Engineering Influence from ACEC
Episodes
Friday Feb 28, 2020
HED's Michael Cooper on Leadership
Friday Feb 28, 2020
Friday Feb 28, 2020
Host:Welcome to another edition of Engineering Influence, a podcast by the American Council of Engineering Companies. Today. I'm very pleased to welcome back to the program. Michael Cooper. He is the managing principal of HED out of Southfield, Michigan. He is also a new member of ExCom. You might remember our last conversation when the new ExCom members came down for orientation and we had them on the show, and he mentioned that he was very active and engaged on leadership development and coaching business leaders to really maximize their effectiveness and grow as leaders. And that's something that we want to talk about today. So, Michael, thank you so much for coming back on the program.
Mike Cooper:Well, thank you Jeff. Appreciate it.
Host:So how did, how did you get involved with, with leadership as, as kind of a thought leadership kind of project for yourself? I know that you speak at conferences, you do podcasts and you talk about these things. How did, how did that really become a passion of yours?
Mike Cooper:So, you know, I think it started because it paralleled my professional development, right? So I started out in, in the industry in the design community as a mechanical engineer working on projects and designing systems. And from there I went a little bit into project management where I had a chance to not just design projects, but we teams that were designing projects. And from there more participation in business development as I became a little bit more expert into projects, managing them project delivery, that became a natural extension. And then onto leadership of office and people and such. And so I, over the time, you know, I came to realize that I'm leading people, leading organizations. It's really its own skillset. It is, it is separate from, you know, engineering and sort of the technical world that I was educated in and I grew up in you know, if you look back at the industry 25, 30 or more years, it was not uncommon for, you know, the, the most talented engineer, architect, technical professional to become the manager to become the leader of the organization. I think that may be less common today as organizations are realizing that the business side of what we do separate from the design and the creative side requires professionals with a unique skill set to lead organizations and strategic plan and lead people. So it's something that I was involved with as I developed professionally. Something I realized was an important part of running our business and something that I found that I really enjoyed separate from the technical challenges, leadership comes with its own set of challenges.
Host:That's correct.
Mike Cooper:That I did, I enjoyed those as well. And so I think my career moved me in this direction and as you said, my interests and passion continued that and I was fortunate to get the opportunities to practice in this part of the industry.
Host:And over the course of your career, I mean, do you think there's a watershed moment where things kind of shifted? Like you said you had at in times you know, in past the most talented engineer, the one who is the best of problem solving and maybe on time performance for project delivery rising up the ranks and becoming the manager and then find themselves managing people more than they are projects. Was there a watershed moment in your mind where that kind of shifted away from just, you know, that focus to looking at executives who also had the soft skills of people management of developing their teams? You know and kind of where we are today?
Mike Cooper:Well, you know, I feel like if I, if I look back in the 80s, when we really started to hear more broadly about total quality management, about greater efficiency, I think that was the point in which you know, not in select pockets, but where broader industries and across countries, continents, professions. We started to see a greater push for efficiency and quality and process. And I think organizations started to look at their own processes the way, not just what they're doing but the way in which they do them and the way in which their people are trained in the way in which their people interact with one another and take on tasks. And that to me is where we really started to separate the, you know, the say the, the engineering or their creative design side stuff from the process and the leadership and the organizational stuff.
Mike Cooper:And I to me that's where I started to see that discussion happening. You know,, in a wider swath of people. And then I think it's just continued from there. And then global competition, Jeff might be the other thing that has has really driven this, I think all industries have felt in the past two or three decades more competition coming from more places. And so the drive to utilize new technology the drive to be more efficient and to be able to pass on the benefits of that efficiency to and customers has further driven us to be to try to be more effective in our, in our businesses and tried to have more sophisticated marketing systems and finance systems and technology systems and all of those things. I think you've just led us to a focus on leadership and management in addition to the focus on the core business, which in my cases is design, architecture, engineering.
Host:And I, that really just is a great segue into a really, one of the first points that we kind of discussed in advance of this show you know, outlining about six different points that kind of guide a conversation on leadership and that's purpose and strategic focus. And I think you touched upon that in your last answer, but, and essentially that, that focus in on - with the increased competition internationally with really an industry which is, which is evolving with increases in innovations in technology. The demands for both on the public side and the private side for a different kind of engineering work to be done. A greater focus on sustainability, resiliency LEED, all those things. How purpose and strategic focus is critically important in today's marketplace. How has the industry kind of coalesced around those two points?
Mike Cooper:Well, I think there's two places where that becomes critical. I think the first place is because the next generation of talented professionals, the one that are the ones that are entering the field today, they, I think are more purpose-driven than generations past. You know, and, and so I think they're looking for that. And so I think on one hand, organizations are needing to be able to define that as, as part of a mechanism to recruit and retain top talent. But I think further to that, and touching on something you said earlier about change and the rate of change, I think the, the, the evolution of technology of systems and such has, has never been faster. The rate of change is accelerating very quickly. And so we often find ourselves day to day dealing with what appears to be constant change and that makes the need and the ability to define a clear purpose for the organization. So much more important because we can get lost in the day to day. And it's one of those things, you know, separating the urgent from important. We've got to remember that there needs to be a clear purpose, a clear direction out there so that the organization and everybody in it knows where the finish line is they know what road we're on. And they can, and they can follow that path.
Mike Cooper:It's also the thing I think that inspires us to do great work. You know, when we coalesce, as you say, around a common person, a purpose, a common set of ideals a direction, that's what enables everybody in the organization to say, okay, I know where we're going. I know what I have to do to help us get there. You know, let's go. And we find we all end up pulling in the same direction. We find that we accomplish more. But the lack of that purpose, you find people spending their days very busy, but, but then at the end of the day wondering what it is that was accomplished that day. And I think we've all had days where we feel that way.
Host:Absolutely. And it's, and it's really important to keep that strategic goal moving forward. So everyone sees the bigger picture and doesn't get lost in the day to day work, which may be unrelated to something, but you're working towards a larger purpose. And, and keeping that in everyone's mind is a challenge, but is critically important to keep things moving ahead. And you mentioned, you know, having everybody kind of coalesce around that idea that, that one purpose, the strategic goal. Once you get to that point and everyone's kind of bought in, what's your philosophy on setting those teams up of how do you select talent? How do you balance teams and kind of set them up to achieve their objective and motivate them along the way?
Mike Cooper:So so when I, when I look at teams, I generally look at them through two lenses. The first is talent, and then the second is chemistry. There's, there's so you start out with the idea of talent and there's a quote by Jim Rowan that says you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And that to me is a reminder that when you surround yourself with great people, you yourself become better simply by being around them. And, and I'm a, I'm a believer of that. So I think you start out with the idea that I'm going to, I'm going to recruit the most talented people, the smartest people, the most strategic people that I can and begin there and then really have to focus on chemistry. I'm providing them tools, resources, and opportunities for that team to spend time together, get to know one another and grow together.
Mike Cooper:You know, I'm always reminded in the world of sports usually all-star teams struggle against championship teams. You could argue that they have more talent, but they can, they never seem to be able to win. And that's because championship teams, while they don't necessarily have the best individual players, they've coalesced and they've become a team and they've gotten to know one another the way that they play, how they can complement one another. So they've sort of mastered that one plus one equals three philosophy. And that's where I think we want our teams to be. We want to put teams together, let them get to know one another so they can anticipate their moves, what they need and how they operate so we can truly complement one another. And then as leaders, I think we have to make time for the team.
Mike Cooper:We've got to spend time with them. We've got to help them and support them. You know, there's, there's a saying that we've all heard right? When all is said and done, more gets said than done. And I think as a leader, it's really important that we focus on doing things, supporting things in a tangible way, and helping them to get better. It can't just be talk. There are times where we've got to roll up our sleeves and, and, and, and do some things. And, and as leaders we've got a great opportunity to lead by example and help teams come together and be successful.
Host:The point used the analogy to the sports teams is really good. I think the idea between an all-star team and a championship team you know, the, I guess the flip side of that is when you have an all-star team, you have a lot of competing personalities and they're very good at what they do and they want to make sure their voices are heard and that they're leading. You have a bunch of people who are leaders and they're very, very high level performers versus a championship team where you might have some standouts, but overall the team together pushes forward to get the championship. And that's a question of culture. How do you deal with I guess the, the different kind of voices that you can have in the room, you know, and how do you set a culture that really puts that strategic goal, purpose and mission ahead of individual accomplishment? Not to say that individual accomplishment is bad because you know, that's what leads to group success. But how do you put the team before the individual personality?
