Generative AI Use Cases For Geoprofessionals and Structural Engineers-Generative AI Use Cases for Geoprofessionals and Structural Engineers Recording

Video Transcription

Video Summary

ACEC hosted an online education session titled “Generative AI Use Cases for Geo-Professionals and Structural Engineers,” featuring HNTB speakers Eric Zucker (structural engineer/bridge technology lead) and Jesse Newberry (principal design solutions, former MassDOT technology leader). The session aimed to move beyond hype and software promotion to show practical, engineer-relevant uses of generative AI, including 10 use cases and a live demo.<br /><br />Zucker framed the need for new tools by describing rapid changes affecting engineering assumptions—globalized shipping, extreme weather, evolving freight patterns, and outdated design-load data—while new public datasets (USCG vessel tracking, NOAA rainfall, truck weigh-in-motion) create opportunities for better risk quantification. He emphasized AI’s limitations (hallucinations, inconsistent reasoning, “jagged edges”) and recommended using AI primarily at the beginning (drafting/starting) and end (reviewing) of workflows, always with human verification. He also highlighted AI as a tutor for skills like Python, Excel formulas, and adjacent-domain learning.<br /><br />Newberry covered security best practices (avoid confidential/PII, use enterprise tools, MFA, permissions) and demonstrated a MassDOT-approved RAG chatbot that indexes policies/procedures in SharePoint, cites sources, and helps staff onboard faster by generating guidance and checklists. Pilot feedback was positive, with estimated operating cost around $3,400/month and strong perceived ROI.<br /><br />The presenters also discussed recent advances—reasoning models, deep research, agents, and vision—showing examples like interpreting drawings, extracting consolidation plot data with human-in-the-loop validation, and enabling large-scale analytics on massive transportation datasets.

Keywords

Generative AI

Geo-professionals

Structural engineering

Bridge engineering

Engineering workflows

Risk quantification

Public transportation datasets

RAG chatbot

SharePoint policy indexing

AI security best practices