Entrepreneurship at RAAMAC lab is one of the top priorities to help talented members of the lab to translate promising ideas from compelling prototypes towards real-world products (R2P); i.e., translating research ideas into impact on the AEC/FM industry. Over the short life of the RAAMAC, such translation has occurred when venture capital and equity sponsors absorbed promising concepts and hired members of the RAAMAC team as co-developers, or chief technology officers. The goal here at the RAAMAC lab is to aid this process, while at the same time ensuring that the intellectual freedom and scientific research agenda at the lab are not sacrificed. Each technology when is properly validated through scientific methods is disclosed with the university and goes through a rigorous due-dilligence process.

This so far has turned into 16 patents some of which have been licensed to advanced technology and startup companies. Through this process, the goal is to generate thoughtful and practical projects that will engage sponsors at a much more useful level, thus increasing both effectiveness of the RAAMAC lab research/educational program and the impact of its research on the current practices in the AEC/FM industry. So far two of the research prototypes from the RAAMAC lab - D4AR and HD4AR have graduated from the lab and successfully turned into several startup companies.

The most recent startup is Reconstruct with $28 million Venture backing. Reconstruct has turned the D4AR research prototype -- which is developed under sponsorship of National Science Foundation -- into a Visual command center for construction project. Reconstruct is deployed successfully on 1000s of construction and inspection project and has been recipient of many awards including World Economic Forum’s Construction Idea of the year in 2006. Reconstruct has offices in Menlo Park, CA; Chicago, IL and Champaign, IL.

For more information on Reconstruct, please visit http://www.reconstructinc.com