Durham School wins at AEI national student competition

Students in UNL’s Durham School of Architectural Engineering & Construction hoped to earn one award at the Architectural Engineering Institute’s annual national student conference—instead they won in two out of five categories.

In the third annual Charles Pankow Foundation competition at the 2012 AEI student conference, collegiate teams presented designs for a high-security government office building with considerations for energy conservation, sustainability, accessibility, durability, productivity and other factors. Top honors in the Structural and Mechanical categories went to the Durham School team: Kelli Augspurger, Brendan Headley, Holly Brink, Tyler Jensen, Adam Brumbaugh, Kyle Kauzlarich, Andy Gilliam, Jacob Zach and James Dougherty, Jr. (photo below). The team was advised by Clarence Waters, professor of architectural engineering.

Waters said: “I am extremely pleased with the performance of UNL's Architectural Engineering (AE) students in this AEI national competition. UNL AE is blessed with truly outstanding students. I attribute this success to the accredited BS/MAE program requiring five years of study and a 3.0 minimum GPA of all students, and to DSAEC’s strong ties with industry. When you raise the bar, excellent students rise to the challenge." 

The Nebraska students worked hard since August 2011 on their entries, Waters noted, and had presented their work to local industry professionals and faculty in preparation for the event. He added: one industry reviewer indicated that one of the Durham School presentations was the best that he had ever seen from either students or professionals.

Nebraska was the “home team” for the conference, held April 20-21 in Omaha with hundreds of participants from around the nation. UNL competed with teams from Kansas State University, Tennessee State University, Drexel University, Oklahoma State University, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Milwaukee School of Engineering and the University of Wyoming. Judges were industry professionals with several top A/E firms nationwide.