ROCKVILLE, Md. - The Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) has announced that 14 student chapters have submitted entries to its 2004-2005 Student Chapter Competition. Several chapters are competing for the first time, and others are from chapters that have just formed and will be receiving their charters at the MCAA 2005 convention in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The participating chapters are: MCA Student Chapter of Texas A&M University; Mechanical Specialty Contracting Student Chapter at Iowa State University; MCAA Student Chapter at the Milwaukee School of Engineering; MCA of Indiana Student Chapter at Purdue University; Student Chapter for Mechanical/Electrical Specialty Contracting at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; University of Washington Mechanical Contractors Student Chapter; Student Chapter of Specialty Contracting (Mechanical/Electrical) at Southern Polytechnic State University; MCAA's Student Chapter at Georgia Tech; Rocky Mountain Chapter of MCAA (Colorado State University); MCAA Student Chapter at Fairleigh Dickinson University; Illinois State University Mechanical and Electrical Contractors Association; Oregon State University Student Chapter of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America; MCAA Student Chapter at the University of Wisconsin-Stout; and the MCAA Student Chapter at the University of Cincinnati.

This year's project, a dramatic arts building on a college campus in Denver, was provided to MCAA by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), which used the project for its 2004 student competition. The Career Development Committee added on to the winning ASHRAE proposal's mechanical system requirements and other elements that distinguished the project from the original and enhanced its challenges. A panel of five judges from the Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia areas will evaluate and score the entries and choose the top four to deliver oral presentations at MCAA 2005.