Mike Cooper:Yeah you know, the, they say, and I, and I believe this also people join firms, but they quit their managers. And I'm a, I'm a believer of that and I think that's true for our clients as well. I think that they hire firms, but if they gravitate away, it's the team and the leaders of the team that they're moving away from. So you know, I sort of begin all of this with the idea it's all about people. And particularly when we're talking about engineering, design, service, a service profession. It's about people and, and we need to make them are our top priority. If somebody says, you know, you know, Mike, what's the most important thing to I would tell them, don't listen to what I say. Pay attention to how I spend my time.
Mike Cooper:Time is the most valuable commodity for all of us. And if you want to know what's important to me, simply look at what I choose to spend my time on that that will tell you everything you need to know. And for me by focus is on the people making time for them. You know, making sure that we are celebrating our successes and making sure that we're celebrating our failures and we're learning from them and we're understanding that when we don't succeed, it's often the path to greater success. Making sure that we're giving back to our community and we're, you know, and we're free to try to make the world a better place. It can't only be about what is on my desk. We, we in our world, we are working on projects that help our communities and help our societies. They make people's lives better every day. And I think it's important that we understand that. And that we embrace that and we foster that.
Mike Cooper:We need to mentor one another. We know we don't have enough people entering our profession. We know that we need more people. And that's one of the great challenges that we all have. And so let's mentor people and let's help bring people into the profession and let's help develop them. And so I think it really starts with this idea that you've got to focus on your people. You've got to make them your top priority, not because somebody tells you to, because you, we have to know that in a service business, everything happens because of people. People do everything. And so you know, whether we're talking about our markets and understanding our clients and doing the research to know the trends, those things are critically important.
Mike Cooper:But then when we do those things, at the end of the day, we're going to ask our people to put those things in motion and use all of those tools to serve our clients and help our communities. And and I, and I think you know, you sort of start there. The other thing with respect to culture that might be worth mentioning is the importance of sort of an inspirational message to motivate hard work. You know, we talked about focus and purpose and creating a rallying point for the organization. It also often is what motivates us to leapfrog and to make great jumps. And there's nothing, you know, that's more powerful for a culture than a rallying point that gets people super excited and super fired up to do something. Back in 1962, when John F. Kennedy talked about going to the moon, you know, we choose not to go to the moon. You know, not because it's easy, but because it's hard. You know, in 1962 we had no business talking about going to the moon with confidence. We were not winning the space race. I, a lot of people felt that Russia would get there first. They were more advanced than us, but that was the rallying cry. And that was, was one of the things that galvanized the country. It got us working towards a common purpose and inspired us and though we weren't positioned in 62 to get there, we got there in 69 and we got there first. And, and I don't know that that would've happened without JFK first putting that stake in the ground. As unlikely as it seemed at the time. You know, all, all big things start as small things. All great initiative started as small as a small ideas.
Mike Cooper:The last thing I'll mention on the subject I have in my office an all company photo of Microsoft from 1978. It's one of my favorite photographs because it's got 11 people in it and it was taken in a garage. And most people can't picture Microsoft Corporation being a startup. Microsoft Corporation was a startup and not that long ago. All big things begin as small little nuggets. And I think when we build a culture and we look to inspire ourselves, we've got to think big and remember that we can think big even when it doesn't look like we can get there. Nelson Mandela said it always seems impossible until it's done. I think a, another way people say that is, you know, when you're going through hell, keep going. You know, keep pushing, keep pushing, you'll get there. And, and, you know, a big part of culture is a reminder that we've got to put our stake in the ground and get fired up and work towards it because we can do much more than we think we can do when we, when we begin working.
Host:Yeah, absolutely. And, and that kind of you know, it's, it's interesting because I think there's always in organizations, there's always a drive or a desire by a number of people to try to, you know, shoot higher to try new things. And they might not have the immediate tools to do that or they might not have the confidence because they've never been in a position to do that or they're a little bit, you know, afraid of the blow back for maybe trying something different or suggesting something. That really comes with just like you said, professional development for a firm of varying size. I mean, if you're a large firm, you can easily invest in, you know, expansive leadership development and coaching and things of that nature. But how important do you think it is for firms of all sizes, quite honestly, to have some sort of structured professional development program internally or even retaining the services of a coach or some executive out there who can help groom talent.
Mike Cooper:You know, I think it's critically important. You know, and so everybody can gain from seeing how other people do things, from seeing how other industries and professions do things, the other perspectives that are out there. You know, we can't grow if we aren't learning, if we're not being educated, if we aren't being exposed to new things, different things. And so you know, not certainly smaller organizations may have less resources than very large ones, but they have resources to to do this. And there isn't a right way or a wrong way. But helping our people continue to learn is what is what fosters their growth. And so you know, pairing people up in apprenticeship kind of a model. It's an old school thing, but it's incredibly effective. If a young person is paired up with somebody who's more experienced in the field and they're working together on a project, but they're taking some time to spend talking about what we're doing and why we're doing it and how we're doing it.
Mike Cooper:And a little bit of the background. You know, it always, it surprises me, but it shouldn't, how fast somebody newer to the profession can grow when we take the time to help them. The folks that come into our profession are really smart. They're really smart, they're really committed, they're hardworking. If we put in a little bit of time to help them they can grow very quickly. And then I think you mentioned something which is, you know, let's take advantage of some of the opportunities that are, that are out there where we don't have to do it all ourselves. So, you know, ACEC as an organization provides lots of opportunities for growth. Some of them in the form of webinars which are inexpensive and very easy to engage in. Others are in the form of more structured classes, which are a little bit more of a commitment, time and money, but you probably get a little bit more out of that. You know, that way. But there are organizations out there and places where we can find, you know, whether it's an executive coach like you said, or an organization that has educational programs where we don't have to figure this out or invent something, we can simply leverage the tools that are already out there that were created by somebody else and we can put them to use for us.
Mike Cooper:And I think in some cases we, we learn from, you know, other industries and other professions and other organizations who show us new ways of doing things. We always take the biggest leap in our organization when we, when we're able to learn something, something that our profession isn't doing and we're able to adapt it and we're able to leapfrog a lot of what's happening and get into a new place be able to offer a different kind of a value proposition, maybe one that's unexpected and that's new.
Mike Cooper:But then our clients who are really clamoring for and just didn't see being offered anywhere else. That opportunity comes from professional development. And in particular getting exposed to, to things happening outside of your organization. A long way around saying it's absolutely critical and there's no, there's no point in time where you reach a level where you don't, you don't need to continue to grow. You don't need to continue to learn. I think it'd be a sad day to wake up one day, you know, and say, you know what? I've plateaued. This is as good as it gets for me. You know, I come to work every day, you know, looking for those opportunities to learn something new, to do something new, experience something different to grow to, you know, I'd like to think that tomorrow I can be more effective, be better than I am today. I believe that's true, but only if I'm still learning.
Host:Yeah, absolutely. I think that that's kind of ties up almost all the stuff that you said because if you have a strategic goal and a mission and you're able to foster a culture that pretty much enrolls everyone into that that mission. And you create, like I said, the culture that allows people to think maybe outside the box or look at opportunities that might not be readily present. And again, this also goes with the whole idea of an engaged workforce and a diverse workforce with different perspectives and different backgrounds who may be able to see things other people don't. You're able to look at new opportunities in the marketplace and like you said, offer things to clients or open up new client sectors that you never thought you had, which is the key to growth.
Mike Cooper:Absolutely. And it is - a lot of these things tie together cause you know, you talk about some of these things in the context of you know, of culture and a learning organization. It's, it's, it's part of culture. The, the other, the other thing that learning does, I think is it's, it sets a foundation that says it is okay to experiment. It is okay to explore. It's okay to fail. In, in, in design and engineering we know that the first solution we come up with is very, is rarely the one that actually gets built. The one that actually is constructed. There's an editor of process that goes along. We get better, we get stronger.
Mike Cooper:And one of the favorite stories that I heard when I was in school was the story of WD 40. Right? We all know what WD-40 is. The name WD-40 stands for water displacement formula number 40, the inventor so strongly about the 39 attempts that came before that that he named the product to celebrate that. His story was there was no way to go from one to 40, you know formula number one taught him something that he used to develop number two, which taught him something he used to develop number three, and so on and so on. And you get to 40. There's no way to go from one to two to 40. It was a scientific process, a process of discovery. He realized that one through 39 weren't failures. They were steps right on the way to success. And a learning organization I think frees up people to explore and to look for new ways. Understanding that if, if this one way, if this thing doesn't work out, that's not a failure, we'll learn something from it, we'll come back stronger and we'll get there. But that, that trial and error mentality often gets us some of the products to rely on every day.
