February 19, 2009

All majors sought for construction competition course callout Feb. 25

The callout will be held at 6 p.m. in the construction laboratory in the basement of Knoy Hall, Room B038. Students from any major can attend and receive information about the BCM 362 "Construction Competition" course, which will be offered in fall 2009.

Dale Koehler, organizer of the competition course and an associate professor in the Department of Building Construction Management, said he is especially interested in attracting students studying finance, marketing, interior design, computer graphics and construction management. The course is limited to 20 students, and they are selected through an interview process.

Offered as an elective in the Department of Building Construction Management, it is a multidisciplinary course where students work as a team to create a proposal for a residential development project in a specified city. Students spend the semester researching the city, conducting a market analysis, and developing a detailed plan for the project, including financing, sales and marketing, scheduling, estimating, land development and project management.

Near the end of the semester, six students are selected from the class to represent Purdue at the National Association of Home Builders Residential Construction Management competition, which is held in conjunction with the International Builders' Show. The team creates a detailed portfolio of information that is submitted to judges prior to the show. Students on the team travel to the show to present their plan to industry members, who serve as judges.

The 2010 show will be held in Las Vegas. The Purdue student chapter of the National Association of Home Builders has participated in the competition for more than 15 years. This year, they placed sixth out of 37 teams that competed.

The construction competition course is part of the residential construction management specialization within the Department of Building Construction Management. Specializations also are offered in disaster restoration and reconstruction, electrical construction management, mechanical construction management, demolition construction management, and health-care construction management.

Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu

Source: Dale Koehler, (765) 494-2457, koehler@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

To the News Service home page