Faculty Education & Grants

Colleges and universities continually struggle with providing high-quality education and have been forced to search for innovative ways to keep educational programs viable.

JRGF is pleased to be able to address this need by supporting industry specific education and offer a grant for academic leaders.

For additional information on attending MEAC, please contact Shannon Nicklaus (snicklaus@pittstate.edu).

Faculty Training Camps

JRGF underwrites MCAA’s participation in the Mechanical Electrical Academic Consortium, or  MEAC, an alliance of academic institutions, industry associations, contractors, foundations and manufacturers. Through this alliance, MEAC provides annual intensive education for the academics who teach mechanical systems and/or construction management courses. These camps offered since 2005, provide knowledge in mechanical systems to academics with a background in engineering or related disciplines. This industry-specific training, in turn, helps them better teach the subject matter to undergraduate students, thus nurturing the students’ interest in our industry.

Each camp is held in cooperation with a college or university construction program, ranging from 15-20 attendees a year, and six to eight academics and contractors provide the instruction. Funding covers participants’ hotel costs, instructors’ travel and hotel costs, meals, meeting facility fees and supplies. 

The camps, which are typically three to four days in length, offer curriculum in plumbing systems and codes, isometric drawings, estimating plumbing and mechanical systems, Building Information Modeling, air conditioning systems and components, duct sizing, mechanical properties, testing and balancing, temperature controls, system commissioning, teaching methods, mechanical laboratory exercises and resources. 

Faculty Continuing Education Grant

These grants encourage mechanical contractors to employ college or university faculty on a part-time basis by subsidizing the faculty member’s salary. By working in our industry, faculty gain a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities that students may face and are thus better prepared to advise them. This industry experience also helps faculty to better teach mechanical subject matter, so the students coming out of their classes are better prepared to excel in our industry. 

Suggested Areas of Assistance:

• Provide project management, estimating, scheduling, and proposal preparation assistance
• Develop specific case study(s) relevant to the sponsoring company
• Develop and/or assist with training programs and materials

Faculty Candidate Process:

• Select an MCAA member company as the sponsor.
• Negotiate a salary (subsidized by the continuing education grant).
• Submit the following information to the MCAA Career Development Committee for grant consideration:
  • Faculty name, title, University (with chartered mechanical student chapter), email, and phone number
  • Summer employer information (mechanical contracting company) – Name and address
  • Description of proposed activities and duties 
  • Brief narrative explaining how the opportunity will benefit the faculty member’s educational abilities, the company, the University, and how the experience will promote the industry to students.
• The MCAA Career Development Committee will recommend a grant amount to be awarded by JRGF, paid directly to the faculty member. This amount will be capped at $2,500 per applicant annually.
• Following the employment experience with a mechanical contracting company, the faculty member must submit a brief write-up of the experience, accompanied by photos on the jobsite or at the office. This information may be published as a tool to help promote this opportunity to additional faculty advisors who could benefit from a similar hands on summer experience in mechanical contracting.

All Applications due to Michele Hoffman.

• Research Projects
• Employer – Internship Grants
• Affiliated Association – Internship Grants
• Student Chapter – Internship Grants
• Student Scholarships
• Student Chapter Awards & Grants