The most advanced robotics lab in the US dedicated to industrialised construction opens its doors this fall semester at the University of Florida, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony held yesterday, aimed at three converging challenges: Florida can’t build homes fast enough to stay affordable, an estimated 41% of construction workers will be at or near retirement by 2031 and hurricane-hit communities wait years to rebuild. In early testing, robots developed by the lab’s research team point to the possibility of framing a set of houses in a weekend instead of months.
The Autodesk Design and Make Laboratory opens with a US$1 million unrestricted donation from Autodesk, announced by EVP & COO and University of Florida alum, Steve Blum, and becomes the new home of Dr. Aladdin Alwisy’s Smart Industrialized Design and Construction (IDC) Lab, spanning UF’s College of Design, Construction and Planning (DCP) and Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering (HWCOE). The gift builds on Autodesk’s US$1.5 million investment in 2024, which helped launch the University’s first-of-its-kind Industrialized Construction Engineering (ICon) degree programme, now welcoming its first cohort this fall.
“The future of construction is in the hands of people in roles that don’t fully exist yet. Every piece of technology we’re building goes through rigorous testing and simulation in this lab first, allowing us to refine the details so that when it reaches a real jobsite some day, our work will help people build smarter, safer and faster. This lab gives our students the space to do that work first-hand and to help create the jobs that will come with it,” said Dr Aladdin Alwisy, Associate Professor and Lab Director
“The College of Design, Construction and Planning is most grateful for Autodesk’s tremendous support for the Industrialized Construction program and the naming of the Autodesk Design and Make Laboratory. This is a unique partnership that will leverage advanced technologies to transform the construction industry and enhance its productivity, safety, quality and sustainability. The work done in the Autodesk Lab will develop new research outputs for the industry and enable our students to be better prepared for the future,” said Dean Chimay Anumba, College of Design, Construction and Planning
What does this mean for Florida’s housing shortage and construction workforce?
Florida is short more than 121,000 homes and rental units, according to UF’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies. Industrialised construction, which moves homebuilding into factory settings using robotics, digital twins and modular assembly, is one of the few approaches that can add capacity faster than the labor pool is shrinking.
Meanwhile, the interest in industrialised construction careers from the next generation is growing. In fact, Autodesk’s AI Jobs Report found that more than 66% of students want careers where they make things or work with their hands, up six points from 2024. Meanwhile, Autodesk’s State of Design & Make report found that 61% of professionals say new employees with the right technical skills are difficult to find, and another 58% say the lack of skilled talent is a barrier to their company’s growth. This lab exists to close that gap, training students for roles across the US$2 trillion US construction industry.
How is this different from other construction robotics research?
While many university labs study construction robotics, the University of Florida’s new lab is dedicated specifically to industrialised construction: collaborative robots handle the heavy, repetitive work of framing walls and assembling panels, while people focus on quality, judgment calls and the tasks that require hands-on expertise, alleviating future workers from the most injury-prone jobs on a site. It builds on six years of Dr Alwisy’s research in human-robot collaboration, spanning multi-functional robots, digital twins and Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies for off-site and modular building.
Graduate researcher, Frank Xie, is one of several students bringing this vision to life, building a computer vision system, using digital twins modeled in Autodesk Fusion, that allows robots to ‘see’ a construction design and translate it into real-world assembly. It’s early-stage work that offers a glimpse into what the new lab is designed to accelerate as more students gain hands-on access to the space.
How does this fit into Autodesk’s broader commitment to the future workforce?
In June, Autodesk announced a US$350 million, three-year workforce and education commitment to give 60 million more students and educators free access to its professional technology, train nearly 1 million people in AI-powered workflows and help more than 200,000 earn industry-recognised certifications. Yesterday’s announcement and the new lab arrive on the heels of that broader three-year commitment, continuing Autodesk’s investment in preparing students for the future of work.
“Florida is on the front lines of two of the biggest challenges facing this country: an affordable housing shortage and a construction workforce that isn’t growing fast enough to meet demand. The University of Florida’s industrialised construction engineering programme and this new robotics lab are training students to solve both problems at once with technology that lets them build faster, safer and smarter. This is the kind of hands-on, industry-ready education that impacts both students and employers, and we want to help scale it everywhere. And as a proud Gator, this is a chance to give back to the place where I got my start,” said Steve Blum, Chief Operating Officer, Autodesk
What’s next
The ICon programme welcomes its first cohort of students this fall, combining industry expertise, AI-powered technical skills and hands-on training for new hybrid roles that pair building expertise with digital fluency. Dr Alwisy expects to move the lab’s technology toward real-world deployment over the next several years.
