Building Bridges with Future Engineers: American Katerra Visits Texas State University

American Katerra, building the future of sustainable steel fabrication in the United States, begins with building relationships — with the students, faculty, and universities that are shaping the next generation of engineers. As an innovative company establishing its headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, we have made industry-academia collaboration a central pillar of our long-term growth strategy. From internship and full-time career opportunities to guest lectures, joint projects, and the apprenticeship programs we are preparing to launch for welders, fabricators, and CAD technicians, we see universities as key partners in our mission of “Build for Dreams.”

This commitment has led our team on a series of university visits across Texas in recent months. Earlier this year, on February 26, 2026, we were warmly welcomed at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), where we met with the University Career Center and the Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design to discuss how we can connect with UTSA’s Roadrunners through Handshake postings, career expos, and speaking engagements aligned with the university’s Classroom to Career (C2C) initiative. That visit reinforced our belief that strong, locally-rooted partnerships between industry and academia are essential to growing a healthy pipeline of engineering talent in Central Texas.

Continuing that momentum, American Katerra recently had the pleasure of visiting the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University (TXST) in San Marcos. Our team was hosted on two separate occasions — a campus tour and faculty meeting on March 6, 2026, followed by a guest lecture for civil engineering students on March 24, 2026. And as we quickly discovered, innovation is truly happening at the Ingram School of Engineering.

On Friday, March 6, our team traveled to Roy F. Mitte Technology and Physics Building (RFM) on the Texas State campus to meet with faculty and tour the civil engineering facilities of the Ingram School of Engineering (ISoE).

The day opened in conference room RFM 5241 with welcome remarks by Dr. Jesus Jimenez and an introduction by Dr. Feng Wang and Mr. Joshua Scott of Greater:SATX. American Katerra then presented an overview of our company, our mission of “Build for Dreams,” and the opportunities we are developing in San Antonio around our proprietary Green & Blue Carbon Steel™ technology. A lively discussion with TXST faculty followed.

The highlight of the afternoon was a guided tour of the Ingram School’s civil engineering laboratories, where we saw first-hand the breadth of research and hands-on training available to TXST students:

• Concrete Materials Lab — hosted by Dr. Jeff Shi (RFM 1225)
• Geotechnical Engineering Lab — hosted by Dr. Mojdeh Pajouh (RFM 1218)
• Fluid & Hydraulics Lab — hosted by Dr. Sujata Mandal (RFM 1240)
• Environmental Engineering Lab — hosted by Dr. Keisuke Ikehata (IGRM 5208)
• Infrastructure Research Lab (IRL) — hosted by Dr. Stacey Kulesza at STAR Park

The Infrastructure Research Lab at the Science, Technology, and Advanced Research (STAR) Park left a particularly strong impression. The facility’s large-scale experimental capabilities, combined with broader discussions about railway development in the United States, gave our team a clear sense of how TXST research could complement American Katerra’s next-generation steel fabrication and infrastructure work. We see great value in aligning our digital-first fabrication standards with the high-level research being conducted at TXST.

A special thank-you goes to Mr. Joshua Scott and the team at Greater:SATX for organizing the visit and for their continued work in strengthening the ties between industry and academia in our region. We are also grateful to Dr. Jesus Jimenez, Dr. Feng Wang, Ms. Alana McCloskey, and the talented faculty members who generously shared their expertise and opened their labs to us.

Following the March 6 visit, Dr. Xiaohua “Nemo” Luo, Assistant Professor of Instruction at the Ingram School of Engineering, kindly invited American Katerra to speak as a guest lecturer for her course CE 1210 — Introduction to Smart Infrastructure. With more than 80% of her freshman and sophomore students expressing interest in structural engineering, our work on next-generation steel fabrication was a natural fit for the class.

On Tuesday, March 24, our team returned to San Marcos — this time joined by President & CEO Toyokazu Yamaguchi, who was especially eager to meet with TXST faculty and students before his upcoming travel back to Japan. The day began at the Infrastructure Research Laboratory, where Ms. Alanna Sarabia, Director of Corporate Engagement at TXST, and Mr. Joshua Scott of Greater:SATX coordinated a return tour so Mr. Yamaguchi could see the IRL facilities firsthand. The team then enjoyed a working lunch at the scenic Tarbox and Brown Restaurant, where conversations covered the engineering cohort at the Ingram School, applications of AI in education, and even San Antonio’s upcoming Fiesta celebration.

In the afternoon, the team made its way to Ingram Hall, room 4106, for the CE 1210 guest lecture. American Katerra delivered a presentation titled “Build for Dreams — Green Carbon Steel × Texas State University Ingram School of Engineering,” introducing the company’s history, our parent group Yamaguchi Heavy Industries, our reasons for choosing San Antonio as our U.S. headquarters, and the technology behind our Green & Blue Carbon Steel™ brand. Students then took part in an open Q&A session, asking thoughtful questions about steel fabrication technology, careers in structural engineering, and the path from classroom to industry.

Following the visit, our team received warm messages from several TXST faculty members — Dr. Jesus Jimenez, Dr. Feng Wang, Dr. Keisuke Ikehata, and Dr. Xiaohua Luo — expressing enthusiasm for continued collaboration. As Dr. Wang reminded us, “We are so close to you. We share similar interests, cultures, and even can speak the same languages.”

That sentiment captures exactly what we felt during these visits. As a startup establishing roots in San Antonio, American Katerra has been deeply moved by the receptivity of local institutions like Texas State University. Industry-academia collaboration is at the heart of how we plan to grow our team, advance steel fabrication technology in Texas, and contribute to the U.S.–Japan economic partnership that brought our parent company to the United States.

Our sincere thanks go out to Dr. Luo and her CE 1210 students, the faculty and staff of the Ingram School of Engineering, and our partners at Greater:SATX for making these visits possible. We look forward to many more conversations — and ultimately, to welcoming TXST graduates to the American Katerra team.

American Katerra is actively building its team in San Antonio and welcomes inquiries from students, recent graduates, and experienced professionals who share our passion for sustainable steel fabrication. To explore career opportunities, please visit our Careers page.