany, Austria, Serbia and France – the highest ever participation in the 16-year history of the competition. The creators of the five best solutions were then invited to the final round of judging at PERI headquarters in Weissenhorn.

The day of decision

The participants accompanied by their supervising professors, together with other lecturers from their institutions, arrived the day before to meet and get to know each other. This meant that they also had plenty of time to get acquainted with the media technology in the modern conference rooms; in addition, the order of presentations was drawn. On the day of decision, the aspiring engineers each presented their ideas in the form of a 20-minute presentation. Subsequently, each presenter had to face critical questions from the jury which consisted of four specialists from the construction industry.

Following careful deliberation by the jury, the final placings were decided:
1st place: Matthias Mager and Robert Poller, University of Stuttgart
2nd place: Markus Kummer and Manuel Lögl, Technical University Graz
3rd place: Benjamin Bredl, University of Applied Sciences, Munich
4th place: Frederik Schmalle and Oliver Wacinski, University of Applied Sciences, Berlin
5th place: Kai Pretzschner and Marcel Richter, University of Applied Sciences, Zittau/Görlitz

The jury took into consideration both the presentation from the morning along with the required written work for the construction exercise.

Extensive practical relevance

However, the winners include not only these five teams but everyone that participated in the PERI Construction Exercise – and not just because those finishing in the sixth to eleventh places also received attractive cash prizes. Then all participants were provided with extensive practical experience during the project, an important element in terms of their subsequent activities in the construction industry. On the basis a specific project example from the field, all aspects of construction operations had to be dealt with – ranging from building site facilities through to formwork and scaffolding solutions as well as the execution of construction work and schedules.

On the last day, the finalists visited the building which provided the basis for the project: a modern, three-story office building in Stuttgart. This approach is a firm fixture of the construction exercise, because only a real structure is selected for the PERI competition. In addition, the size and complexity were deliberately chosen so it corresponds to what the future engineers will encounter in their daily work. The final visit to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart included a special architectural tour was part of the reward for all their hard work.

After the construction exercise is before the construction exercise

The Ninth PERI Construction Exercise: the 2012/13 PERI competition has been advertised since the middle of October and the first sets of documents have already been sent out. Participation is open to all civil engineering training and educational institutions, closing date is 31 July 2013. All information, assignments and corresponding downloads are available on the PERI website at www.peri.de/ce. A complete set of documents can be requested by sending a mail to bbue@peri.de.