Digital Engineering & Advisory
Connecting with clients to support them in building, transforming, and optimising their assets with digital ways of working.
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Digital engineering is the art of creating, capturing and integrating data using a digital skillset.
From drawings to simulations and 3D models, engineers are increasingly using advanced technologies to capture data and craft design in a digitised environment. Through progressive applications, the art of digital engineering enables designers to explore possibilities and develop innovative solutions in a virtual environment.
While 3D models are considered as the most comprehensible form of digital engineering, it is the computable data behind the model that opens the window to vast possibilities and opportunities. Once the design is finished, the digital information can be utilised by the construction and operations teams, allowing them to unlock its potential by manipulating the data for their advantage and for the community they are building for.
Digital engineers must keep up with the digital trends and make it a habit to explore and learn about them. With unabated development in digital solutions underway, they should aim to be up to date with the new technologies, and learn how to spot opportunities that can help in improving the design, construction and operations process.
Coding and scripting is a great skill to nurture. While IT professionals may be better at coding, engineers can provide a better understanding on how to apply it for design. As the barriers of non-interoperable design applications are fast being eroded through application programming interfaces (API), digital engineers should step up and take advantage of its benefits.
Digitisation is not all about maths or science. It is important to acknowledge that soft skills are important too. Since clients may not always understand the technical aspects of building information modelling or simulations, digital engineers must bridge that gap through effective communication and collaboration – they must tell the story of digital engineering.
To create holistic and effective designs, digital teams composed of members with diverse backgrounds may be the key to make sense and maximise the potential of the digital revolution. The aim must be to get different kinds of expertise and specialisation into a team, as this will be most valuable in developing progressive design solutions for users.
Long before drones, 3D laser scans, and advanced computer applications came to the fore, engineers had to do a lot of meticulous tasks manually from research to project completion. Designs were created on drawing boards. People power was needed on site for long hours to either capture data, monitor progress and to deliver the project.
But digital changes the way we undertake the process of design.
To create buildings of the future, engineers employ high-level data capture and digital design. Across the construction cycle, engineers are changing their tools from analogue to digital. They are using new technologies to provide services with greater even accuracy and scope to innovate.
Today, designs are created in a digital environment, enabling engineers to examine and test which designs will work best and which won’t. BIM creates room to innovate, challenge ideas and iterate design solutions, without having to worry about potential cost if the design needs to be reworked or tweaked.
But more than using high-tech gadgets and tools, digital engineering means working in a safer environment. With the help of drones and other smart tech gadgets, engineers can avoid going to potentially dangerous and risky situations. Observations can be gathered, time spent in potentially high-risk environments is minimised and safety in design solutions created to protect workforces delivering projects.
Not all clients are engineers or can understand the language of engineers. At times, technical jargon can impinge collaboration during the planning stage, simply because clients may not fully understand how design solutions will work in the real world.
Using digital technologies like virtual reality, clients are provided with a glimpse of what the project will look like before it’s built, letting them see and experience not only how the design will be delivered but also how it will function. Clients can better understand the implications of design changes and improvements, and then provide input with their own expertise on how the building or infrastructure project will be used and should be designed in a human-centred way.
Aside from close collaboration with clients, going digital also paves the way for better and effective communications and stakeholder engagement with the project’s end users. The same way with client engagement, smart technologies and virtual reality can explain to the public how the project will assist them, affect them and improve the lives of their community.
The future is unpredictable. If there’s anything that big data, the internet of things (IoT), and artificial technology are telling us, it’s that this is just the beginning.
Digitalisation has provided businesses and organisations with a better view of what the future could look like with the endless possibilities being offered by technology. There are still a lot of things that we can explore, a huge amount data to utilise, and a lot of information to uncover. Digital tools and platforms allow us to push design parameters and to engage more deeply with stakeholders so that we can design a better future.
Connecting with clients to support them in building, transforming, and optimising their assets with digital ways of working.
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