Coalition for Smart Construction
The Coalition for Smart Construction is an end-to-end innovation engine—where partners co-create, pilots become playbooks, and tomorrow’s workforce is prepared today. Together, we’re closing the decades-long productivity gap and reshaping the future of the built environment.
The blueprint this industry
has been waiting for
Uniting every force to modernize construction
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The Coalition for Smart Construction brings together the full constellation of what the industry needs—research, talent, capital, testbeds, and real-world projects—under a single coordinated banner.
Anchored by a 40,000-square-foot smart construction lab inside HITT Contracting’s new headquarters, a state-of-the-art academic hub in Falls Church, and the power of Virginia Tech’s breadth across Northern Virginia and Blacksburg, the coalition is a full-spectrum platform for innovation.
Our Research Themes
Responding to industry's needs
What we do
- Forge new frontiers in research
- Deliver next-generation talent
- Inspire the community
- Test and generate innovation
- Put results into practice and inform policy
Industries we serve
- Commercial
- Data and the digital economy
- Residential
- Industrial
- Defense
We believe that Virginia Tech will push the boundaries of construction by bringing its brilliant students to a space where they can work alongside our industry’s greatest minds.”
— Brett Hitt,
Co-Chairman,
HITT Contracting, INC.
Built with partners, for partners
Collaboration at the speed of industry
Imagine a world where shared data environments and digital twins connect robotics, AI, and advanced materials into deployment-ready systems. Unlike isolated pilots that stall, the coalition is built with partners, by partners, for partners. Tiered membership and pooled governance ensure industry drives the agenda. Through partnerships with contractors, suppliers, and industry leaders, the coalition aligns research with ROI, turning demonstrations into playbooks that scale.
Join the nextroundtable
Modernizing the construction industry though policy and technology
Meet a Virginia Tech professor whose work is addressing the housing affordability crisis
Andrew McCoy, professor in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction, testified before a U.S. House subcommittee about remedying the housing crisis with cutting-edge construction technologies and a workforce trained to use them.
Meet Andrew
From pilots to playbooks
Real-world pilots paving the way
for deployment at scale
Momentum is already visible. The coalition’s first seed portfolio includes 3D-printed concrete with AI tracking, automated modular sub-assemblies, a mass-timber prototyping hub, cradle-to-cradle precast systems, and computational design for housing. These projects demonstrate the coalition’s ethos: applied innovation, multidisciplinary collaboration, and a clear path from lab to job site.
Companies become the classroom
Positioning construction as a high-tech profession
Tomorrow’s workforce needs to be inspired. Virginia Tech is reimagining construction as a high-tech, high-impact field that attracts the next generation of leaders. Students graduate fluent in digital, design, and systems thinking thanks to hands-on learning that bridges theory and practice. Proof-of-concepts evolve into standards through codes, policy pilots, and measurable outcomes. The coalition ensures that talent is not only prepared but inspired to transform the built environment.
John Ralston
Associate Director of
Business Development,
Virginia Tech
jfr3f@vt.edu
You’re changing the
world. So are we.
Let’s do it together.
The Coalition for Smart Construction is more than an initiative—it is a global destination where industry, academia, and government co-create the future. For industry, it’s a platform to scale innovation and reduce risk. For faculty, a pathway to interdisciplinary impact. For students, a launchpad to shape the future of construction.
And for construction industry, this is a path forward.