Host:Yeah, absolutely. I'd say it's always interesting to look at what we actually use every day and realize that the end product wasn't actually the goal of the company or organization actually doing something that's just a byproduct of it. It's, I think a it wasn't oh, I forget what I remember in the, in the early, you know, early 20th century when, you know, the rubber manufacturers and, and the, and the, and the petroleum manufacturers. And I think some of the things that we use, I was some nylon derivative, I think was a complete mistake. And, and that's, you know, something that, that, that we know today and I forget exactly what it is, but it's, it's interesting to look at that kind of history. So really, I, you know, coming in and looking at all of these different ways to organize and develop you know a firm - when you, when you acquire talent, how critical is that onboarding stage and how important is it to start laying the groundwork for this kind of more inclusive and open a workplace that, you know, puts an emphasis on, on culture, on mission? How critical is it in that first 90 day period to really get someone into that system?
Mike Cooper:Yeah, it's, it's sorta like the story of the first impression where you, you know, you've got one chance to make that first impression. And in a lot of ways that sets the tone for the relationship moving forward. It's really, really important. We talk a lot these days about the difference between engagement and employment. And so if, if you want people to be engaged, if you want them to really feel like they're a part of something bigger and act that way, then it starts with the recruitment. Just as you said, we, you know, you to you want to get them engaged in the organization, even through the interview process. You want people to feel like this is a place where they could find a home where they could be a part of and would give them a real satisfying, rewarding kind of an experience.
Mike Cooper:And boy, when you're in, when you're in a 50 year low in unemployment I don't know that I can emphasize enough the importance of recruiting new talents and pulling out all the stops. It has never been harder to find people because we are so over employed, right? As a country. And so you know, we want to begin on day one. In fact, even, I'm looking at interns differently. If you can bring interns into the organization and maybe not just for summer, but maybe they work year round part-time and they work full time in the summer, but we're, we're building a connection. And we're building a relationship. So that when they, when an intern is ready to begin looking for a full time job, they don't really have to look. They already have a home. They already understand. And that's something that our organization does. And I know a lot of organizations are looking at.
Mike Cooper:You know, bring people on, making that first impression. Jeff, as you said we want our staff to stay. We want them to recruit their friends and people that they know perhaps to come to our organization. And the way to do that is to really get them engaged. You know, you've got to, you know, we're asking people to work hard in return. We've got to communicate with them and we have to share information. If you want somebody to feel a part of the organization, they have to know what we do, why we do it, how we do it. There's very few things out there that that for me are, you know, out of bounds that we don't share.
Mike Cooper:You know, we don't share, I wouldn't share health history of, of our, of our employees. I wouldn't share compensation or salary information. I certainly wouldn't share information that I'm contractually prohibited to share. But, but beyond that we should be open and honest. We should be authentic and make sure people feel like owners, they feel like they're a part of this thing because that's when they're going to buy in and they're going to rally around our purpose and they're going to do the work that needs to get done to help the organization succeed. Sort of goes back to what we talked about earlier. People do everything in an organization, so the more engaged they can become, the more a part of the organization, the stronger the emotional connection is. That's going to translate directly to the work.
Host:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's a lot of really good food for thought. For leaders, organizations and, and kind of how to approach just people and people management. And just getting everyone together on the same page, bought in on the same mission and, and just following through to success.
Mike Cooper:And Jeff it's more fun.
Mike Cooper:People that we ask people to work really hard when you're part of a winning team and you, you know, you like the people around you and you and you, you're working well, a cohesive unit, then those are the people who wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work.
Host:Yeah
Mike Cooper:Absolutely. And that's a part of this too. We work really hard, you know, there's gotta be a part of this that we really enjoy.
Host:Yeah. And when you have that sense of ownership that that organizational success becomes individual success because you are part of that process and if you're part of that team, yeah. That, that, that really makes it personal. And it's beyond the, the numbers of course, you know, benefits and all that. And of course, salary, everyone you know, is working not just because it's personally beneficial and enriching, but also because, you know, you have to pay the bills. But that other intangible quality, that you're accomplishing something and that you're moving the ball forward and you're doing something greater than just, you know, on its face it could just, you know, be a a design task, could be an administrative task to be anything like that. But and I think the other, the other story right, is, is for NASA, you know, when, when they brought people down to Kennedy and they were talking to everyone about, you know, the space program and you know, a guy, a janitor was, was, you know, you know, sweeping the floor and, you know, the, the government people said, you know, what do you do here? And the janitor said, I'm, I'm putting somebody on the moon. Because he wasn't, that was, that was the overriding purpose of their existence there all the way down to the person who is sweeping the floors, they're all part of the same team that's going to put a man on the moon. So I mean, if you can get that into an organization that just leads to success.
Mike Cooper:That's a great, it's a great story. You know, I, I sometimes I look at the organization like a jigsaw puzzle in that there's lots of pieces and if one piece is missing, it's not complete. And it doesn't matter which piece it is. And I think it echoes your story really well. We all are and we need every one of us to get where we want to go. That's a, it's a great story and I, and you hope that all of your people will, will feel that way, that we've done what we need to do so that the people who are part of the organization really feel that way. That that's, we're all, we're all here for that single purpose. That's great.
Host:Absolutely. Well, Michael, thank you very much for, for taking the time today. There's a lot more to go into and I want to come have you back on the show because there are other aspects to this which we need to cover because I think the next time we should talk about how that new generation of engineers coming out of universities, the way they view work, the way they view their purpose. Like you said, it's moved into more of a purpose driven field. And how firms are kind of changing to meet that because it's not just a goal of people management. And then you get into the other issues that are equally important for clients to look at, which is, you know, CSR programs and things like that, which you know, potential clients are looking at more than just delivery. They're also looking at the type of organization that they're contracting with to do work for them. And that's a whole different, different conversation to have, which we should have pretty soon.
Mike Cooper:Well, I would love to come back. I would look forward to that. There's an awful lot to talk about and all of it is really important. The next generation are not just going to be, you know, our employees. They're going to be leaders of our firms. They're going to be our clients. They're going to be leaders in government and in community. And so understanding, you know, their sensibilities and where they're coming from and leveraging that is going to is help all of us get to a better place. Got to start the conversation. Oh, that's great.
Host:Yeah. Well, Michael, again, Michael Cooper, he's managing principal of HPD out of Southfield, Michigan. And he is a new vice chair on our executive committee at ACEC and look forward to seeing you, of course, at our conference coming up in in April. And hope to have you on sooner than that. Thank you again for being on.
Mike Cooper:You're welcome. Thank you, Jeff. Have a great day.
Host:You too.
Friday Feb 21, 2020
Rep. Dina Titus at the Moving America Forward forum in Las Vegas
Friday Feb 21, 2020
Friday Feb 21, 2020
Engineering Influence sat down with Rep. Dina Titus (NV-1) at the Moving America Forward presidential candidate forum on infrastructure in Las Vegas. We discussed the current infrastructure proposal in the House, prospects for congressional action on FAST Act reauthorization and what the candidates for the White House should say about infrastructure investment.
Transcript:
Host: Welcome to another edition of Engineering Influence, a podcast by the American Council of Engineering Companies coming to you from Las Vegas at the site of the first ever single issue, presidential candidate forum focused on infrastructure, which is a long time coming and we're joined with a number of the presidential candidates, vice president Biden, Senator, Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, and Pete Buttigieg. And I'm very, very pleased to be joined by Representative Dina Titus who represents Clark County in Congress. She is also a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Aviation, which is an issue that already popped up with the PFC charge and vice president Biden saying that he would support that. That was welcome news and I want to welcome you first onto our program and to get your kind of thoughts on where things are right now, both on the Committee in Congress for infrastructure and what the outlook looks like.
Rep. Titus: Well, thank you for having me. I'm very excited that this forum is right in the heart of my district and on the campus of UNLV where I taught for 35 years. I enjoy serving on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee because it's so important to Las Vegas. You know, we are growing constantly. We're building new stadiums, new convention centers, expanding roads. And so these are important issues on the Committee right now. Just recently, Chairman De Fazio has released a draft and that's what they're calling it. It's not legislation yet, but just to get the ball rolling on infrastructure. When the president first took office he was talking about infrastructure, he promised $3 trillion. It's gone nowhere. So now we need to really get down to the nuts and bolts of it. And of course, the big question is how do you pay?
Host: Absolutely. That's the big question. And there's been talk all over the place. I mean, a lot of the States have - over 30 states - have taken it upon themselves to address their user fees. There's talk about VMT, there's talk about the bridge to that next funding scheme. What are your thoughts on that? The best way to address the actual revenue stream going into the highway trust fund?
