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Work as an Engineering consultant

Few academics are as active in and passionate about consultancy as Dr Sunday Popo-Ola. A research and teaching fellow within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sunday has been involved in academic consultancy since his PhD in 1993.

Dr Popo-Ola’s area of expertise is structural engineering. From testing concrete structures to designing new bridges, his consulting services are in demand. 

The Department’s testing laboratories are used for various research projects. But research projects don't always occupy the laboratory, and during those times they're used for commercial consultancy work. This can be up to 20-30% of the time. Sunday uses the labs to test structures for a number of companies, including Corus.

Currently they’re testing metal decking for concrete structures that will reduce the volume of concrete needed. The decking requires rigorous load testing both under normal circumstances and extreme cases where the decking might come away from the concrete due to fire or structural damage.

The Department’s testing lab can easily cope with these tests and more. Alongside the load testing rig, various machines can test structures under compression and tension, impacts and even earthquake simulations.

Through using these facilities, consultancy work brings in money for the department too. As a self-funded fellow, Dr Popo-Ola relies on consultancy to fund his position.

But it’s clear that consultancy is not just about making money. Dr Popo-Ola’s passionate about the effect consultancy has of bringing research out to the public.

“It’s vital that academic research collaborates with industry” he says. “What’s the point of research being hidden away in universities when it could be much more relevant out in the real world, potentially changing people’s lives.”

Sunday does the majority of his consultancy work through Imperial Consultants. As well as taking on the administrative work that consultancy inevitably entails, we’ve covered him when things have gone wrong. “A couple of companies I’ve worked for have gone bankrupt. I’d already done the work and because it was through Imperial Consultants, there was never any danger of not being paid. If that was private consulting, it would have been a lot worse” says Sunday.

Imperial College encourages academics to be involved in consultancy work as it brings funding and recognition to the college. It mustn’t, however, affect the day-to-day work of teaching, producing papers and securing grants.

“The summer’s a great time for consultancy work because of the reduction in teaching duties” says Sunday. “Young academics in London really benefit from the additional income of consultancy, and you’re generating money for yourself and the department from something you love doing.”