Innovation News

Innovation News

ChatGPT – Does it create value?

7 March, 2023 at 10:37

ChatGPT is both fun and horrifying at the same time. Some artificial intelligence leaders believe this is the start of a fundamental altering of our society/culture for the positive. They envision robots/computers doing everything and humans just enjoying themselves. Others believe this is the beginning of a War Games 2030 version in which AI takes…

Simplifying Digital Twins for Practical Use

11 January, 2023 at 1:35

Engineers have, by necessity, a practical nature. This stands in contrast to scientists, who focus on the complete understanding of a subject of interest. For example, scientists study the mating habits of constipated scorpions or the cognitive impact of video games on children. Engineers, in contrast, are focused on solutions that are practical, o…

Engineering Perspectives: “Optimizing” My Vacation

17 November, 2022 at 6:41

Twenty years ago when I went on vacation I would simply call a travel agent tell them where I was thinking of going and how much I could spend. Then, like magic, a vacation is planned. Of course, travel agents are still an option today, but now with the advent of travel websites and Yelp reviews, I can not resist the urge to spend weeks on planning…

Big Data and the Art of Dashboarding

20 October, 2022 at 8:01

Reviewing financial data can be a tiresome and repetitive process. In many cases it involves looking through page after page, row after row of numbers. It gets even more complicated when you’re trying to review data side by side or to filter out specific information. It is also hard to present. Either you have too much data and your audience end …

Engineering Perspectives: Optimizing Optimization

3 October, 2022 at 7:47

Syska Hennessy has been doing a lot of work lately on computational approaches to AEC problems, and optimization has been at the forefront of our minds. Perhaps because of this focus, many of us get a nails-on-the-chalkboard type of feeling when we hear the industry’s often casual use of the word “optimization.” For example, the following kin…

Was What I Learned in Kindergarten Wrong for the AEC industry?

7 September, 2022 at 7:34

It was the third day in kindergarten and I finally got the Building Blocks station. Now, at last, I could build the biggest block castle our class had ever seen. 15 minutes later…Crash!!!! is all I heard as the blocks come tumbling down. I don’t remember much from kindergarten, but one thing that Miss Doughty taught me really well was that it…