UMass Students Place 11th in National Competition and BCT Program Receives $100k Grant

UMass Students Place 11th in National Competition and BCT Program Receives $100k Grant

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...
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UMass Student AGC Group Wins Outstanding Emerging Chapter Award

UMass Student AGC Group Wins Outstanding Emerging Chapter Award

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) national organization has announced that the AGC Student Chapter at UMass Amherst has earned the Outstanding Emerging Student Chapter Award. The judges for the 2021 AGC Outstanding Student Chapter Contest said they were impressed with the obstacles the UMass chapter overcame, as well as the growth documented in its application. The UMass Student AGC Chapter flourished this year under the leadership of its president, undergraduate Nathaniel Wright of the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department, and its faculty co-advisors, CEE professor Scott A. Civjan and BCT professor Fernando Romero. This team initiated a full schedule of events for both the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters, despite being remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter hosted two virtual construction site tours, OSHA-10 Training for 47 student participants, multiple guest lectures, and multiple chapter meetings. The chapter also developed a club website containing event information, blog posts, resources, and event summaries. Beyond that, the officers overcame the fact that none of them...
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Student Team Places Third in ASC Region 1 Competition

Student Team Places Third in ASC Region 1 Competition

BCT participated in the 2021 Annual Associated Schools of Construction Region 1 Student Competition in Albany, NY with three teams this November. Under Prof. Romero's mentoring and with several months of hard work behind them, Team "Amherst Construction" (shown in the image above) placed third in the pre-construction category. This was only the second year in which our students competed in this competition. We congratulate the team members for this superb effort! The team consisted of: Olivia Josias (Project Manager), Patrick Koenen (Superintendent), Emma Kelly (Senior Estimator), Jocey Krooks (Risk Manager), Eric Lee (Senior Scheduler), Michael Ayles (Safety & Quality Manager). Links: ASC Region 1 website Pictures from the competition ...
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2020-21 BCT Awards and Scholarships

2020-21 BCT Awards and Scholarships

Reading Day is traditionally when when we honor the current year’s group of BCT award and scholarship recipients at the annual ECO departmental awards picnic. This is always an exciting part of the academic year because we can shine a light on outstanding student achievements and provide scholarship support. Due to the still ongoing pandemic-related gathering limitations, we weren't able to hold an in-person event for our award recipients. Instead, we organized a Zoom event on 5/5/2021 where we celebrated both our award/scholarship recipients and our graduating seniors. You can re-watch the event below on YouTube (or via this link). The complete list of award and scholarship winners is shown below the video. Congratulations to all the recipients!!! https://youtu.be/lKE5YaUdW7Y 2020-21 BCT Outstanding Senior Award Jessica Zeliger Associated General Contractors of Western Massachusetts: Building and Construction Technology Endowment Tommy Lam, Chase Phenagar Building and Construction Technology Alumni Scholarship for Academic Merit Nour Assaf, Nolan Pandolfi Building and Construction Technology Alumni Scholarship for Leadership Nour Assaf Harry L. Folsom Award from the Donald B. Hyde Memorial...
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Awards Abound for NAHB Student Chapter in this Year’s Residential Construction Competition

Awards Abound for NAHB Student Chapter in this Year’s Residential Construction Competition

Our UMass NAHB student chapter just capped off the most successful year in its history. In this year's NAHB Student Competition, in which teams have to create a proposal for a housing development, the UMass team came in 8th place. This was the highest the chapter has ever placed. In the proposal, the UMass team had to create a site plan, construction schedules and estimates, a sales and marketing strategy along with a detailed financial analysis of the project. Additionally, the UMass chapter was awarded 2nd place for the Outstanding Student Chapter Award. The NAHB Outstanding Student Chapter Award recognizes NAHB student chapters at schools that go the extra mile to engage with their local HBA, the community, and student body of their schools. The strong relationship between HBRAWM and the UMass chapter was a major factor for this award. The members of this year’s team included Hunter Apteker, George Boccelli, Hayden Cantoni, David Ibrahim, Robson Stewart, and Winnie Wang (see also image...
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