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Dive brief:
- Virginia Tech and AEC firm Procon Consulting have teamed up to establish the Procon Innovation Center, a new facility for construction students at the university, Procon announced in a News release of October 3.
- Located inside the new Hitt Hall building on the school’s main campus in Blacksburg, the center is a state-of-the-art facility designed to support large-scale student-led projects and experiential learning, according to the release. The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art resources such as robotics and 3D concrete printers.
- According to the release, students from the university’s Myers-Lawson School of Construction will partner with the AEC industry in developing new technology-based solutions and approaches.
Diving knowledge:
Mark Ilich and Kyu Jung, who graduated from Virginia Tech before forming the technology-focused construction management consulting firm based in McLean, Virginia, led the effort. Procon will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025.
Ilich and Jung got their start through a contract with the General Services Administration to launch web-based project management tools. The two founders want to offer those same opportunities to students, according to the announcement.
“By repurposing a business plan we created in a graduate class as a foundation, we saw an opportunity to solve industry challenges with emerging technology,” Jung said in the statement. “We want students to have equal opportunities to innovate and disrupt the industry and champion construction technology for the future.”
Procon and Virginia Tech established the center as the school continues to build and expand its construction education and research opportunities; in September, the university announced its new Construction safety leadership programa science degree program.
In addition, researchers at Virginia Tech’s helmet lab will assess and study construction helmetsin an effort to protect the heads of workers on construction sites.
