On behalf of SAI Engineering, George Preston and Maria Paslick presented a $1,500 scholarship to deserving Woodbridge High School and Project Lead the Way engineering student, Jacob Lasrado, on May 23, 2013. The presentation was part of the annual Senior Awards Ceremony attended by students, parents and dignitaries. The scholarship is one of many administered under SPARK, the education foundation for PWCS, an organization that SAI has been a part of for over a decade.  George happens to be a 2001 alumnus of Woodbridge and went on to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, where Jacob also will attend in the fall. The occasion marked SAI's return to a school where it helped launch the Project Lead the Way engineering program and also supported the County's first robotics team back in 2000. In attendance was retired teacher and mentor Don Maeyer who played an instrumental role on that nationally awarded robotics team. SAI was also pleased to hi...

A visit to the famous Greenbrier Resort "bunker" (aka "Project Greek Island") in White Sulpur Springs, West Virginia, truly brings to the forefront the importance of MEP systems that we so often take for granted in our everyday life -- that is, until they don't work.  Back in the late 50's, President Eisenhower held meetings at the Greenbrier with the leaders of Mexico and Canada, while also secretly meeting with the head of the C&O Railway Co., which owned the resort at the time. It was an era of great concern about nuclear proliferation and the "Cold War" with the Soviet Union. After all, the U.S. had dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima to close out WWII, and the Russians had since developed their own nuclear arsenal. Many Americans responded then (and even now) by assembling household supplies and building makeshift shelters. Likewise, the U.S. government began the secret search for a fallout shelter for Congress to evacuate to and con...