Amna Salman Awarded Prestigious AGC Education and Research Foundation Summer Internship

The fellowship was being jointly funded by Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the McWhorter School of Building Science and Bailey-Harris Construction Company. 

The fellowship program is intended to strengthen connections between construction education and practice. For her fellowship, Salman partnered with Bailey-Harris, an Auburn-based construction company. She spent her
summer on site at one of the Bailey-Harris projects giving her the opportunity to gain experience in the field that will inform her teaching and research. According to Russell Harris, the company’s president, “This was the first time that Bailey-Harris Construction has engaged in this type of exciting partnership with the McWhorter School of Building Science at Auburn University. 

The AGC Education and Research Foundation summer internships pro-vide unique opportunities for the construction industry to collaborate in the training of outstanding students, and we were delighted to welcome Auburn’s Amna Salman to be a part of the team on our innovative project at AU’s Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center. This was a win-win situation for Bailey-Harris and Auburn University, and we were proud to be a partner in this ground-breaking opportunity to advance construction education in the state of Alabama.”

Salman’s residency began in June. The culinary center is a 7-story facility that will include a teaching hotel, teaching restaurant, classrooms and laboratories. The project is expected to be completed by Spring 2022. 

“Through this residency, I not only gained hands-on experience but also learned about the current issues related to project management, procurement, site logistics and site safety, especially in the context of COVID-19. I feel participating in the AGC Industry Residency was an investment in the future of academia and the construction industry. By bringing construction field experience to the classroom, I can enrich my course material with relevant field examples. That way my students will be more knowledgeable and can better understand the challenges.” At the end of the residency, Salman evaluated how the experience will impact her teaching in the building construction programs; she plans to share this valuable experience with students and faculty members, both inside and outside of Auburn University.

Salman earned an undergraduate degree in architecture in Pakistan in 2007 followed by a dual Masters in Community Planning (MCP) and Public Administration (MPA) from Auburn in 2013. She began teaching as an adjunct in the McWhorter School of Building Science in 2017 and then joined the inaugural class of doctoral students in 2020. Salman, a recipient of a Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship from Auburn, plans to focus her dissertation research on design and implementation of smart facility management systems that would serve as a building block for smart cities. Salman is eager to work on this research with Dr. Anoop Sattineni, William A. Hunt Endowed Associate Professor and Executive Programs Chair, because of his experience and expertise in the field of construction information and communication technology.