Rep. Titus: Well, you've got to raise the gas tax that hasn't been done since the early 1990s and then you have to trigger it to increases that go in effect automatically. The state of Nevada did that. You did that here in Clark County and it wasn't a political issue because people know we need infrastructure. So I think you look at that, but that's not enough with so many electric cars and also with cars that are getting better mileage, we've got to figure out a way that all users can contribute.
Host: That's a really good point because something that a lot of people might think about is that when they see a Tesla on the road, they're not paying into the user fee. And it's an interesting thing. It's, it was brought up in the last Congress about how do you capture that? And I remember Chairman Shuster put out that draft proposal where it was talking about capturing some of those, you know, free riders on the system, I guess you could say on the Republican side. There's always been that feeling of saying, okay, well gas tax is a third rail. With so many states and Nevada included taking action on their own. Do you think there's any crack in that argument that saying that? No, it's actually not a political third rail. The movement to where we have to address those revenues?
Rep. Titus: Well I think you do have to and that can be a combination of things. You know, it would be interesting if we had earmarks again because that might incentivize some of these Republicans to vote for a gas tax. So everybody likes to cut a ribbon and hand out a check. And if you make 'em make those where they're transparent and only go to public entities so the whole system can't be abused, that might be a way to move this ball forward.
Host: And I know that that was brought up a little bit in conversation by the Chairman. And, and I don't think it was really part of that draft proposal specifically. Do you see that issue moving in the Democratic Caucus for bringing back those earmarks?
Rep. Titus: Well, I know Steny Hoyer supports it. Our leader, not speaker, but leader, but he's not going to move it without it being bipartisan, but both sides have to agree to it so that the other side won't use it against people in vulnerable.
Host: Well that's something that, that you know, as an association, ACEC is supportive of as well cause we think that's a good way of moving projects forward. And if you can do it in such a way where you actually have accountability...
Rep. Titus: That's right and transparency.
Host: Absolutely, but it's critically important that the money that, that Congress is constitutionally mandated to be you know appropriating it goes to the right places.
Rep. Titus: And I'd much rather people here in Nevada be making decisions about what our needs are than some bureaucrat in Washington who's not knowing exactly how it works here.
Host: Absolutely. from your position on the Aviation Subcommittee, PFCs were brought up at the forum already. Where do you see that going at the Committee level?
Rep. Titus: Well, I know the Chairman supports it and so I suspect that it will be put forward. The airlines are against it, but certainly the airports are for it and and many of the members are, and you need that funding for you know, keeping airports up today, then expanded and being able to serve not just people but also commerce.
Host: Absolutely. I guess from the forum perspective, we have a lot of presidential candidates here. What are you hoping to come out of this this event? It's first of its kind specifically focused on infrastructure. What are you hoping to come out of it?
Rep. Titus: Well, this kind of setting is much better than a debate because you have a length of time with each candidate. You can get more in depth into the issues in a debate with a bunch of people on the stage it's just hit or miss. So I think there'll be some pretty serious discussion about infrastructure. Shouldn't be ideological, shouldn't be everybody needs bridges and roads. So I think this is a good way to approach the topic and get some commitment to move forward.
Host: And I know that you're short on time, so I just wanted to kind of end it out by saying, if you have a message for the engineering community in Nevada and of course in Clark County anything that you want to say to them?
Rep. Titus: Well, they are a vital part of certainly any kind of infrastructure, whether it's water pipes or highways or railroads, and talk about railroads. We want to speed train from here to Southern California. I learned early on, you don't just talk about shovel ready projects. You talk about pencil ready, and that's where the engineers come into play.
Host: Well, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it. Good luck today and of course, back in Congress and look forward to a very successful legislative session.
Rep. Titus: Well, thank you. And stay in touch with me as this moves forward through the Committee.
Host: Absolutely. Thank you.
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
DiscoverE Discusses eWeek 2020
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
It's National Engineers Week, or eWeek, for short, and there's no better way to celebrate this week of recognition than to sit down with the organizers of the event itself, DiscoverE. Engineering Influence sat down with Thea Sahr, DiscoverE's Director of Communications and Programs to talk about the week, the events happening across the country and how eWeek has grown into a year long celebration of engineering.
Transcript:
Host: Welcome back once again to ACEC's Engineering Influence podcast. I'm your host, Alan Crockett, Director of Member Communications and it's Eweek, everywhere around here at ACEC and throughout a lot of places in the US this week. And as a result, we are very, very honored and pleased to have Ms. Thea Sahr. She's the DiscoverE Director of Communications and Programs, that has a lot to do with all the activities that are going on in celebration of Engineering Week. Thea, welcome to Engineering Influence podcast.
Thea: Thanks Alan. I'm really happy to be here.
Host: Well I know this is a busy busy time for you. Is this like Christmas season for a DiscoverE?
Thea: Oh, it sure is. It sure is. You know, you work year round, getting ready, getting all the materials, all the resources together, and then you kind of watch what everyone around the country does to be pioneers of progress and really engage kids and celebrate all the wonderful things that engineers are doing. One of my favorite things to do during Engineer's Week is to Google Engineer's Week 2020 (#eWeek2020) and just see everything that people are doing. It's really incredible.
Host: Well, that's a very interesting because I think a lot of people don't realize that Engineering Week celebrations are throughout the next year.
Thea: You're right.
Host: We're at the beginning and and we've got a whole week worth of activities planned. What so how things are going so far?
Thea: Things are going great. You know, across the country on engineering universities at college campuses, their celebrations lots of small and medium sized engineering firms are going out there, volunteering with their local schools. Some of our larger corporations are doing multiple events around the country, but it's really individuals out there, people who say, you know, this week I'm going to go into my kids' school, or this week I'm gonna work and find an organization that I can partner with. And you know, while we call it Engineer's Week, it's really a 365 year round mindset of, you know, just taking a moment, volunteering, going out there, talking to a child about what engineering is. Cause sometimes we forget that you know, us an engineering community, we know a lot of engineers. We know what engineers do. Most Americans don't know what engineers or technicians do. They've never met one. They don't run across them in their daily lives. So and we know that role modeling and telling kids what's involved in engineering is one of the first and best ways to engage kids and get them excited.
Host: Well, we have, you know, ACEC represents more than 5,200 individual engineering firms throughout the nation. And it's always a pleasure to just see all the activities that our member firms are engaged in. And I remember organizations to celebrate the the importance of, of engineers and engineering overall. So tell me a little bit about yourself. How long have you been involved with the discovery?
Thea: I've been involved with DiscoverE for nine years. But before that, I mean, I've been an employee of discovery for nine years, but I've been an Engineer's Week volunteer and advocate for the last 20 years. I was at a PBS station in Boston and we created Design Squad and Engineer Your Life. So I've been working to engage kids in engineering for a long time. And yeah, and what I like about it is we really think that engineering is the gateway to math and science. You know, that that's that hands on problem solving you get the kids hooked that way and then all of a sudden they're going to be like, Oh, if I know math and science, if I know those concepts, then my, you know, my catapult or my lever or whatever they're working on or whatever problem they're trying to solve, they'll go and look for the science and then it becomes real. And then, you know, engineers and engineering can really answer that "so what" question for kids?
Host: Well it sounds like, you know, these programs also help take the fear of mathematics out of the equation and brings it back to a more realistic, a realistic plane for, for kids who are curious and wondering what to do and how things work. I was scared to death of math coming through school, so that's why I went into words. I can handle words, but math is kinda hard. Well, I know we had we, you know, in, in DC we, we had the big future cities competition yesterday and we got a lot of pictures and some story for that for our blog. Tell me what else is, what are the other big highlights that are coming up through the end of the week, both here and throughout the nation that you guys are focuses on?
Thea: Right, right. Yes. So future cities, our competition for middle school students where we ask them to design and build a city of the future. With 45,000 students from around the world participate and we crowned the world champions yesterday and they're from Indiana, which is very exciting. So that was great. So a big shout out to them and their hard work. And then tomorrow, Thursday the 20th, is introduce a girl to engineering day. So that's a time during seven days to really focus in on girls who may not know about engineering or be engaged in engineering. And you know, we've turned a lot of attention to this area, but there's still a lot of work to be done to kind of bring more girls into the fold. And so we released a report back in December called despite the odds where we looked at why girls choose STEM and why women stay in the field.
