Every time Texas-based tech executive Steve Blum returns to his beloved alma mater in swampy Florida, he can’t help but smile.
As an electrical and computer engineering student, he played intramural sports and savored time with fraternity brothers, many of whom remain friends. He cheered on the football, baseball, basketball and, frankly, any team sporting the orange and blue. The 1987 graduate met — and courted — Wendy, now his wife, on the University of Florida campus.
But it is not just the ghosts of Gator Nation that still have the Blums chomping. The future of Gator Engineering thrills him as much as the basketball team’s annual march to madness. As the executive vice president and chief operating officer of software company Autodesk, Blum sees the UF campus through a much different lens these days, and he loves the view.
“The University of Florida had a profound impact on my life because, first of all, it’s where I got my engineering degree, so I learned how to solve problems, how to think holistically. I became a systems thinker and really gained confidence in myself. It launched me into getting into semiconductors,” he said.
More importantly, it’s where he met Wendy. They now have two children and a granddaughter.
Make no mistake, Blum remains a big deal in the halls of Gator Engineering. Last year, he was inducted into UF’s Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) Hall of Fame and also serves on the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board. In September, he visited campus to present Engineering Professor Jing “Eric” Du, Ph.D., the prestigious Steve and Wendy Blum Endowed Professorship for Industrialized Construction Engineering.
“Steve Blum continues to have a huge impact on ECE,” said ECE Chair Mark Tehranipoor, Ph.D. “Not only is he a successful, innovative industry leader, but he honors his roots. He sincerely loves watching this department grow and make an impact. The Steve and Wendy Blum Endowed Professorship for Industrialized Construction Engineering is a marvelous example of the Blums’ commitment to our work and students,”
Blum has a keen interest in industrialized construction engineering and has high praise for the work UF is doing in that space, particularly the college’s new Bachelor of Science in Industrialized Construction Engineering program.
“The Industrialized Construction Engineering program matters a lot to me because I can see where there’s a convergence happening right now between the manufacturing industries and the construction industries,” he said, noting UF is teaching the skills to navigate that convergence.
Professors elsewhere, he contends, want to keep doing what they have always done. But UF is adapting.
“AI is changing so many things. If academia can be on the leading edge of that, it can make such a big impact,” he said. “I see the University of Florida doing that. Industrialized construction engineering is one of the places with a really big lead in AI with Chris Malachowsky providing a lot of the backbone — HiPerGator and the resources available there. I’m bringing our AI guru, who leads research at Autodesk, to UF in August because I want us to start figuring out how we could do research projects with UF.”
Blum is sincerely pumped about the Industrialized Construction Engineering bachelor’s program.
“I can’t wait to see students coming out prepared to take on the future of construction,” he said. “Many people don’t want to go into construction anymore because they think it’s the hard hat jobs, the guys wearing the vests on the streets and doing manual work. That’s not the construction of the future.
“There’s technology, and there’s engineering, and there’s AI and robotics. The University of Florida is going to be teaching all of that now and preparing the students to be able to truly reshape the industry. That’s really, really cool stuff.”
Blum gets excited when talking about UF. Gator Nation, it seems, has always remained a substantial part of the Blums’ DNA. Driving to Gainesville last year to accept the ECE Hall of Fame honor, Blum said one word kept popping into his head: surreal.
“I would have never, in my wildest dreams, thought I was going to be coming back to be recognized and honored this way,” he said. “I consider myself very lucky. I gained so much experience and foundational grounding while I was at the University of Florida. It has helped me do everything since I’ve left, and now I have a chance to come back and give back a bit.
“I never, ever would have thought this would be the case when I was a student there.”