Engineers Week 2024 Spotlight: Meet Engineer Chase Hoffman

To celebrate Engineer's Week, we're spotlighting FSC's talented engineers. Today, Chase Hoffman shares his perspective as a mechanical engineer on our team.

Can you describe your career history so far?

I went to the University of Alabama and graduated with my bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in 2020, and then I stayed there for another year and got my MBA in 2021. ?From there, I started out working more in project management before I transitioned to another job where I got more into the engineering design side of things. I was on the pharmaceutical team that dealt with manufacturing, labs, and other facilities. It was a lot, very different from what I do now. I would be full time for one project for seven or eight months and could do the same type of work on one project four or five different times.

What attracted you to the field?

I was always good with math and science—English and reading were never my forte, so engineering was a good direction for me.

What's your role at FSC?

I’m with the MEP division—mechanical, engineering, plumbing. To get more specific, I do mechanical engineering.

Why do MEP engineers matter on a project?

There are a ton of reasons, but one big part of why mechanical engineers are important is with conditioning. It makes sure a building will be alright when it’s really hot or cold outside and ensures general comfortability in a room. There’s a lot more to it than just placing a diffuser. For example, you need enough airflow to cover the building. If you undersize the system, you can’t exactly just make up for that if things aren’t working properly in your facility. For example, in a pharmaceutical building, it’s going to be especially important to change out the air a lot more in that room than in something like a general office space because it needs to be super clean.

What do you enjoy about your work?

It’s cool what you can do when you start to understand different systems and how they work. ?It’s a slow grind to learn all that stuff—to know certain things and numbers so well you can just say them off the top of their heads. And what I like about working at FSC is I’ve been working on smaller projects with a lot more variety. I think that makes my job more fun.