Jorge Vanegas, professor of architecture and director of the Texas A&M University College of Architecture's Center for Housing and Urban Development, received a 2008 Superior Technical Achievement Award at FIATECH's April 1 Celebrate Engineering and Technology Innovations Awards.
“I was honored to have been nominated and I am very proud to have been selected to be the recipient of the award,” said Vanegas.
FIATECH, or Fully Integrated Automated Technology, is an Austin-based nonprofit consortium focused on development and deployment of technologies dedicated to improving how capital projects and facilities are designed, engineered, built and maintained. The group envisions a future state where capital projects are executed in a highly automated and seamlessly integrated environment across all phases and processes of their life cycle.
Vanegas was recognized for his many contributions to FIATECH since 2004. That year, he secured National Science Foundation funding for an international charrette in Houston, "Setting an Academic Research Agenda for the FIATECH Capital Projects Technology Roadmap Initiative: An Interdisciplinary Charrette."
The next year, he served as an invited member of the organizing committee, “Global Summit on Construction Industry Research and Development Strategies and their Transnational, Cooperative Implementation,” organized by VTT Technical Research Center of Finland and FIATECH in Helsinki. He also became a member of FIATECH's board of directors in 2005.
In 2006, he served as conference chair of the 2006 FIATECH annual fall members' meeting in Denver.
In 2007, Vanegas addressed the closing session, "Managing the Creative Innovation Process within Your Organization," at the 2007 FIATECH annual technology conference and showcase in Washington, D.C.
Also in 2007, he served as an invited participant and research thrust facilitator in the "International Workshop on Global Roadmap and Strategic Actions for ICT in Construction," organized by VTT Technical Research Center of Finland and FIATECH in Helsinki.
Each year FIATECH honors those individuals who, through their leadership, commitment, participation, and sacrifice of personal time, have benefited the capital projects industry. Winners of the Superior Technical Achievement Award are nominated by their peers in FIATECH.
