BSCI PhD Candidate Wins Fellowship, Elected Graduate Student Council President

Before taking on a doctorate in Building Construction at the McWhorter School of Building Science (BSCI), Fasoyinu earned Bachelor of Technology and Master of Technology degrees in Architecture from the Federal University of Technology, Akure in Ondo State, Nigeria. He practiced for nearly a decade in Nigeria’s construction industry as an architect and construction manager. In 2025, he qualified as an International DGNB Consultant, an accredited expert in the German Sustainable Building Council’s certification system, a European counterpart to the United States’ LEED program.

For the last three years, Fasoyinu has served as a graduate teaching assistant in both BSCI and the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (APLA), assisting with courses in the Building Science, Architecture and Environmental Design undergraduate programs.

Awarded by Auburn’s Graduate School, the Harry Merriwether Fellowships are given to four doctoral students each year and are nominated by the department. Fasoyinu is the first graduate student in BSCI and the College of Architecture, Design and Construction (CADC) to be nominated and the first to win the award.

“It started with a call for nominations in my department, inviting us to apply for the Merriwether Fellowship. A special committee then reviewed all of the applications, because only one doctoral student can be nominated from the department and the College,” Fasoyinu said. “I was happy to come out on top of that internal review and even more delighted to receive the award after the university-wide review. It proved to me that my research and my service are on the right track. More than the award itself, it motivates me to keep showing up, to keep working hard and to keep doing more.”

Working with his primary supervisor, Executive Programs Chair and Hunt Associate Professor Anoop Sattineni, as well as Assistant Professor Kenneth Sands, Fasoyinu has been researching wearable technologies that monitor the safety of construction workers as part of Auburn’s Center for Construction Innovation and Collaboration (CCIC). The fitness tracker-like system monitors the worker’s heart rate, temperature and other biometrics to preempt emergency situations and stop them from happening. The research is supported by CADC Seed Grants from 2024 and 2025, and over the last two summers, Fasoyinu has partnered with Auburn-based Rabren General Contractors for access to facilities and teams to test the wearable devices.

“Ayodele Fasoyinu is an exceptional Ph.D. candidate who maintains a perfect 4.0 GPA while conducting pioneering research on wearable sensing devices for construction safety,” Sattineni said. “With a background in architecture and experience as a Safety Manager, he seamlessly blends technical expertise in emerging technologies like wearable technologies with practical field applications and dedicated teaching.”

In 2024, he was awarded both the Best Student Paper and Best Presentation awards from the 20^th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE) for his paper “Implementation of Wearable Technologies for Enhancing Safety Monitoring at Construction Jobsites: A Trend Analysis,” which was published in the conference proceedings by Springer in 2025.

Fasoyinu was elected Graduate Student Council (GSC) president on May 1, marking his third term in the GSC. Previously, he served as the Program Officer for Fellowships and Awards, overseeing a 20-person committee that awarded more that $36,000 in fellowships and travel grants, and the GSC Treasurer and chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, overseeing the council’s $160,000 budget.

“My goal as president is to ensure that all graduate students have a great experience at Auburn,” Fasoyinu said, explaining that he wants to provide the 6,200 Auburn graduate students with access to the resources, tools and information they need to thrive at Auburn.

“Ayodele Fasoyinu has demonstrated exceptional leadership through his impactful service in the Graduate Student Council, where he managed significant financial responsibilities and supported hundreds of graduate students, reflecting strong institutional trust and professionalism,” said Salman Azhar, BSCI Graduate Programs Chair and Hunt Professor. “Academically, his perfect 4.0 GPA, high-impact research contributions and nationally recognized scholarly achievements underscore his intellectual rigor and professional promise, leading to his recognition as both Graduate Student Council President and a Merriwether Fellow.”

He sees his involvement with the GSC as a way to give back to Auburn for providing him a wonderful graduate experience and credits his success to the support of CADC, BSCI, his advisor and his late maternal grandmother, Cecilia, whose encouragement and discipline taught him that hard work was the way to level up and become the best version of himself.

“From my childhood, I have always believed in hard work and in a life of service, and that it is in trying to be that we become,” Fasoyinu said. “My own journey has shown me that great things can start from a small place. Where we come from does not set the limit of what we can achieve; the only limits are the ones we set for ourselves.”