Assignment B1 - Group A - Arthur McCloskey

     Artificial Intelligence, at first glance, does not seem like it has a large pertinence to the construction, building, or engineering fields.  However, technology companies are fervent in their pursuit of new applications to this technology.  One such application is the structural health monitoring of existing structures.  Stephen Shankland discusses the effect on a particular case, bridge monitoring.  He argues to ability of AI programs to monitor acoustic changes along bridges to provide warning for catastrophic failure. [1]  According the American Society of Civil Engineers, one in nine bridges in the nation are structurally deficient, so this technology could be instrumental in rebuilding this country’s infrastructure. [2]  This technology can be extended to infrastructure monitoring of buildings, especially during demolition, or refurbishment work, where the stability and structural soundness is most compromised.
     Artificial intelligence may be the future of computing in the civil engineering and architecture fields, but digital technology has long been a part of our field.  From early analysis and drafting programs to Building Information Modeling, computer technologies are revolutionizing our field, and helping us tackle new problems.  In fact, the architecture firm NBBJ in London is looking to computer technology to design a pair of buildings that does not produce a shadow. [3]  The BIM software at use here is being leveraged to calculate reflected rays between the two buildings, which will reflect sunrays into the shadow of the towers.  The computer program was able to test many different shapes that fit prescribed building parameters and produces a best fit building design.  Without the advanced computing programs like these, this type of building would probably not be possible.  Hopefully, as computer capabilities increase, we will start to see more of these impossible buildings being constructed.
     Beyond modeling, computer software can be used to monitor building consumption, as Laurie Guevara-Stone encourages in her article “Five lessons the Buildings Industry Can Learn From the Wearable Tracker Craze.” [4]  She argues the benefits that buildings can reap by installing energy monitoring software can result in better data acquisition, better target setting, and long term goal completion.  Once the problem is defined with the hard numbers, it is easier to reduce building energy consumption.  According to the United States Energy Information Administration, 40% of total energy consumption was due to residential and commercial buildings, about 39 quadrillion BTU.  Currently, there are around 64 million smart meters that measure and record energy consumption in real time. [5]  While it seems like a lot of this monitoring software is out there, this only is a small fraction of the total buildings in the country.  The more energy monitoring, the better we can understand the energy crisis and work to remedy its effects.

Responses to Others:

Egla Qori – What I found very interesting about your blog post was the recent advances in our particular industry.  I had no idea that 3D printing is used with concrete to build actual structures.  I wonder if this is a cost effective method?  It probably would save a lot in labor costs, but the equipment and setup might be prohibitive.  Still, I think it has a lot of promise in the building industry, and has a lot more applications than rapid prototyping small parts.

Brandon Mengel – After reading Egla’s post, I was wondering what the effect on construction costs with the advancements of 3D printing.  It is so crazy how much money could be saved by precasting 3D printed components in advance.  This could have a pretty profound effect on Affordable Housing Programs or expedited projects.

Maria Raggousis - I also found the ability to use 3D printing to improve housing conditions in poverty stricken areas rather interesting.  We don't often think of this technology as cost-effective, Brandon's post above showed just how economical it can be.  Perhaps this initial investment is worth it in the long run, if we can utilize this technology for multiple full scale structures.

Works Cited

[1]  Shankland, Stephen.  “Artificial Intelligence has a Big Year Ahead.”  Cnet.  14 December 2016.  Web. Available: https://www.cnet.com/news/2017-artificial-intelligence-mainstream-businesses-adopt-ai/
[2]  American Society of Civil Engineers.  “Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.”  Web.  Available:  http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/a/#p/bridges/overview
[3]  Woo, Marcus.  “The Plan to Build a Skyscraper that doesn’t Cast a Shadow.”  Wired.com.  13 March 2015.  Web. Available: https://www.wired.com/2015/03/plan-build-skyscraper-doesnt-cast-shadow/
[4]  Guevara-Stone, Laurie.  “Five Lessons the Building Industry Can Learn from the Wearable Tracker Craze”.  RMI Outlet.  7 July 2015.  Web. Available: http://blog.rmi.org/blog_2015_07_07_five_lessons_building_industry_can_learn_from_wearable_tracker_craze
[5]  United Sates Energy and Information Administration.  “Independent Statistics and Analysis.”  Web.  Available:  http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=108&t=1