Digital skills for future engineers

Peter Debney discusses digital technology and how it has transformed structural engineering over the past 50 years and what the future holds for engineering design and practice.

The construction industry needs a shake-up and that shake-up has now arrived. PropTech or ConTech refers to the digital transformation of the construction industry. With that transformation, two tectonic shifts are about to occur: it will become the greatest time in history to be an engineer; and the master architect will return.

This paper presents strategies, based on advances in computational structural design and digital fabrication, to take on the challenge of an increasing world population, offering opportunities for a necessary disruptive change.