普渡大学西北分校参与319万美元HUD项目：用机器人与超级智能评估建造平价房，学校分得约71.8万美元
位于印第安纳州莱克县Hammond市的普渡大学西北分校（PNW）10月28日宣布，该校技术学院将参与一项总额319万美元的联邦住房研究项目，资金来自美国住房与城市发展部（HUD），用来检验机器人和超级智能（SI）能不能帮美国更快、更便宜地盖平价房。PNW将分得其中约71.8万美元，项目为期三年。
这个项目全称「可扩展建筑自动化促进省力与平价住房扩张」，英文缩写SCALE-HOME，是一个由产业牵头、学界与住房开发商和地区机构共同参与的合作项目。伊利诺伊州的Lightspeed Build Technologies公司负责开发先进建筑自动化技术，PNW的研究人员则独立评估这些技术在真实住房建设中的表现：能否缩短工期、提高效率、压低成本。
项目负责人、评估主任Afshin Zahraee在校方通报中被列为这项研究的主持人。眼下美国平价房短缺，建筑业又长期缺工，用自动化补人手、用独立评估验效果，正是HUD这笔拨款想回答的问题。
PNW是印第安纳州西北部的主要公立大学，校区位于Hammond和Westville。项目评估结果将为开发商和政策制定者判断建筑自动化值不值得推广提供依据。
Purdue Northwest Shares in $3.19 Million HUD Project Testing Robotics and Super Intelligence for Affordable Housing
Purdue University Northwest (PNW), in Hammond, Lake County, Indiana, announced on October 28 that its College of Technology will share in a $3.19 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to study whether robotics and super intelligence (SI) can help build affordable housing faster and more cheaply. PNW will receive approximately $718,000 to support the three-year project.
The project, called Scalable Construction Automation for Labor-Efficient and Affordable Housing Expansion (SCALE-HOME), is an industry-driven collaboration bringing together academia, housing developers and regional stakeholders. Illinois-based Lightspeed Build Technologies is developing the advanced construction automation technologies, and PNW researchers will independently evaluate how those technologies perform in active housing developments: whether they can improve construction speed, efficiency and affordability.
Afshin Zahraee serves as the project's principal investigator and evaluation director at PNW. With the United States short of affordable homes and the construction industry short of workers, the HUD-funded project is designed to test automation as part of the answer, with an independent university team verifying the results.
PNW is the public university serving Northwest Indiana, with campuses in Hammond and Westville. The project's findings are intended to give developers and policymakers evidence on whether construction automation deserves a larger role in expanding the affordable housing supply.
Purdue University Northwest news release
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：普渡大学西北分校校门标识（资料图）。Chris Light 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The entrance sign of Purdue University Northwest (file photo). Photo by Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
GSM Global · 本篇英文版 English edition of this story
