- Steve Blum was elected to the National Academy of Construction’s Class of 2026.
- The UF engineering alumnus is Autodesk’s COO and a construction technology leader.
- The honor comes after Blum was inducted into UF’s ECE Hall of Fame.
Tech executive and Gator engineering graduate Steve Blum has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Construction, known as NAC. He was among 45 professionals inducted into the Class of 2026.
A 1987 graduate of the University of Florida’s Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, or ECE, Blum is executive vice president and COO of the wildly successful software company Autodesk. A member of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board, Blum also was inducted into the ECE Hall of Fame last year.
In September, he visited campus to present Engineering Professor Jing “Eric” Du, Ph.D., the Steve and Wendy Blum Endowed Professorship for Industrialized Construction Engineering.
He has a keen interest in industrialized construction engineering. And now, he is among an elite class of professionals whose careers have advanced construction practices and technology.
NAC honors industry leaders who have made outstanding contributions to the effectiveness of the construction industry over several years. Contributions for consideration include technology, work-process improvement, safety, industry relationships, management tools, communication, education and cost/schedule effectiveness, according to NAC’s website.
“Throughout my career, I’ve believed technology is a tool for human possibility,” Blum wrote on LinkedIn after the NAC announcement. “At its best, it helps people and teams achieve more than they thought possible. That belief continues to drive my work at Autodesk and my passion for the future of construction.”
“Construction,” he continued, “shapes the world around us, and the way we design and build that world is changing quickly. The opportunity in front of us is not just to adopt new technology, but to use it with purpose — to improve how we design, build, operate and prepare the next generation of industry leaders.”
As such, the diehard Gator has championed UF’s new Industrialized Construction Engineering bachelor’s degree 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.
In his LinkedIn post, Blum thanked UF for the relationships and engineering foundation that launched his success.
“The work happening today between industry and academia, including through the UF-Autodesk partnership and UF’s Industrialized Construction Engineering program, is exactly the kind of collaboration we need to help build the future workforce and move the industry forward,” Blum said. “The program is preparing students to think differently about construction — connecting design, engineering, manufacturing, data, and real-world project delivery in ways that reflect where the industry is headed.”
ECE Chair Mark Tehranipoor, Ph.D., was thrilled to hear Blum’s news this week.
“We congratulate Steve on this well-earned honor,” Tehranipoor said. “He has shaped his ECE background into effective construction technology that makes a real-world difference. His legacy in ECE continues to grow.”
Founded in 1999, the NAC is an organization of industry leaders — builders, engineers, architects, consultants, attorneys, editors and academics — who have made outstanding contributions to the construction industry.