Thea: You know, we know all the reasons why they leave, but we were like, what can we learn from why they stay? And what we've found is the importance of role models. You know, volunteers going out there talking to kids, doing hands on engineering activities and, and telling them what engineering is, how engineers solve problems, what those problems are, you know, what are the kinds of fascinating things all of your members and their employees are working on. That's, you know, and there's no magic bullet, right? It's just really getting out there and, and doing the outreach. We know the formula. We just need more people to be doing it. And that's what we love so much about ACEC and your members is that they're so close to their local communities that they're doing that work. And we just want to give a big shout out to everyone and say thank you and keep on keeping on.
Host: Oh, excellent. Excellent. That will bring a smile to a lot of people's faces. And just on a personal note, I've been at ACEC for 17 years and I've been going to you know, the national meetings, the fall conferences and the annual convention twice a year. And I've noticed a difference just in, for example, we would get 800 to a thousand attendees at these conferences and it would be rare back in, you know, 15 years ago, it'd be kind of rare to see a woman engineer. Everybody would notice. It's not rare, it's not rare anymore. And you know, just to dovetail on that, we give numerous scholarships out to engineering students to help them finish and proceed in their educations. And I had noticed that over the years you know, five out of, you know, six out of 10 scholarships that we give out, we'e going to women, we're going to women students. So I think your messages and your your efforts are paying off - women are engineers and it's not a rare thing anymore. And I'm old enough to be able to realize that. So kudos to everybody at DiscoverE. So tell me what does discovery really want to accomplish? What's the overall mission of your organization?
Thea: So we have a dual mission of celebrating engineers and you know, really elevating the field. And, and giving a big, you know, making sure that the world, just how much engineers contribute to, to our way of life and making the world a safer, stronger, better place. Right. That's, you know the work that engineers do is just, is mission critical and it is awesome. And then our second our, our second piece of that pie is really encouraging kids to investigate and explore engineering. We know not every child is going to become an engineer, no one wants that. But if we could give kids the, the tools, the engineering design process, project management, if they take those skillsets, any career, imagine how effective they could be just to kind of break down large problems into bite sized chunks and tackle them and solve them. And, and, and, and bring that kind of mindset. I think would be wonderful. And our big audacious goal is that every child around the world, every year has an engineering experience. You know, cause so many kids just don't know that it exists or it's even a possibility or that they have, you know, that they have the chops for it.
Host: Or the role that engineers play in practically everything that goes on. So.
Thea: Exactly.
Host: So really incredible and worthy, worthy endeavor for sure. You said you'd been there for discovery as you know, working on staff and then, but you said you had volunteered before. What changes have you seen in what DiscoverE offers and, and tries to accomplish over the years? And how have you seen that reflect on the results and the reaction to your efforts?
Thea: Sure. I think, you know like all good engineering organizations has been an iterative learning process, right? Try something or put it out there, what works, how can we make it better? How can we make it better? And we look at the evolution of the resources that we offer the training that we offer. We're continually saying, okay, you know, what's resonating with the kids, what messages can we share? What hands on activities can we share, what's working? And then just, you know, constantly improve the resources and the delivery mechanisms that we have, you know, as technology changes, can we take advantage of of community, you know, ways to communicate to reach more students. You know, if you're in a rural area, can we try a webinar, you know, a webcast bringing on an engineer right into your classroom electronically.
Thea: So I think, you know, we're always willing to try new things. And I think that the volunteers out there working with kids are a lot more, and sophisticated is not quite the right word, but they've been doing it a long time. They know what works. And so it's really listening to all our wonderful volunteers out there and responding to what they're asking for, what resources they need. You know, cause we can't, we're a tiny staff of six people. So how do we support the work of 50,000 volunteers out there reaching a million kids? So I think that's just kind of our constant thinking is, what do you guys need? What do you gals need and how can we help you?
Host: Yeah. Well, you know, I think one of the one of the benefits also that I had discovered when, when preparing communications for the upcoming Engineers Week I went to the DiscoverE website and, and you guys provide all kinds of ideas and, and, and, and pointers for activities to further on your mission that I believe a lot of our member firms who, and I've talked to a few, they want to do something but they just don't know quite what to do. What's the best way to go about it? I think going to your website would be would be a great thought starter on PRI trying to, you know, basically pitch in and do our part as an industry.
Thea: Well definitely we have a right on our homepage. You can download the ultimate how to guide. In four pages it outlines for you what you can do to engage a child in engineering. And there's really simple steps and then it takes you to all the other resources. But we have an extensive library of activities. We have an extensive library of how, you know, messages that you can share with kids. And like some people are like, I don't even know how to reach out to my school. I have a cheat sheet of what you can say and, and and who you should ask for when you call the school. So, you know, how do you arrange a classroom visit? So, and then videos of engineers. And then we have an extensive section on engineering careers, so you can send kids who might be interested in engineering to our website. So it's all there. DiscoverE with an E dot org. I hope folks will visit us
Host: I'm pretty sure they will. I know you're very busy lady. You getting ready to head back to Boston. So good luck to you. Thank you for sharing a few minutes with us this morning. And good luck to the entire, for the rest of the week of all the activities you guys have your hands on and we'll see you again next time.
Thea: Yeah, thank you and thanks to all the pioneers of progress out there, all of your engineers, your technicians who are, who are, you know, doing such great work to make my life easier and safer. I really appreciate it.
Host: Okay, thanks Thea and have a good day and we'll see you on the next one. Enjoy.
Thea: Okay. Bye. Bye.
Host: Once again, that was Thea Sahr, Director of Communications for DiscoverE, which basically coordinates all the eWeek and Engineering Week activities that just don't occur once a week. There are ongoing throughout the year program and activities and knowledge and awareness and seminars and they obviously do an excellent job. So thank you for joining us today. My name is Alan Crockett, once again, Director of Member Communications and we'll see you on the next side. Enjoy.
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
A Conversation with Autodesk at the Moving America Forward Forum in Las Vegas
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
Engineering Influence sat down with David Ohrenstein and Theo Angelopolous from Autodesk at the Moving America Forward presidential forum on infrastructure in Las Vegas.
Transcript:
Host: Welcome to another edition of Engineering Influence on the road - we are coming to you from Las Vegas right before the first ever, single issue focused presidential candidate forum on infrastructure being put together by United for Infrastructure and also hosted by some of our corporate friends, including Autodesk who I'm joined with today. I'm joined by David Ohrenstein, Director of government affairs and Theo Angelopolous. He is the Senior Director of Infrastructure Programs. I'm very, very pleased to have you join us today. Autodesk is something, the services that you provide, the digital technology, is something that our industry uses on a daily basis. I want to get your thoughts on why this forum is important, number one. And number two, from your position in the marketplace, what do you want our elected leaders to do? What could Congress do? What should the industry do to really move forward on the integration of digital technologies with engineering and the construction and design of infrastructure?
David: Sure. I'll start - I'm David Ohrenstein. First of all, we're really excited to be at this event and we think it's great that this is a big national conversation going on about how to have ambitious plans to build out America's infrastructure as a, as a technology provider to companies that design and construct infrastructure. We know the big challenge that the country faces in meeting its infrastructure needs and we think that technology can play a key role in meeting those needs. We work with big firms, with small firms, some are more advanced in the use of technology. Others have a way to go. And we think that any big infrastructure proposal by the candidates, by the administration, by Congress, all of them ought to have incentives to improve this use of technology.
Host: And Theo, from your perspective as a senior director in infrastructure what's your take?
Theo: Yeah. So I mean, I think, you know we all talk about the trillion dollar global infrastructure gap and we talk about the aging infrastructure in the U.S.. What's interesting is when you look at that gap, world economic forum is projecting that gap to get bigger every year for the next 20 years. And more than half that gaps actually in the U S and primarily in roads and highways. So, you know, I think we know that we have to do more, you know, better with less. And I think there's a couple of things we'd like to see happen. One is obviously we want to see the faster adoption of digital technology in design and construction. And then, you know, like David said, we'd like to see the government be more progressive and incentivizing, you know, their supply chain to go digital. And I think if you look at governments like the UK and governments in the Nordics, they've done that. So I think it's a really good opportunity for the U.S. to really go faster and, and be a leader in the area of digital technology for infrastructure.
Host: And before we went on you mentioned the fact that there's been a greater adoption of digital technologies in countries in Western Europe and are there any good examples? I mean, is there any one country, I mean, you mentioned a couple, but anyone who has really done it well, that could actually be a good I don't know - example for the U S for policymakers to follow in the way that they embrace digital technologies with infrastructure projects?
Theo: I mean, the one that really stands out for us is really the UK. I mean the UK has basically, you know, mandated that all projects over a certain threshold are delivered in building information modeling and they've actually adopted certain compliance and regulatory requirements on those projects. So I think, you know, I think there's definitely the standout right now. David, I don't know if you have anything to add.
