Autodesk Donates $1M to University of Florida for

Industrialized Construction

Autodesk Donates $1M to University of Florida for 'Design and Make' Lab

Donation funds equipment, renovations and technical support for industrialized construction lab

A $1-million donation, announced by Autodesk August 4, will fund equipment and renovations to create an Autodesk Design and Make Laboratory at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

The donation is the second the CAD and BIM technology company has made to UF after giving $1.5 million in 2024 to fund Florida associate professor Dr. Aladdin Alwisy’s Smart Industrialized Design and Construction Lab. The IDC Lab spans UF’s College of Design, Construction and Planning (DCP) and Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering (HWCOE). The first gift funded the university’s Industrialized Construction Engineering (“ICon”) degree program, which focuses on robotics, 3D printing and other aspects of industrialized construction that are changing how projects are delivered.

"The future of construction is in the hands of people in roles that don’t fully exist yet," Alwisy said in a statement. "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 job site 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."

Industrialized construction is construction using methods such as prefabrication, additive manufacturing and other practices rather than field assembly. Autodesk has had a working group to help contractors and designers use these methods on projects such as the Project Phoenix housing development in Oakland, Calif., and the Manchester Airport arrival and departure nodes in the United Kingdom.

"It's an interesting program. The school has an interesting focus," said Ryan McMahan, general manager of informed design at Autodesk. "We're also working to build a partnership with the engineering school there as well. We're trying to increase our understanding and the subject matter research around industrialized construction."

The Autodesk Design and Make Laboratory will be housed within the University of Florida's College of Design, Construction and Planning’s Bruno E. and Maritza F. Ramos Collaboratory, which hosted the university’s inaugural International Conference on Industrialized Construction (IConIC 2026) August 3-5.

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