Engineering Influence from ACEC

AI, Power & the Future of Data Centers

On this episode of the Engineering Influence Podcast, host Diana O’Lare sits down with Peter Nabhan to explore how artificial intelligence—particularly GPU-driven workloads—is reshaping the future of data center development. As AI adoption accelerates, demand for power is surging, fueling the rise of massive, campus-scale data center projects across the U.S.
The conversation dives into the evolving strategies of hyperscalers and co-location providers, the growing strain on the electric grid, and the increasing role of on-site power generation. Diana and Peter also unpack the critical engineering challenges around cooling, water usage, and sustainability, while spotlighting the top U.S. markets seeing the most rapid growth.
Finally, they tackle the big question facing the industry: Are we heading toward an oversupply of data centers—or is this simply the next major technology cycle transforming the built environment?
Read the Market Intelligence Data Brief: https://www.acec.org/resource/special-edition-data-centers-market-intelligence-brief-fall-2025/

Culture, Strategy, and Shared Success: RS&H’s Lisa Robert on Employee Ownership

In this episode of ACEC’s Engineering Influence podcast, RS&H CEO Lisa Robert offers an in-depth look at the firm’s expanding journey into employee ownership and how it’s reshaping every corner of the organization. Robert explains why broadening participation through all-associate stock offerings has become a powerful cultural engine—strengthening retention, enhancing recruitment, and creating a deeper sense of shared purpose across teams. By giving employees a true stake in the company’s future, RS&H is fostering a more entrepreneurial, engaged, and client-focused workforce.
She also provides an inside perspective on RS&H’s 2030 “Amplify” strategy, a long-range plan designed to position the firm for resilient, sustainable growth. Robert highlights the strategy’s central pillars, including an intensified focus on the firm’s core strengths in transportation and aviation, expanded innovation capacity, and long-term value creation for clients and communities.
Throughout the conversation, she illustrates how employee ownership integrates seamlessly into this vision—fueling accountability, empowering decision-making, and reinforcing the firm’s commitment to lasting community impact.

The New Industrial Revolution: Mike Walsh on AI, Digital Workers, and the Future of Engineering

At the 2025 ACEC Fall Conference in San Diego, global futurist, author, and CEO of Tomorrow, Mike Walsh delivers a compelling vision for how artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the business of engineering. Walsh explains why we are entering a new industrial revolution—one driven not by mechanical automation, but by the emergence of digital workers capable of reasoning, making decisions, and executing specialized tasks once performed exclusively by humans.
He breaks down the core strategic shifts engineering firms must embrace to thrive in this rapidly evolving landscape. He highlights the growing importance of unique, proprietary data as the foundation for competitive advantage, and explores how digital twins can transform planning, modeling, and real-time operations. He also challenges firms to rethink the very nature of work, describing how leaders can redesign processes to maximize the complementary strengths of both people and machines.
Throughout the conversation, Walsh offers practical guidance for engineering executives, project managers, and technical teams looking to adopt AI not simply as a tool, but as a catalyst for innovation and organizational reinvention. From reshaping client services to optimizing project delivery and cultivating new forms of expertise, he outlines clear pathways for firms to use AI to accelerate performance and build long-term strategic value.
This episode provides a forward-looking roadmap for anyone in the engineering industry seeking to understand the profound changes reshaping the profession—and how visionary leaders can harness AI to build a more adaptive, resilient, and future-ready organization.

Transforming Geotechnical Engineering: Bentley, Seequent, and the Future of Real-Time Data

In this episode of Engineering Influence, we take a deep dive into how Bentley Systems’ and Seequent are bringing together more than just technology. Our guests explain how real-time subsurface data sharing is transforming design workflows, enhancing collaboration between field teams and engineers, and laying the groundwork for more robust digital twin capabilities across the entire project lifecycle.
The conversation explores the next generation of design automation through innovations such as OpenSite+, AI-driven Copilots, grading optimization tools, and automated drawing production. The guests also address critical topics including data governance, security policies, and how cloud-based platforms ensure trust and transparency in an increasingly digital workflow. Together, they paint a clear picture of how these technologies accelerate project delivery, reduce risk, elevate design quality, and make sophisticated engineering tools accessible to firms of every size.

