Top innovations from the nation's largest engineering firms

Of the 108 engineering and engineering/architecture (EA) firms that participated in BD+C’s 2024 Giants 400 survey, 59 firms provided details on their top innovations and technology enhancements from the past 12 months. Here’s a roundup of the most compelling innovations and tech advancements from the 2024 Engineering Giants (in alpha order):

Alfa Tech Consulting Engineers is involved in designing industrial facilities for alternate fuel sources such as hydrogen.

Arup used its software platform Zero to collect project information and whole lifecycle carbon assessments (WLCAs) over the last two years from more than 1,000 building design projects across 30 nations on five continents. Zero employs a data schema compatible with international WLCA standards to support consistent emissions data capture by trade across the world. This global database provides designers with the information they need to decarbonize.

Barge Design Solutions has invested resources to explore business applications for AI technology. The firm’s President and CEO Bob Higgins collaborated with Vanderbilt University’s Future of Learning and Generative AI Initiative to co-create “Generative AI for Leaders,” a three-module course designed to help AEC leaders learn how to use and apply AI in their industry for strategic growth. A recent AI success story at Barge involved using AI to enhance the firm’s recruiting materials and processes. By leveraging large language models, custom Chat GPT prompts, and proprietary tools, the firm has achieved a rapid rise in the number (and quality) of job candidates, including a 375% increase in interviews and hires for a hard-to-fill position.

BR+A Consulting Engineers is leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for geo-exchange projects. The firm is using this incentive to successfully make the financial case for projects that historically would not have considered geo-exchange, including higher education, life science, and healthcare projects. 

Burns & McDonnell introduced welding cobots to the fabrication shop of its construction subsidiary AZCO. “The advantage of the welding cobot is that it allows our fabrication welders to take on other tasks while the cobot is completing the work. With a massive welder shortage looming, we hope cobots such as these will help fill in the gaps. We have plans and a vision to move cobots to the field,” says the firm.

Burns Engineering is deploying pre-fabricated, modular central plants for major projects, including Orlando Health’s new 300-bed Wiregrass Ranch Hospital in Tampa, and the 360-bed Lakeland (Fla.) Hospital. This approach removes the critical path obstacle of bringing central utilities online and 100% ready for service. It provides a fully tested, commissioned, and certified central plant installed on site, before the hospital buildings finish construction.

CMTA has expanded its roster of clients–to 55–that are leveraging the direct pay option in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to help pay for decarbonization measures on public and non-profit projects, including 11 school districts and a healthcare system. “In total, we are tracking over $130 million to be distributed to our clients through IRA incentives over the next three years,” says the firm.

Cushing Terrell joined a group of 4,200 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half before 2030, achieving net-zero emissions before 2050, and disclosing its progress on a yearly basis. The SME Climate Commitment opens the door for SMEs to join the United Nations Race to Zero campaign.

Since the local water district imposed a ban on evaporative cooling for new development, water conservation has become an even larger topic of conversation in the Las Vegas building community. As part of the 2023 Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix, FEA Consulting Engineers designed an atmospheric water capture system to help recover evaporated cooling tower water for use in wetting down the racetrack.

French & Parrello Associates is rolling out a new learning management system called FPA Inspire. The platform will include credit tracking for licensing purposes, onboarding videos, education sessions, and the ability for supervisors to assign requirements to staff.

Garver created a new business line, Enterprise Solutions, to assist other internal teams and their clients for alternative project delivery methods such as construction manager/general contractor (CMGC), progressive design-build (PDB), and public-private partnerships (P3). This guidance has helped its clients access funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which generated opportunities for additional funding sources through new delivery requirements.

HEAPY promoted two colleagues and hired another to lead a dedicated sustainability, wellness, and resilience services group. The team offers, among other design and support services, funding consultation to help clients find additional financing and resources to offset the first cost for more significant investments in renewable energy and carbon reduction efforts.

IMEG launched an internal AI chatbot to aid in operational efficiency and drive process automation.

As part of its JB&B University in-house career development program, JB&B pairs learning with gamification, including live-hosted “game shows” and e-learning, which allows users to earn points and rewards, advance levels, and climb leaderboards.

