Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 Spring 2018 | Page 13

discovery and findings and training students
in our department.”
The gift comes at a time of substantial mo-
mentum for the department, which has con-
tinued to see the largest enrollment growth of
any of the departments in the Virginia Tech
College of Engineering over the past 10 years.
“We are extremely grateful for the generos-
ity of Nick and Becky Des Champs,” said Julia
M. Ross, the Paul and Dorothea Torgersen
Dean of Engineering. “The gift will certainly
enhance the nationally ranked department as
it pursues cutting-edge student and faculty
research in focus areas like energy engineer-
ing and science, robotics and autonomous
systems, additive manufacturing research, and
nuclear engineering.”
With more than 1,100 undergraduates en-
rolled in mechanical engineering, the depart-
ment is the largest specialized undergraduate
program within the college. The undergradu-
ate mechanical engineering program is ranked
14th nationally, according to U.S. News &
World Report’s 2017 list. The undergraduate
experience is buoyed by the department’s
two-semester senior design capstone projects,
about a quarter of which are sponsored by
corporate entities.
In 2017, the department saw nearly $18
million in research expenditures. Over the
past five years, the department’s more than 60
faculty have netted 546 research awards from
a wide array of federal and non-federal sourc-
es, including the Department of Defense, the
National Science Foundation, the Department
of Energy, and NASA.
“Des Champs' gift will give us opportunities
and resources which we did not have before to
start research in very exciting and new areas,”
Eskandarian said.
Des Champs' gift will also help Eskandarian
advance numerous departmental priorities,
such as promoting graduate student success,
funding scholarships, and increasing depart-
mental rankings.
“Our mechanical engineering department
has always been up near the top in the coun-
try, and I’d like to see it stay that way,” Des
Champs said.
Des Champs enjoyed a distinguished career
in the heating, ventilation, and air condi-
tioning, or HVAC, industry after earning his
bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. from Virginia
Tech in mechanical engineering in 1962 and
1967, respectively.
Des Champs has a long history of generous
support for Virginia Tech and is a member of
the university's Ut Prosim, 1872, and Pylon
giving societies. He also serves on the Depart-
ment of Mechanical Engineering Advisory
Board and is a member of the College of Engi-
neering’s elite Committee of 100 and Academy
of Engineering Excellence. Des Champs also
served a term on the College of Engineering’s
Advisory Board.
His path to education — and the confidence
he gained as a result of it — is what inspires
him to give to Virginia Tech.
As the son of a brick mason based in Hen-
rico County, Virginia, Des Champs went
to work for his dad after high school, and
watched as most of his friends left to attend
college. The following year, he decided he’d
enroll at Virginia Tech’s extended campus in
Richmond, opting for mechanical engineer-
ing because he was good with his hands and
working on cars.
“Boy, I had to work my you-know-what off
in the first year to try to get up with every-
body else,” Des Champs said.
MOMENTUM
SPRING 2018
PAGE 13