Mechanical Team

Bio

Kevin Ricart is in his fifth year at Penn State University studying Architectural Engineering with a focus in mechanical engineering. He will graduate with both a Bachelor and Master of Architectural Engineering degree in May 2015. In the summer of 2015 will be working as a mechanical engineer, EIT for Smithgroup JJR in Washington DC.
During his 5 years at Penn State, Kevin has taken advantage of many opportunities the university has offered. During his summers, he took advantage of internship opportunities and was ableto study abroad in Rome and throughout China. During the school year he findss himself quite busy with coursework and various duties as the ASHRAE student chapter president. However, he still makes time for his personal hobbies, which include energy modeling, playing basketball, eating a couple pazo wings at The Darkhorse Tavern, and playing the highly strategic "Settler's of Catan." Kevin's life revolves not just working hard, but working smart; to illustrate this he leaves you with a story:

Two woodsmen are entered into a famous wood cutting competition. One is big and strong, the other small and lean and both are known throughout the land for their skill with an axe. The competition is long and strenuous – each participant must chop the most wood they can in a single day. As dawn breaks, the two woodsmen charge at the trees and begin hewing with speed and skill. The work is hard and tiring and the bigger woodsman isn’t surprised to see that the smaller is taking a ten minute break after each hour of chopping. Filled with confidence about his greater stamina, the bigger woodsman just keeps on chopping. At the end of the day he turns to the crowd, expectant of victory – only to be confronted with a pile of wood twice as high as his own. “How could you have cut down more trees than I did?” he asked. “Every hour you sat down to rest while I kept right on cutting. I don’t understand.”

“When I sat down I wasn’t just resting, I was sharpening my axe,”