The fifth annual Faculty Training Camp—a concentrated, intensive course in mechanical and electrical systems for academics who teach construction management courses—marked another win for the Mechanical-Electrical Academic Consortium (MEAC) and sponsors, the Mechanical Contracting Education & Research Foundation (MCERF) and Electri International, The Foundation for Electrical Construction, Inc.

The program, which took place this year at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL, March 30 – April 1, drew 20 participants.  Planned and organized by Prof. Jack Patterson of Western Carolina University and Prof. Daryl Orth of Northern Kentucky University, the boot camp covered sessions on the fundamentals of plumbing, mechanical and electrical systems, estimating and scheduling for both types of systems, and testing and balancing, controls and system commissioning.  A lab included mechanical and electrical exercises and a demonstration of Building Information Modeling (BIM).  The group also toured the PPD Control Room, the power plant for the university.

The program was designed in response to the growing problem of increasing student interest in the sub specialties of construction management at a time of decreasing funding for such programs.  Rather than hiring faculty with expertise in mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, universities and colleges have been assigning faculty with general engineering credentials to teach those courses.  The MEAC Boot Camp provides those faculty members with basic information about mechanical and electrical systems to augment their knowledge.  The program has been very well received.   The 2010 Boot Camp will take place  at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA.

For more information contact Ann Mattheis at amattheis@mcaa.org.