David: Yeah, the UK is, in addition to having these policies, they have a real, like national construction strategy. So they really see this as a key industry to support both. In building in within the country, but also as you know, as an industry that can, they can export these services around the world. So they have, they're a great example of having a comprehensive national construction strategy.
Host: And David, from your perspective in government affairs, I'm a former T&I staffer. I kind of know that there's some, not everyone is current on exactly all the technologies that are out there, especially when it comes to infrastructure design. There may be a habit of looking backwards instead of forward. How should, Members of Congress, what would you, what would you advise T&I members for example, to do, to become more knowledgeable and more open to the idea of, you know you have, you've got digital twins, you've got all these different technologies that are out there to, to learn more about them and take advantage of them?
David: Well, you know, the, the past surface transportation bills have had some incentives for using digital modeling,
Host: Minor minor technology titles in the bills.
David: And the current Senate EPW bill that also a technology section to it. So we think those sections ought to be a robust part of any package. And not just around the design but also using digital technologies and construction. That's going to be a key, key piece of it. So you know, we want, we want the overall plans to be ambitious, but one of the things we're focusing on is making sure that the technology piece of these plans is robust. And as I mentioned you know, things like autonomous vehicles and broadband, smart cities, those are all important and those get a lot of attention. But also using more technology and how you design and construct infrastructure. I think that has sometimes not been as you know, upfront as part of the conversation we'd like to, for policymakers to be thinking about that too.
Host: And then finally, for the forum in general we're going to have a couple of presidential candidates come up and talk about infrastructure. What do you hope to hear, what would make your day from any of the candidates today? You know, on the issue.
David: They all have ambitious plans and we think that's great. What we'd like to hear is a little bit more detail, again about technology, how technology can play a bigger role. Because if we're going meet as, as Theo was saying, if we're going to try to build more infrastructure, built better infrastructure with, you know limited resources, then technology is key to that. And we'd like to hear them get a little bit more granular about about how to promote technology as a key part of these proposals.
Theo: No, I mean, I agree. I think the devil's in the details always of course. But I think, you know, for me what I would like to hear is definitely the how, you know, I think we all can align on both sides of the aisle around the value of investing in infrastructure. And really the challenge is how do we do it? And that for me, that's kind of the key takeaway that I'd like to understand from each of the candidates.
Host: Hopefully we hear that and we've got a long time until November. But our members - the engineering industry is going to be very interested throughout. So hopefully it's a good forum and, and, and successful one. And I really appreciate you both coming on our podcast. You have an open invitation anytime you want to when anything comes up, our members of course are very interested in the services and products that Autodesk provides the industry. So if you have news or information, please consider us as a, as a place to come. And I want to thank you both for being on the show.
Theo: Great. Thank you. Thanks for having us.
Thursday Feb 13, 2020
Digital Twins: What Every Engineering Firm Needs To Know
Thursday Feb 13, 2020
Thursday Feb 13, 2020
Engineering Influence welcomes Adam Klatzkin, who is vice president, business development - iTwin Services at Bentley Systems, to talk about digital twin technology and its accelerating impact on the engineering industry.Host: Hi, this is Gerry Donohue with ACEC with another episode of the Engineering Influence podcast. One of the most exciting technological developments in the A/E/C space in recent years has been the digital twin and Bentley Systems is a leader in this field. To learn more about it, we're talking today with Adam Klatzkin who is Bentley’s Vice President, Business Development - iTwin Services. His team is responsible for the firm's digital twin cloud services for enterprise infrastructure engineering. Welcome, Mr. Klatzkin. How are you?
Adam Klatzkin: Great, thanks for having me, Gerry. I'm excited to be here today and to talk to you about digital twins.
Host:Great. So, so to give me and the listeners a firm foundation into what we're talking about, what exactly is a digital twin?
Adam Klatzkin: So to try to very simply describe it as a digital asset that you can trust represents a physical asset as it exists today. And typically they are joined together and kept in sync. So you can leverage the digital twin to understand what's happening with the real-world assets in real-time; to have visibility into the real-world asset without having to leave an office; to collaborate easier around it and more effectively with distributed teams or stakeholders; and ultimately to make more informed decisions that lead to better performance. It might be a better project performance if you're designing or constructing the asset. It might be better operational performance if the asset already exists. But that, that's the end goal and the value to come out of it. I'll also mention that of course as a twin that relationship is in and should be symbiotic between the digital and physical assets.
Adam Klatzkin: You can imagine this continuous feedback loop of sorts. The analysis and insights that happen within the digital twin become actions and interventions that feedback to the physical asset and result in outcomes or changes the feedback to the digital twin. And that cycle just continues. And there are lessons to be learned in mind and the impacts of decisions that are made along the way can be digitally captured. So ultimately an organization that leverages digital twins is not only going to reduce costs and risks for a single asset, but that digital transformation can allow them to optimize performance across an entire portfolio and future projects as well based on the lessons that have been learned.
Host: Well, that's, that's quite comprehensive. To take it down to just a single project, for example, a bridge, how would an engineering firm use a digital twin in the design and construction of a bridge?
Adam Klatzkin: So that's it's a great question, but to answer it honestly, I'd like to start with kind of the ugly truth and challenge some of the ugly truths and challenges of an infrastructure digital twin for any type of engineering project--a bridge being one--to better understand what you would need and how you would work with it. So the concept of digital twins isn't new. It has been used in manufacturing for years, but why haven't they really been adopted in infrastructure? One ugly truth is the data. Engineering projects tend to have massive amounts of data. We've seen bridge projects that have multiple design tools in play by trade or discipline. There are modeling tools, geotechnical, structural, beyond just the design tools. There's are tools for and data for analytics and simulations, scheduling, resource management. The list goes on.
Adam Klatzkin: All of that data is siloed. It's all typically understood by a single application or expert users and not available in other contexts. Even worse, engineering projects have tons of change in them and that change is relentless. It's the nature of an engineering project. If there wasn't change happening, then the project isn't progressing. So that's one ugly truth. The data is a mess. The second is, no one vendor could ever provide a digital twin that was locked into their ecosystem. If we consider that bridge example and I said there are many different tools in play, we've seen many projects that use a combination of Bentley products and our competitors. There may be AutoCAD Civil 3D, Bentley OpenRoads, Bentley OpenBridge Designer. All may be used on the same project and others as well.
Adam Klatzkin: So even get started with it a digital twin or even get started a digital print platform is needed to address those ugly truths. And that platform needs to be able to align and federate data together with all this data coming from those many different vendors. And the platform can't just handle the relentless change but it has to leverage it to provide better change management and insights based on the impacts of changes that are occurring. So Bentley has introduced a platform that addresses these challenges, iModel.js. That's our foundational development platform and iTwin services, which is our commercial offering built on the platform. And our philosophy around this is openness, open in every regard, open to any tool by any vendor, any repository where data may reside. And we've even open-sourced the platform itself.
Adam Klatzkin: So to come back to that example of the bridge digital twin platform, addressing those challenges and context to a bridge. You would consider that they'd be very early on in planning. The most important thing to understand for the engineering team through the twin would be the physical location, the site where that bridge is going to be designed, engineered, ultimately constructed. So reality capture could be used via drones to establish a 3D-mesh. That's one example. There are other ways to get reality data too. That could be combined together with map data, terrain data, and all brought together in the context of a digital twin that is the basis and leveraged for planning. This gives anyone at any location access to the true site conditions. Those drones can be flown as often as necessary to keep that digital twin. That's just a reality model right now, continuously surveyed and synchronized. And now as design and engineering progresses, the files that are created from design tools today, they'll likely reside in a connected data environment like ProjectWise, Bentley’s offering there.
Adam Klatzkin: And connections are established between the digital twin and the files in the connected data environment, the design files, through things that we happen to call bridges, an overloaded term in this context, but they are also the bridges that bridge data from the connected data environment into the twin. They understand the native formats that are in play in all those silos. They detect changes as those changes occur. They make those changes available in the digital twin and they align all of that disparate data together into a single digital representation of that physical bridge that you're engineering. And as these changes come into the twin, because as I said relentless change, as they come into the twin, the twin itself can validate the trustworthiness of that data through data quality services. And this is all automated, validated against codes and standards and whatever other rules the engineering team might want to dream up as well.