From Technical to Transformational: Apurva Sawant’s Road to Project Leadership

In this episode of Engineering Influence, we sit down with Apurva Sawant, a transportation project manager at Jacobs, whose professional and personal journey spans continents, disciplines, and leadership roles. Apurva reflects on her early years in India, where an unexpected spark of curiosity led her toward engineering—a field that would eventually guide her across the world to the United States. She shares how Denver, with its thriving infrastructure community and opportunities for growth, became the place she chose to call home.
Apurva opens up about the pivotal mentors who helped shape her path, offering insight into how thoughtful guidance supported her shift from hands-on technical work to managing complex projects and leading diverse teams. She discusses what it means to build confidence in your expertise, how to recognize your potential, and why strong mentorship can make all the difference—especially for young professionals navigating the early stages of their careers.
Throughout the conversation, Apurva provides actionable advice for rising engineers: be proactive, ask questions early and often, embrace collaboration, and seek out mentors who challenge and support you. She also shares her broader vision as a project leader—driving work that meaningfully improves communities, from safer transportation systems to more accessible infrastructure, while inspiring the next generation of engineering professionals.
This episode offers an honest and motivating look at career growth, leadership development, and the power of building supportive networks within the engineering industry.

Engineering Passion and Purpose: NCEES Scholarship Recipient, Evan Lopez on His Path Forward

At the 2025 ACEC Fall Conference, we sit down with ACEC Scholarship recipient Evan Lopez, whose journey from Rutgers University to Clemson University reflects both determination and a deepening passion for solving real-world engineering challenges. In this episode, Evan opens up about how he discovered industrial engineering, why the discipline’s blend of systems thinking and practical problem-solving resonated with him, and the professors, mentors, and academic programs that pushed him to grow beyond the classroom.
Evan also shares his emerging career focus on geothermal energy—a field he believes will play a transformative role in the nation’s clean-energy transition. He talks about the increasing need for engineers who can integrate technical expertise with sustainability goals, and why hands-on experience in labs, co-ops, and fieldwork is essential for the next generation of engineering professionals.
We discuss how the ACEC scholarship is not just financial support but a catalyst for Evan’s long-term ambitions: securing competitive internships, pursuing his master’s degree, and ultimately earning his Professional Engineer license. His story highlights how early investment in young engineers fuels innovation, broadens the talent pipeline, and strengthens the future of the industry.
Tune in for a conversation about mentorship, emerging energy technologies, and the opportunities that shape tomorrow’s engineering leaders.

Designing the Future: Mallory Weber on Transportation, Teamwork, and Growing in the A/E/C Industry

In this episode of Engineering Influence, host Shreya Jain sits down with Mallory Weber, one of ACEC’s Young Professional of the Year, for an inspiring conversation about passion, persistence, and finding purpose in engineering. Mallory shares how her early love of Legos and growing up around construction sites sparked a curiosity that evolved into a career in transportation engineering. She walks us through her journey from hands-on childhood experiences to tackling complex real-world infrastructure challenges.
We dive into her impactful work and Mallory also reflects on what it’s like to enter the workforce during a shifting landscape—navigating hybrid work, building confidence as a young professional, and learning how to collaborate effectively when teammates aren’t always in the same room. Throughout the conversation, Mallory emphasizes the importance of teamwork, mentorship, and staying curious.
She also highlights how professional organizations—especially involvement with ACEC—have strengthened her network, expanded her skills, and shaped her perspective on leadership in the A/E/C industry.
Whether you're a student exploring engineering paths, a young professional carving out your place in the field, or a seasoned engineer interested in the next generation of talent, this episode offers valuable insights into the mindset and motivation behind one of today’s rising industry leaders.

