�鶹ԭ��

�鶹ԭ��F photo by Eric Engman.
Samples of printed concrete, created by students, are displayed in the Automated Construction and Advanced Materials Lab in the Usibelli Building in late September 2025.

By Kristin Summerlin

On an overcast day in Nome, the orange robotic arm of an industrial 3D printer shuttled back and forth in 20-foot passes, laying down one precise layer of concrete after another. Slowly, the walls of Alaska’s first inhabitable 3D-printed house began to rise.

The 1,200-square-foot structure, started in August 2025 with materials that included locally sourced sand and gravel, marks an early step toward a bigger goal: developing a cement formulation that would allow affordable, durable homes to be made by robots using the silty soil found beneath the community itself.

That soil, typical in many Alaska villages, has long been a builder’s headache. Unstable, waterlogged and prone to erosion, it often undermines foundations instead of supporting them.

Researchers and students at the �鶹ԭ��’ Automated Construction and Advanced Materials Lab have been developing the formula and process for turning the silt and other local materials into concrete suitable for 3D printing. In Nome, this means the problematic soil could soon become a valuable byproduct of dredging for a new deepwater port — a project that will bring in workers and increase demand for housing.

A crisis of scale

Like Nome, the entire state is in the midst of a housing shortage. Lagging construction, soaring material and transportation costs, and aging housing stock make it nearly impossible for many Alaskans — let alone newcomers — to find affordable homes.

A recent study by the Cold Climate Housing Research Center found that Alaska will need more than 50,000 new homes in the next decade — a gap so large it would take nearly two centuries to close at the current construction rate using conventional building methods. ACAM founder Nima Farzadnia said the harsh and changing climate, high costs of importing materials, especially to roadless areas, and a shortage of skilled labor add to the challenge.

Farzadnia, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Mines’ Department of Civil, Geological and Environmental Engineering, said the experimental house going up in Nome is just one example of how his lab is tackling the problem using the concept of “in situ resource utilization.” The term, coined by NASA engineers envisioning construction on the moon or Mars, simply means using what’s locally available to build what’s needed.

From waste to building blocks

On a shiny black workbench in the ACAM lab, a row of small concrete cubes illustrates the viability of turning waste into building blocks. Each block was created using substances found abundantly in different Alaska environments.

“Something that we started exploring at the very beginning of my career at �鶹ԭ��F was using fly ash as a primary ingredient for construction material,” Farzadnia said. “Our in situ resource utilization technically started at home, at the �鶹ԭ��F power plant.”

The coal-fired plant that heats the Troth Yeddha’ Campus also produces about 8,000 tons of fly ash every year. For Farzadnia, it was the obvious place to begin.

“That was the low-hanging fruit, the most available material that we had,” he said, holding up one of the cubes. “Almost 100% of this concrete is fly ash. There’s no Portland cement in it. And this is just as strong as conventional concrete.”

A statewide construction database

Fly ash isn’t the only resource in ACAM’s toolkit. The lab is experimenting with making concrete using volcanic ash from Tok, glacial till from Valdez, silt from Bethel and Nome, and even crushed glass collected by Fairbanks residents.

Developed over the next five to 10 years, the resulting formulas will go into a statewide materials database, enabled by artificial intelligence, for rural construction planning.

“Our approach is that we just go to different locations in Alaska and find out about the resources available there,” Farzadnia said.

“So if you want to do construction in your particular corner of Alaska, you’ll simply connect to that database, add your coordinates, and then the AI will tell you, ‘These are the materials. This is the formulation. Here are the guidelines to make your concrete.’”

Farzadnia said the lab has patented several mixtures.

“We have a baseline formula for each material, and then we modify it to make it work for different applications,” he said.

In addition to extrudable concrete for construction, other potential applications include stabilizing soils for road construction or creating aggregate where rocks are scarce.

Designing and building robots

Materials alone can’t solve Alaska’s housing shortage. To put them to use in the state’s short building season, ACAM is also reimagining how buildings are made.

“For us, expedited yet affordable construction means automated construction using remote sensing, AI and machines. Instead of people making houses from imported materials, robots make houses from local materials,” Farzadnia said.

With Alaska’s limited workforce, the approach makes sense. “We don’t have enough skilled labor to meet the huge demand, so we need to train people to work with robots,” he said. “But our students are not just operating robots. They’re designing and building the robots, too.”

The lab is testing 3D-printing methods that extrude the custom material mixtures created in the lab. To make those robots effective, artificial intelligence and sensors come into play.

ACAM is building robots that can think — and build — for themselves.

“To be fully autonomous, these robots have to incorporate artificial intelligence,” Farzadnia said. “We can’t rely only on people to monitor the process. With AI, the robots can monitor the mix and make real-time adjustments for things like changing temperature and humidity.” 

Students at the center

Much of ACAM’s progress has been driven not by senior researchers but by students, Farzadnia said. It’s a point of pride.

He mentors about a dozen undergraduate and graduate students, including two who started working in the lab as freshmen and advanced from their early lab projects into �鶹ԭ��F’s accelerated bachelor’s/master’s degree program. 

“Not only the scientific part is exciting to me, but also the way workforce development happens. I’m excited about preparing students through that evolution from undergrad to graduate to professional engineer,” he said.

Students from civil engineering, computer science, business and even art have contributed to the lab’s projects. 

One team designed a robot capable of mixing concrete in a vacuum, a requirement for testing materials in NASA’s specialized testing chambers. “Undergraduate students at �鶹ԭ��F developed this robot,” he said. “I’m really proud. It shows off the capabilities of undergrads here.”

From Alaska to the moon

To many newcomers, Alaska can feel like another planet. 

“There are many similarities between Alaska, where we’re living, and Mars or the moon,” Farzadnia said. “Harsh environment. Problems importing construction materials. A lot of similarities.”

ACAM’s connections to space are more than metaphorical.

The lab has partnered with NASA’s Glenn Research Center on lunar construction projects. ACAM developed a patented lunar concrete made from simulated moon dust — no water required.

“The uniqueness of this lunar concrete is that there is no water in it, because there’s very little water on the moon,” Farzadnia said. “In less than an hour, you can have concrete with the strength of 18,000 PSI using lunar dust.”

Farzadnia said the lab’s innovative work has drawn national attention. 

“�鶹ԭ��F is becoming a hub for research like this — NASA, space exploration, construction on the moon,” he said. “For a small school like �鶹ԭ��F, this is amazing.”