Having been a chemical enginerd in a previous life (before the tech writer life I currently inhabit), I was thrilled to see the Deka Revolt -- and read about the Stirling Engine!

(In an aside, I opted out of mech eng, since I wasn't so good with engines, although I could run thermodynamics equations on my programmable calculator like no one's business ...)

And you almost worked for them? Does that get you a partial employee discount?