The Data Center Boom: 5 Trends Engineering Firms Need to Know

The Data Center Boom: Five Trends Engineering Firms Need to Know
The data center market is experiencing unprecedented growth, driven by artificial intelligence adoption and changing infrastructure demands. For ACEC member firms, this represents both a substantial business opportunity and a chance to shape critical national infrastructure. ACEC's latest Market Intelligence Brief reveals a market poised to reach $62 billion in design and construction spending by 2029, with implications that extend far beyond traditional data center engineering.
The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 marked an inflection point. What began as voice assistants has evolved into sophisticated language learning models that consume dramatically more energy. A standard AI query uses about 0.012 kilowatt-hours, while generating a single high-quality image requires 2.0 kWh—roughly 20 times the daily consumption of a standard LED lightbulb. As weekly ChatGPT users surged from 100 million to 700 million between November 2023 and August 2025, the infrastructure implications became impossible to ignore.
AI-driven data center power demand, which stood at just 4 gigawatts in 2024, is projected to reach 123 gigawatts by 2035. Even more striking: 70 percent of data center power demand will be driven by AI workloads. This explosive growth requires engineering solutions at unprecedented scale, from power distribution and backup systems to advanced cooling technologies and grid integration strategies.
Public perception about data center water consumption often overlooks important nuances in cooling technology. While mechanical cooling systems have historically consumed significant water resources, newer approaches could dramatically reduce water use. Free air cooling, closed-loop systems, and liquid immersion technologies offer low-water use alternatives, with some methods reducing freshwater consumption by 70 percent or more compared to traditional systems.
As Thom Jackson, mechanical engineer and partner at Dunham Engineering, notes: "Most data centers utilize closed loop cooling systems requiring no makeup water and minimal maintenance." The "big four" hyperscale operators—Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Meta—have all committed to becoming water-positive by 2030, replenishing more water than they consume. These commitments are driving innovation in cooling system design and creating opportunities for engineering firms with expertise in sustainable mechanical systems.
The days of one-size-fits-all data centers are over. Latency requirements, scalability needs, and proximity to end users are accelerating adoption of diverse building types. Edge data centers bring computing closer to users for real-time applications like IoT and 5G. Hyperscale facilities support massive cloud and AI workloads with 100,000-plus servers. Colocation models enable scalable shared environments for enterprises, while modular designs—prefabricated with integrated power and cooling—offer rapid, cost-effective deployment.
Each model presents distinct engineering challenges and opportunities, from specialized HVAC systems and high floor-to-ceiling ratios for hyperscale facilities to distributed infrastructure planning for edge networks.
Two emerging trends deserve particular attention. First, the Department of Energy has selected four federal sites to host AI data centers paired with clean energy generation, including small modular reactors (SMRs). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission anticipates at least 25 SMR license applications by 2029, signaling strong demand for nuclear co-location expertise.
Second, developers are increasingly exploring adaptive reuse of underutilized office spaces, Brownfield sites, and historical buildings. These locations offer existing utility infrastructure that can reduce construction time and costs, making them attractive alternatives despite some design constraints.
Recent federal policy changes are streamlining data center deployment. Executive Order 14318 directs agencies to accelerate environmental reviews and permitting, while revisions to New Source Review under the Clean Air Act could allow construction to begin before air permits are issued. ACEC recently formed the Data Center Task Force to advocate for policies that balance speed, affordability, and national security in data center development, complimenting EO 14318.
For engineering firms, site selection expertise has become increasingly valuable. Success hinges on sales and use tax exemptions, existing power and fiber connectivity, effective community engagement, and thorough environmental risk assessment. AI-driven planning tools like UrbanFootprint and ESRI ArcGIS are helping developers evaluate site suitability, identifying opportunities for firms.
The data center market offers engineering firms a chance to lead in sustainable design, infrastructure innovation, and strategic planning at a moment when digital infrastructure has become as critical as traditional utilities.