“Mr. Duffield wanted to make the mechanical option more visible to first, second, and third year students,” said Prof. Jelena Srebric, who coordinated the program, which was made possible through two gifts from Mr. Duffield. “He was concerned that there is a shortage of students coming into the mechanical option and wanted to find ways to show AE students the many opportunities the mechanical option can offer.”

The website, which is used as a teaching tool in AE 310, Fundamentals of HVAC, and AE 124, Freshman Seminar, shows examples of how mechanical architectural engineers impact the final design of a building, provide simple, practical examples of mechanical work, and demonstrates the variety of job options possible for AE mechanical graduates.

Mr. Duffield hopes to see the AE 310 design competition and its subsequent award remain a permanent part of the course. “[The design competition] is key to peaking student interest,” he said in a letter to the Department. “This allows the students to experience the true mechanical design process vs. just solving academic problems.”