ROCKVILLE, Md. — The Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) announced that 24 student chapters submitted proposals for the 2013-2014 Student Chapter Competition, the association’s 12th challenge that tests students’ knowledge about mechanical systems, problem-solving abilities, teamwork, and management skills.

This year’s project, hosted by Kathleen McCauley of McCauley Mechanical Construction, Bridgeview, Ill., involves the partial retrofit of a food processing plant outside of Chicago. In addition to the technical challenges of an actual project, students faced significant changes in the administration of this year’s competition. For the first time, chapter teams obtained all the project information from a file-sharing website called Basecamp. And, rather than copying and shipping their final proposal to MCAA, chapters uploaded their bids onto the site, saving them time and costs.

Participating MCAA chapters are from: California State Polytechnic University at Pomona; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; California State University, Chico; Central Washington University; Colorado State University; Fairleigh Dickinson University; Illinois State University; Iowa State University; Kansas State University; Kent State University; McMaster University; Milwaukee School of Engineering; Northeastern University; Northern Kentucky University; Oregon State University; Purdue University; Pittsburg State University; Sacramento State University; Southern Polytechnic State University; University of Maryland-College Park; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; University of Washington; University of Wisconsin-Stout, and the Wentworth Institute of Technology.