Throughout the past year I have gained invaluable knowledge and experience through my senior thesis project.  The project enabled me to remove myself from ordinary course work, step back and look at the big picture when engineering a building.  I was fortunate enough to have exposure talking with design professionals, contractors, and faculty to assist in technical problems and questions that arose.  Simply making these contacts and communicating with the industry allowed me the chance to take my education from the academic world and apply it in a real life situation.  By redesigning the entire mechanical system, I was required to look at the building with a fresh set of eyes and had to solve multiple design problems as they arose. 

             I also was able to incorporate other aspects of my architectural engineering background by performing research on the electrical and structural systems affected by the mechanical redesign.  This task helped to solidify my understanding of how every system in a building affects other systems.  The challenge is to design a solution that satisfies the requirements of each area without sacrificing too much in another area.  Throughout my five years at Penn State, I learned more in this single year long project than I have in any other facet of my education.

ABET Survey