Jensen Hughes is leveraging AI to read and analyze condition reports in the nuclear power generation industry. “Utilizing a combination of AI and our domain expertise, we trained a new tool to identify which incident reports were high-priority demanding human intervention and which reports did not require a person’s attention. This accelerated the ability of one of the world’s largest utility companies to process reports and significantly reduce costs in doing so.”

KCI Technologies launched BRYX, a model-as-a-service (MaaS) platform that offers ready-to-run machine learning, computer vision, and computational models for AEC firms looking to utilize AI tools without taking on the model development, training, and management work needed to build them from scratch. Among the four models available are RobotFlat, which is designed for use on robotic warehouse and distribution center projects that require critical-tolerance concrete floors to ensure optimal conditions for robotic systems, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Detection, which analyzes aerial construction site images and quickly detects and labels PPE used on site.

In February 2024, KLH Engineers unveiled several subscription-based software bundles for MEP engineering and model management. Designed to customize Autodesk Revit, the add-ins enable design teams to reduce modeling times, enhance quality, and increase profitability. Last year, the 141-person firm saved 16.5% of its direct cost of services by optimizing workflows and reducing design times with its in-house software tools.

LGE Design Build expanded its tenant improvement (TI) division to keep up with the demand for TI projects on existing buildings.

Magnusson Klemencic Associates developed a front end analysis model engine to allow its teams to more quickly build models, study permutations, and extract meaningful results—with the goal of providing clients with a more robust set of feedback on different lateral system options.

McLaren Engineering Group launched its Strategic Deep Dives business development program. It entails conducting in-depth market research across each of the firm’s target regions to identify trends, competitor activity, future capital projects, and unmet client needs. From the research, the firm creates detailed and region-specific playbooks that shape its business development plan for the next year. “So far, this shift has strongly impacted business development, digital strategies, pursuits, and proposals, while integrating internal teams,” according to the firm.

Osborn established an Advanced Technology Development Team to implement tech tools like AI and automation to optimize workflows and improve decision-making. 

Ramaker is using TestFit site modeling software to produce scaled, viable site capacity studies in minutes rather than hours or days. As an example, Ramaker’s development team used the software to quickly analyze over a dozen potential new-build industrial sites to see which, if any, would support the client’s needs. Ramaker’s team was able to create scaled capacity studies for each of those sites, and within two days was able to locate the ideal site for the client.

RTM Engineering Consultants expanded the integration of AI tools across multiple departments. AI-assisted tasks include code book search and comparison, automation within the firm’s design software, and enhancing cybersecurity measures.

Sener launched Hypogea, a retractable pitch system that is designed to maximize the use of the space taken up by the field of play in stadiums. The patented system has a set of mechanisms that position and move the trays that make up the playing field to an underground chamber (the hypogeum), which is outfitted with the groundskeeping facilities and systems (i.e., irrigation, ventilation, heating, lighting, and drainage) to keep the grass in playing condition.

SSOE Group launched a generative AI tool across the organization, Microsoft Edge Copilot. The secure chatbot tool leverages the power of AI to boost productivity, unlock creativity, help users understand information, and generate content. The firm is internally piloting Microsoft’s 365 Copilot for tools like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

Syska Hennessy Group appointed David Victor as its Innovations Manager. In his role, Victor will lead the charge in implementing AI and robotic process automation (RPAs) to enhance its operations. Also, the firm held its second “innovations ideation” event. More than 75 entries were submitted and several projects are now in development—in addition to 20-plus active innovation projects.

Thornton Tomasetti’s patented GreenBox climate-friendly floor cassette system performs like a concrete floor, but with less mass and a fraction of the embodied carbon, says the firm. The design combines a stiff timber structure with a proprietary filling that dampens vibration and improves fire performance. It can cut the embodied carbon in a building’s floors and frames by up to 40% compared to concrete or cross-laminated timber flooring.

In December 2023, aligned with COP28, WSP launched Are You Future Ready, a digital scenario planning challenge. This web-based, interactive facilitation tool turns the concepts from Alastair MacGregor’s book, Future Ready: Your Organization’s Guide to Rethinking Climate, Resilience, and Sustainability, into a scenario planning and client engagement exercise. The challenge creates a fun environment through which WSP can foster stronger relationships with clients while exploring how different strategies can be bundled together to achieve the multi-faceted goals of client organizations. The results? WSP has hosted 350 games with thousands of players across technical sectors, students and academia, organizational leadership and governments.