ROCKVILLE, Md. - A panel of judges has selected the four MCAA student chapter teams that will make oral presentations of their bid proposals at MCAA’s 2008-09 Student Chapter Competition on March 2, 2009, at the MCAA Annual Convention in Scottsdale, Ariz. The teams are from:

• Northeastern University;

• Purdue University;

• University of Nebraska – Lincoln; and

• University of Washington.

The judges selected the finalists after reading, discussing, and scoring proposals submitted by 28 MCAA student chapters. In addition to the four finalists, teams that submitted proposals were from:

• California Polytechnic State University at Pomona;

• California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo;

• California State University Chico;

• California State University Sacramento;

• Central Washington University;

• Colorado State University;

• Fairleigh Dickinson University (New Jersey);

• Ferris State University (Michigan);

• Illinois State University;

• Iowa State University;

• Kent State University;

• McMaster University (Canada);

• Milwaukee School of Engineering;

• Northern Kentucky University;

• Oregon State University;

• Pennsylvania State University;

• Pittsburg State University;

• Southern Polytechnic State University (Georgia);

• University of Louisiana – Monroe;

• University of Maryland – College Park;

• University of Nebraska – Omaha;

• University of Wisconsin – Stout;

• Washington State University; and

• Wentworth Institute of Technology (Massachusetts).

Criteria used for evaluating the proposals considered each written proposal’s overall quality (20 percent), project management and organization (25 percent), feasibility of construction and program schedules (20 percent), quality of the conceptual design (15 percent), and accuracy/feasibility of conceptual costs (20 percent).

Ken Durr (Durr Mechanical Construction Inc., New York), Richard Perosa (H.T. Lyons Inc., Allentown, Pa.) and Bob Portman (Kinetics, Durham, N.C.) served as the first round judges for this year’s competition.

A different panel of judges will evaluate the oral presentations according to the following criteria: overall quality of the oral presentation (30 percent); feasibility of project management, organization and schedule (30 percent); accuracy and completeness of project costs (30 percent); and answers to the judges’ questions (10 percent).

Each finalist team will have 20 minutes to convince the judges that they are the best qualified to perform the proposed work on the project - 15 minutes for a formal oral presentation, and 5 minutes of answering the judges’ questions. Each team’s standing will be determined solely on the basis of their performance on the oral competition.

This year’s project is a build-and-spec project - a 73,000-square-foot, two-story hospital in northern California owned by the Howard family (owners of the world-famous racehorse Sea Biscuit) - a departure from the design-build projects of previous competitions.

As in past years, the prizes are as follows: $5,000 to the first place team; $2,500 to the second place team; and $1,000 to each of the other finalists. All finalists also will receive a trophy commemorating their achievement.

For more information about the competition, contact Ann Mattheis at amattheis@mcaa.org.

Publication date:01/26/2009