Adam Klatzkin: Immediately the engineering team can start recognizing the benefits through workflows such as integrated coordination and design reviews where they've got all of the richness of not just having the mirror of what they're designing against the physical reality, but understanding what has changed across all this disparate data that's been aligned together. What changed? When did it change? Why? Where? They can do clash detection against that continuously up-to-date twin and they can do issue resolution. So you get all those benefits in easy web-based accessibility without requiring any installed software. They can make it available to clients for communication to the public stakeholders or whoever else may need access as well.
Adam Klatzkin: And then they can start to introduce connections to other systems and information, like for instance, maybe there's a risk register or database in play, hazards and such, that they can connect that information into the digital twin and have it for visual sharing and, and recognition. They can run simulations against the digital twin. They can run insights and analytics to understand, "Okay, with these changes that occurred over the last period of time since our last coordinated design review, what's the impact of those changes on our costs, on our schedule, on risks," and have those dashboards recognized through the twin. But most importantly, as they go through this entire process, it's not intended to be disruptive. Those engineers and designers are still using the tools and the systems that they use today, they get the added benefit of the twin at being complementary to those systems where everything's being brought together for those integrated workflows.
Host: And just so I understand, right? So if the contractor is using a different system it would automate whenever they input something into their system, it would automatically move over into the Bentley iTwin system and be available to everyone else on the team
Adam Klatzkin: That is absolutely correct. Of course, it does have to be configured that way. But that's correct.
Host: So there's really no extra work. There's no extra inputting. Anything you input into your own system if everything's configured correctly works its way into the twin automatically.
Adam Klatzkin: Not disruptive. No extra manual intervention. No duplication of data.
Host: So you mentioned earlier that one of the reasons why digital twins haven't really made it deeply into the engineering industry so far has been just the huge amounts of data. How far and how deeply into the industry have twins come? Have you a lot of clients out there? A lot of potential?
Adam Klatzkin: There are a lot of clients, a lot of potential. There is no doubt. It is an emerging technology. Anecdotally I can tell you there isn't a single firm that I or our teams here I've spoken with, that isn't exploring or implementing their digital twin strategy. But there's also some interesting third-party research showing that the digital twin market in very short order is actually going to surpass that of BIM. Now, that doesn't mean BIM is going away. It has incredible value and that the market is going to continue to grow at a respectable rate, but digital twins don't replace it. They complement it. They advance it. And they enable further digital transformation. The use of cases, workflows, benefits are much more unbounded in a digital twin than they are in BIM, which is a static file representation at a moment in time.
Adam Klatzkin: Those projections and that research show that in 2024, the BIM market size will be $13.2 billion in U. S. dollars with an 18% growth rate. While in 2025, they're skewed by a year, the digital twin market will be $29.1 billion with a 37% growth rate. If you look at the charts, it's amazing where they intersect and the rate at which digital twins continues to grow. As for today's adoption and initiatives that are out there, again, this independent research, not by Bentley, is showing that of all the digital twin initiatives that they've surveyed, about 16% of those are being driven by engineering and engineering firms; 33% of them are being driven by operations and owners; and the remainder of those initiatives are being driven by supply chain, finance and others.
Adam Klatzkin: So it is definitely skewed right now towards owners and operators driving it, but there's a significant drive within engineering services firms directly. Leading the way by industry penetration of digital twins is transportation. They have the most, again in the same survey, they have the most digital twin projects that are implemented, budgeted or planned within the next three years. Transportation is definitely a leader and that seems to be followed closely by plant design, particularly oil and gas and chemical and then metals and mining.
Host: All, all those things you mentioned are big, big projects, a big infrastructure project, a big factory project. Is there some sort of size limitation for when a digital twin is effective or either affordable or can you do it on a small project as well as a big project?
Adam Klatzkin: From our perspective, the commercial model scales. It's not an inhibitor for any size project. And the benefits certainly apply to all ranges as well. But as far as penetration in the market, those were the areas that seem to see the most activity underway, the industries and types of assets that see the most activity underway right now.
Host: When I was reading about this in the stuff that Bentley's written about digital twins, a statement that came up that sort of struck me was that a digital twin is a connection of data sources. Would you talk about that?
Adam Klatzkin: Or, yeah. If we go back to those ugly truths that I mentioned earlier. A project or asset may have different sources of truth for information. That source of truth may be some bespoke database, it may be an enterprise database and maybe a design file. It may be a connected data environment involved that is a collection of those sources of truth of information. A digital twin should not be a source of truth. It's a view of truth. You can also look at it at a single pane of glass. That's another descriptive term we like to use. The digital twin needs to be a federation of all the relevant information and data sources wherever they reside, brought together into this single pane of glass. It would be a losing proposition to say that data needed to move somewhere else in order to create a digital twin and, and we chatted about that earlier in this discussion as well.
Adam Klatzkin: Generally, we're talking about three types of data sources across an asset life cycle and the connections that might be formed: ET, IT and OT. Data coming from engineering technologies, informational technologies, and operational technologies. The digital twin needs to federate all of this to make information easily accessible in that single pane of glass for immersive visualization, for analytics, for improved decision making. So those are the types of connections and data sources that we're we're talking about. And, you know, just to give you some examples, engineering is definitely obvious, but we say OT operational data, we're talking about data coming from IOT feeds, sensors, cameras, etc. And informational or IT data, we're talking about data coming from asset registries, maintenance records and inspection records, and such.
Host: For a digital twin to work, does everyone have to be playing the game or can a team work if one member doesn't play?
Adam Klatzkin: So, sure it can work if one member doesn't play. I guess it depends on the team you're referring to. Are you referring to the engineering team? Which team do you have in mind?
Host: The project team, I guess would be, with all the different players that need to collaborate. To go back to our earlier example, to build a bridge, if one of the designers or one of the constructors decides not to play, can it still work?
Adam Klatzkin: It can still work. The value is only going to be great as the data that has been federated into the twin. So, if there are members that are keeping data out of it. There will be constraints on maximizing the value of all of the asset data in creating that digital representation of a physical thing you're trying to design and build. But it's absolutely still viable. And actually, our premise is to get started easily and quickly with the data you have at hand. There are use cases that can be developed out around it and you'll recognize more value as more data is connected into the system.
Host: Another thing that that you had in your documents, which was sort of an intriguing statement, was that opportunity and optimism are the value that a digital twin can bring to the infrastructure industry. I was struck by the word optimism as well as opportunity. What are you saying there?
Adam Klatzkin: We're seeing digital twins really present a new business opportunity for engineering services firms that have been exciting, exciting to us and exciting to them. And I say this anecdotally, from the many conversations I and our teams here have had with these accounts. We're talking to many that see it as a way to create new business opportunities and to deal with challenges such as an aging workforce, the labor shortage, shrinking profit margins, etc. There's an opportunity not just to do things more effectively and efficiently, but also an opportunity to create a new business model where they start delivering digital twin services to clients and therefore expand more into operations and maintenance, particularly from a data perspective. So to create that digital twin hand it over, but also maintain it into the future because it doesn't magically maintain itself.
Adam Klatzkin: There's effort involved in curating and continuing to grow the connections of information that may be accessible or pop up over time into this digital twin. So these firms are looking at the opportunity to kind of maximize the value of all of the owner's data into operations, provide digital leadership and transformation to the owner during operations. And they're really focused on following that data and maximizing the value of it over the entire asset life cycle. Pace pays dividends for the entire life of that asset. And the reality is somebody is going to do this. As I said, 33% of the penetration to date is being driven by owners. They're interested. So someone is going to do it. Who else is better situated than the engineering firms that have created the content. They understand the data best. It really distinguishes them from a run-of-the-mill systems integrator that's going to raise their hand and fill that void if nobody else is there to do it. So that is what is generating a lot of the opportunity and optimism around the value of digital twins beyond just the efficiencies that they'll introduce to existing processes in engineering.
Host: And I would think another benefit of that would be you're maintaining the relationship with that client after the project is over. And that maintaining that relationship opens you up for potential business opportunities with that client in the long term.
Adam Klatzkin: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes.
Host: For firms looking to use a digital twin, Bentley recommends being flexible. What do you mean by being flexible in this context?
Adam Klatzkin: There are certainly multiple perspectives from which to look at flexibility. One is we have to recognize that digital twins are emerging technology. This is not a mature solution that's been in the market for years. This is something that is being developed at cloud speed at the moment. And that comes with the recognition that change is going to happen quickly. The services that Bentley is pushing out, this isn't an old school product that's going through monolithic releases once a year. We're pushing out new functionality on a regular basis, fixes and new functionality. So there has to be flexibility from an organization's perspective in how to keep on top and to learn and to increase their maturity with this technology as new capabilities are introduced. So flexibility to learn and pick up quickly what's coming out.
