Construction Giants Team with NASA on Centennial Challenge

PEORIA, Ill., Oct. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) announced today that it is working with Bechtel, Brick and Mortar Ventures and Bradley University to sponsor NASA's latest Centennial Challenge—the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. The competition is created to incent America's most talented to come up with innovative ways to design and print a habitat that could be used for deep space exploration, including the agency's journey to Mars, as well as have applications on Earth today.

For more than 90 years, Caterpillar has been building the world's infrastructure, and we plan to develop the world's infrastructure for the next 90 years—whether that's in a great city, a developing village or even beyond our planet.

"As technology evolves, so do our machines. The future of construction will look very different than it does today," said Justin Speichinger, advanced engineering manager for the Caterpillar Excavation Division. "By expanding our horizons and engaging in progressive opportunities like the Centennial Challenge, we are better equipped to develop disruptive technologies to solve our customers' current challenges as well as prepare for our mutual long-term success."

"There's no better way to solve big problems and come up with the next breakthrough than by working together with our customers, such as Bechtel, a true innovator in construction; a forward-thinking, sector-specific venture capital firm such as Brick & Mortar Ventures; our hometown University, Bradley, that is focused on innovation; and of course, NASA," said Eric Reiners, Caterpillar research program manager. "Caterpillar and NASA have collaborated for years, and we are proud to work with NASA on this next great challenge."

The competition is designed in three phases. The first phase, the design competition, was completed in September 2015. The second phase, which just opened, is the structural competition, which focuses on the technologies needed to manufacture structural components from readily available and recyclable materials. The third phase will be the actual building of habitats.

"Innovation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics drove the last 100 years and it will supercharge the next 100," said Bechtel Deputy Chief Innovation Officer David Wilson. "That applies to space exploration missions as well as the projects we build on Earth. We're honored to partner with NASA, Bradley, Caterpillar and Brick and Mortar Ventures in this competition, as we look forward to seeing the 3D printing community discover new solutions for all applications."     

The competition will be open to teams from universities, corporations and ordinary citizens—anyone with an idea and the motivation to bring that idea to life. NASA will be offering $1.1 million in prize money in phase two of the competition.

"We are looking forward to seeing some creative solutions," said Darren Bechtel, Founder and Managing Director of Brick & Mortar Ventures. "Brick & Mortar Ventures believes that solution scarcity has contributed to the historic lack of productivity improvement in construction. By collaborating with NASA, Caterpillar and Bechtel, the Brick & Mortar team hopes to support the commercialization of technology developed for construction on the next frontier."

The public will have the chance to follow the competition through social media, and to attend the head-to-head competitions live. In fall 2017, teams will test their structural components and compete for the phase two award at the Caterpillar Edwards Demonstration Center. The entire competition will culminate with the third phase—the On-Site Habitat Competition—also held at Caterpillar's Edwards Demonstration Center in fall 2018. Teams will come together and demonstrate their ability to fabricate full-scale habitats in front of judges and the public.

"This is an exciting opportunity to bring the best ideas in technology to our students and the community," said Bradley University President Gary Roberts. "The challenge provides an unparalleled opportunity for students and faculty to network, create relationships with mentors and explore new ideas as they partner in creating solutions for our world and beyond."

For more information about the competition, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/3DPHab

To register, and for the official rules and documents, visit: http://bradley.edu/challenge

About Caterpillar

For 91 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent.  Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets.  With 2015 sales and revenues of $47.011 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives.  The company principally operates through its three product segments - Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment.  For more information, visit caterpillar.com.  To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.

About Bechtel

Bechtel is one of the most respected global engineering, construction, and project management companies. Together with our customers, we deliver landmark projects that foster long-term progress and economic growth. Since 1898, we've completed more than 25,000 extraordinary projects across 160 countries on all seven continents. We operate through four global businesses: Infrastructure; Nuclear, Security & Environmental; Oil, Gas & Chemicals; and Mining & Metals. Our company and our culture are built on more than a century of leadership and a relentless adherence to our values, the core of which are safety, quality, ethics, and integrity. These values are what we believe, what we expect, what we deliver, and what we live. For more information, visit www.bechtel.com.

About Brick and Mortar Ventures

Brick & Mortar Ventures is a San Francisco-based seed and early stage venture capital fund focused exclusively on disruptive technologies for the verticals of Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Facilities Operations. Founded in 2015 by Darren Bechtel, Brick & Mortar Ventures has quickly established itself as one of the premier venture firms enabling innovation and cost savings across the global AEC market. For more information, http://brickmortar.vc

About Bradley University

Bradley University is a top-ranked, prestigious, private university in Peoria, Illinois, offering 5,400 undergraduate and graduate students the opportunities, choices and resources of a larger university and the personal attention and exceptional learning experience of a smaller university. Bradley offers a comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate academic programs in business, communications, education, engineering, fine arts, health sciences, liberal arts and sciences, and technology. The University is located on an 85-acre campus in the largest metropolitan area in central Illinois.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release relate to future events and expectations and are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe," "estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global and regional economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies and infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes, component price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers; (v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi) failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing, all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their impact on demand for our products and our competitive position; (xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and regulations; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings, claims, lawsuits or government investigations; (xxvi) changes in accounting standards; (xxvii) failure or breach of IT security; (xxviii) adverse effects of unexpected events including natural disasters; and (xxix) other factors described in more detail under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 16, 2016 for the year ended December 31, 2015.

SOURCE Caterpillar Inc.

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