Students Participate in Residential Construction Competition
As in years past, a group of UMass students traveled to the International Builders Show (IBS), a national conference, which was held this year in Orlando, FL. There they competed in the “Production Homes” category of the Residential Construction Management Competition, which allows our students to practice many aspects of their coursework, such as estimating and budgeting, scheduling and various other pre-construction topics. Under the faculty supervision of BCT’s Dr. Ho-Sung Kim, this group had been busy preparing for this competition for the entirety of the fall semester.
The UMass team landed the 11th place spot this year out of 27 competing schools. Its members were Akira Ontsuka, Matthew Klingman, Mohamid Zabir, Lauren Nothe, Oliver Pullin, and Samuel Khokhlan. See the gallery below for some impressions from the event.
BCT Program Receives $100,000 Grant From NHE’s HELP Program
The Homebuilding Education Leadership Program (HELP), launched in 2006, establishes closer relationships with institutions of higher education by awarding major seed grants to leading two- and four-year colleges and universities around the country to help them create, expand or enhance existing residential construction management programs. HELP’s key goal is to increase the number of qualified college graduates entering the residential construction profession and becoming future members of NAHB.
The BCT program under the Co-PI leadership of Drs. Ho-Sung Kim and L. Carl Fiocchi is one of three recipients of the 2022 NHE HELP grants and was given $100,000 to implement the following program improvement goals:
- Create a faculty professional development program to connect instructors with builder members affiliated with the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Western Massachusetts
- Hire adjunct faculty to teach additional residential construction management courses
- Partner with local community colleges to increase the number of qualified graduates entering the residential construction industry