Derek TordofFs career in the construction industry began with a degree in civil engineering at the University of Leeds. Upon graduating in 1968, he joined consultant Mott Hay & Anderson in Croydon, Surrey, to design satellite support structures using a relatively new invention called a desktop computer. The Olivetti P101 was used to carry out repeat calculations to optimise the structures, which would be located in Hong Kong and East Africa and be subject to hurricane force winds.Although he enjoyed the experience of structural design and computer programming, Dr Tordoff was keen to broaden his knowledge and, as part of his professional training, spent the next year of his career building highways and bridges on the new M62 motorway for main contractor Dowsett Engineering.
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