The BUILD name history

The BUILD Program began as a focused effort to bridge the gap between academic engineering education and real-world performance. Initially, it was designed to take recent engineering graduates and rapidly equip them to contribute effectively on professional engineering teams. In about nine months, these individuals advanced from student to full-performance engineer. This initiative emphasized hands-on experience in multidisciplinary team environments and was known as the CORE Training Program.

Following early successes, we were asked a key question:

Could this same kind of training be incorporated into undergraduate education so that students graduate fully prepared to contribute from day one?

We piloted this idea at the University of Louisville, integrating CORE principles into the undergraduate curriculum. Out of this effort grew the Team-oriented Hands-on Engineering Building Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Learning Department — or simply, The BUILD Program.

Soon after, we were approached with two additional challenges:

Could we integrate what we were doing into K–12 STEM and mentoring efforts?

Could we also include trades education as part of the program?

These requests dramatically expanded the program’s reach and potential. It became much more than a program aimed only at college undergraduate departments. It became a platform to reshape technical education at multiple levels and across multiple sectors.

As the program evolved, we realized the name should reflect this broader mission:

To strengthen the United States technical workforce through experiential education — while maintaining our core pillars of hands-on learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, industry engagement, and real-world application.

The BUILD name had already gained recognition and trust, so rather than replace it, we redefined it. Today, BUILD stands for:

Better Utilization of Interdisciplinary Learning and Development

This updated name honors our roots, embraces our expanded mission, and sets the foundation for a national movement to transform how we prepare people for technical careers — in engineering, in trades, and beyond.

Summary: What’s in this for you?

A build by any other name is still a build. We hold true to our program pillars lifelong learning, interdisciplinary teamwork, teacher-student intertwinement, program threading, fostering enthusiasm and incentive, working with mentors, managing Goldilocks confidence, program management, and personal H-factors. You will get these from all stages of our program from early learning through post graduate CORE.