UArizona Team Led by Architecture and Engineering Professors Wins $200,000 ‘American-Made Challenge’ E-ROBOT Prize

wall-EIFS, a robotically applied, 3D-sprayable exterior insulation and finish system for building envelope retrofits, is one of 10 finalist prize winners of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Envelope Retrofit Opportunities for Building Optimization Technologies Prize, or E-ROBOT Prize. Each finalist team is awarded $200,000. View the team’s winning video entry.

The E-ROBOT Prize’s goal is to catalyze the development of minimally invasive, low-cost and holistic building envelope retrofit solutions that make retrofits easier, faster, safer and more accessible for workers. Jonathan Bean, assistant professor of architecture, and Wolfgang Fink, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, created the wall Exterior Insulation and Finish System, or wall-EIFS, in collaboration with Energy Quest Technologies President Dewey Benson.

“The patent-pending wall-EIFS is an innovative, market-responsive solution—a significant advancement in autonomous robot technology that can really move the energy-efficiency retrofit industry forward,” adds Doug Hockstad, assistant vice president of Tech Launch Arizona, which along with UArizona Research Development Services’s Brian Adair supported the team.