Durham School's AE Team Design class wins NCEES Engineering Award grand prize

An interdisciplinary team from The Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction has been awarded the 2016 National Council Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) Engineering Award for Connecting Professional Practice and Education grand prize and $25,000.

Twenty students from The Durham School's Master of Architectural Engineering (MAE) program participated in the competition under the direction of faculty adviser Clarence Waters, professor of architectural engineering. Of the 48 industry mentors and evaluaters who participated, 32 are alumni of the UNL architectural engineering program.

The Durham School team’s submission – 888 Boylston Street-Interdisciplinary Team Design, a proposed 17-story, 625,000-square foot, mixed-use high rise building in Boston, Massachusetts – was praised by the NCEES award jury for “its strong interaction with professional engineers as well as improving the quality of life in this community.” The main guideline was for the building to be energy efficient according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards.

The project was structured around the Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) Student Competition, for which students from this same group won the first-place award in electrical systems design and runner-up awards in building integration and mechanical systems design.

For the project, electrical, structural, and mechanical engineering students worked as part of a team that also included licensed faculty, more than 50 licensed professional engineers and architects from industry, and many other allied professionals who served as mentors for the students.

The NCEES Engineering Award was introduced in 2009 to recognize college engineering programs that focus on the collaboration of students with licensed professional engineers.

The 2016 grand prize marks the second consecutive year that a team from The Durham School has placed in this competition. Last year, a UNL team earned one of the five $7,500 runner-up prizes for its submitted entry – Multidisciplinary Vertical Farm Design.