More than 200 innovators and entrepreneurs gathered for UF Innovate | Tech Licensing’s fifth annual Standing InnOvation event to honor and celebrate innovators and their work at the University of Florida in fiscal year 2022.
Since its inception in 2018, Standing InnOvation gives a much-deserved “standing ovation” to the UF innovators who disclosed, licensed or optioned technologies in the fiscal year that ended June 30. This year, innovators disclosed 310 technologies, licensed 124 and started 10 companies.
Out of those 310 new technologies disclosed in FY22, each of UF’s six licensing teams chose one Invention of the Year that stood out to them as one with great potential.
One of those Inventions of the Year was Virtual Building Construction Inspection for Permitting by Ravi Srinivasan, director of Graduate Programs and Research in the M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management, and Nawari Nawari, Professor in the School of Architecture and the college’s Diversity Officer.
The College of Design, Construction and Planning faculty members teamed up to develop AI-based software for automated zoning review, building plan review and virtual building inspection. It performs rapid, uniform, comprehensive and consistent code reviews, often missed by human plan reviewers.
The AI-based plan review is increasing the accuracy of code compliance, reducing errors and creating a more efficient process. One of the nation’s top homebuilders is using the invention for plan reviews in Florida.
Srinivasan and Nawari are the first members of our college to receive the Invention of the Year Award from UF Innovate in the four years of its existence.
Quotes from the Winning Team:
Nawari Nawari: “I am profoundly honored to receive this prestigious award. To be recognized by my peers for work on something as important as the building construction inspection is exceptional. I would like to recognize and acknowledge the support and encouragement that we received from the School of Architecture, the College of Design, Construction and Planning, our students and staff and UF Innovate. Also, I want to thank my wife, kids and extended family, who has been an enduring inspiration to me throughout my career.”
Ravi Srinivasan: “This award is an encouragement to the entire Architecture-Engineering-Construction (AEC) community overall. We have witnessed an increase in the number of weather-related disasters and related devastation of communities. Although such devastations are awful, they provide an opportunity to develop communities from ground up and use the advanced technologies and automation in the AEC industry. This is exactly where our start-up’s – Virtual Review Assist – innovative software products (for zoning, infrastructure, plan review and virtual inspection) fit in! Our innovative products provide an opportunity to conduct consistent and accurate reviews of plans (zoning, infrastructure, building plans) as well as seamless site inspections in an efficient way. In short, business as usual will not cut it, and a paradigm shift towards innovation and automation is necessary for making buildings safer and stronger.”