Adam Klatzkin: The second aspect I'd say for flexibility is in the use cases, scenarios and connections that you may establish and use. The digital twin is a Swiss army knife of sorts, so there are different things that you could consider and benefits that could be recognized and you should have flexibility in continuously evaluating those and your benefits over time. The third is, as I said earlier, we have an open-source platform for digital twins that we call iModel js. It's a development platform. Many engineering firms have their own in-house development teams, and if you do, so you should have the flexibility in those teams, evaluating the platform, leveraging how you might develop out automation integrations to bespoke systems or other systems if you have them, and new tooling you could add, even creating your own IP around the digital twin using this platform.
Adam Klatzkin: And then the last thing I'll say about flexibility is it's great to have a vision and a long-term plan, but don't focus on conquering the world from day one. You can get started quickly and easily with a digital twin on some scenarios and use cases that will bring immediate benefits. Find those lighthouse projects, get started, and understand the technology. And the long-term plan will certainly come out of that. But as this technology is emerging, things are going to change and you have to have the flexibility to adapt.
Host: In talking about this technology changing, you used the term "cloud speed." It's a rapidly changing technology. Where do you see it going in the next few years, beyond growing rapidly?
Adam Klatzkin: I'm most excited about is the potential, if I hone in on one, is the potential for machine learning. The amount of data that will be collected within the digital twin, due to all of the changes, everything that's being connected into the digital twin is going to make it very easy to take some things that may previously have required a lot of manual effort and to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning in order to do those. Particularly I'm interested in the lessons learned that can be gleaned from a portfolio of projects and applying those to future projects. Identifying trends and patterns that resulted in mistakes or cost increases or safety incidents and leveraging machine learning to flag future projects as those types of scenarios come up again and to flag those in advance and provide early indicators.
Adam Klatzkin: But there is tons of opportunity for machine learning against this technology. That's certainly an area where I see this going in the next few years and it's going to add tremendous value. And the last thing I'll add there is, going back to the previous question on flexibility and where this is moving, it is incredibly important to get started quickly. Because there are many organizations that have already adopted. And if you have concerns and decide to let others lead the way and figure it out before you do, you're going to be left behind. And the potential business implications and benefits of changing business models around digital twins, if you miss the mark there, it could be catastrophic for your firm. So I really encourage everyone to start taking a look at digital twins, find that low hanging fruit, find those lighthouse projects and get started now.
Host: Well, I would agree with you after having listened to what these are and learning so much. It seems to me to be the future. I really appreciate your taking the time to speak with us. Thank you so much.
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
ACEC Coalitions Update
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
Engineering Influence sat down with Matt Murello and Kevin Peterson to get an update on ACEC Coalitions.
Transcript:
Host: Welcome to another edition of Engineering Influence, a Podcast by the American Council of Engineering companies. Today we are very happy to bring you an coalition update and to give us an update on what's happening in coalitions we welcome coalitions Chair, Kevin Peterson. He's president and CEO of P2S Incorporated out of long beach, California and coalition Chair-elect, Matt Murello, president of Louis S. Goodfriend and Associates. He's out of Chester, New Jersey. So welcome to you both and one of who, kind of start off with a update on advocacy and the coalitions, what's happening in advocacy.
Kevin: Thank you, Jeff. This is Kevin. And currently we're developing our 2020 coalition advocacy agenda in consultation with the ACEC advocacy and external affairs department. We're happy to report that our coalitions continue to be strong contributors to the ACEC PAC. Last year we were represented 55% of the total PAC dollars from our members, up a couple percentage points from the previous year.
Host: And that's really good news. The PAC is one of our strongest tools to advocate our position so that is good news. From the membership side of the coin, where are things looking at coalitions?
Matt: Thanks Jeff. This is Matt Murello. And so every year, one of our coalitions or sometimes too, we have a recruitment drive, which is steered by the the ExCom of that coalition. And this year we started a new drive for the geo professionals coalition in November, netted 16 new members. And we also implemented a recruitment drive for both CAMEE, COPS and Land Development, which got us six more community volunteers. So we're looking forward to continuing to increase our numbers. I believe we're up by another 2% this year. And continuing to spread the word of the value of coalitions.
Host: That's fantastic. That's, that's, that's key because membership into the coalitions, it's easier than people think. And we need to get the word out there for ACEC members that it doesn't take much to join. And recruitment efforts like that, recruitment drives are critically important to start getting more people involved. And one of the benefits one of the benefits once you are a member is education which is another big area that we're looking to work on. So what's happening with education sessions with coalitions and events?
Kevin: So let me, let me update you on what we did in the 2019 fall conference in Chicago and coalition sponsored seven education sessions. We had also had five member round tables during that conference. In terms of, in between conferences. At the end of this week we have our 2020 small firm coalition winter meeting, taking place in Dallas focusing on leadership at all levels. We expect that to be a very successful event and later this month we'll have our 2020 coalition winter member meeting that's going to be held February 27th and 28th in New Orleans. And it really will be exploring the future of design software technologies. And a lot of our coalitions are also doing ExCom meetings. At that meeting. So it should be a very successful event right after Mardi Gras.
Host: Ah, that's, that's a perfect time to be down there right after the party stops. When you can actually move around and registration, I understand us is now open for that winter meetings, is that correct?
Kevin: It is. And, and they can find the registration link on, on the ACEC website.Host: Fantastic. Publications are another area that we really focus in on. It's, it kinda builds off of the education piece. Have there been any updates on publications in the coalitions?
Matt: Yeah, there has. And you know, you hit the nail on the head when you talk about one of the distinct advantages to being a member of the coalitions and with all the coalitions being in one group a membership to any one of the coalitions allows you access to all of these documents. And if anyone from ACEC were to purchase them and were not a member of the coalitions, it would cost thousands of dollars. And the, the documents are constantly being updated since July 1st we have a seven new or seven documents, four that have been updated and three new ones. The new ones are come from our CASE and new Geoprofessionals Coalition on lessons learned as well as commentary of the ASCE design procedures and health and safety plan checklist. So this is a process that's always going. We usually have between five and 10 updated or new per year and we're continuing moving in that direction. We also have in November-December Engineering, Inc., we featured our coalition leaders talking about prospects in resiliency, changes in leadership and climate change. So we're, we're out there our leaders are out there and talking about industry trends.
Host: Yeah, that's a really good point Matt, because like you said, if you went off and you tried to source these publications on your own and you tried to buy them or, or just find them somewhere it would get expensive really quickly. And being a member of the coalitions gives you that amazing library of content that if you are a sole practitioner or a small firm and you're trying to get your leadership educated and you're trying to figure out, you know, different business strategies or contracts, you know, the coalitions just gives you a treasure trove of material that you can just get access to, which is just so beneficial.
Matt: Yeah. And Jeff, I mean, most of our most of our publications that come from the coalitions may be practice oriented. So you know, if they're for structural engineers or for the mechanical electrical group but a good chunk of them, I would say probably close to a quarter of them are business centered. So if you are, like you said, a small firm and you're looking for that HR document or you're looking for a basic on how to basic contracts and setting up a new office or some employee handbook issues, chances are somebody has already spent the time and capital in putting something that you might be able to at least make as a starting point as opposed to trying to reinvent the wheel. And it's, it's an invaluable resource for coalitions we find.
Host: And then I guess the last part is operations and how everything's being structured. Have there been any operational changes within the the coalition structure to note?
Kevin: One thing to note is when we started out coalitions years ago, some of those were councils to begin with. And we decided late last year that we wanted to have our, a consistent branding across our coalition. So the ones that had council in their name, we've, we've officially now renamed them to coalitions. So coalitions will appear everywhere in our branding and counsel is now being put to put the rest. We also last year recognized Mike Snyder from Dewberry as a recipient of our sixth annual Coalition Distinguished Service Award. That's something that we give out every year at the fall conference.
Host: All right. So that was kind of the top list of materials and things going on with coalitions. Is there anything else going on you guys want to add? A kind of free fire zone here about coalitions or, or anything you want to get across to our audience? Being our, our the leaders of our ACEC coalitions?
Kevin: This is Kevin and I, I would just recommend that anyone who's a member of ACC and especially new members who join, if they have any questions related to coalitions that they please reach out and they can find our contact information on the website. They can also contact Heather at ACEC headquarters. We're more than willing to share some of our personal experience in dealing with coalitions and how it's benefited our own organizations.
Host: Wonderful. Well, I want to thank you both for taking some time out of your day. And thanks again for giving us an update on ACEC Coalitions. It's all good news across the board and we're looking at growth and expanding our footprint of our coalitions in 2020. And thank you for being on the show and look forward to having you on again soon.