At the 2024 NCSEA Summit, the NCSEA Foundation’s AI Advisory & AI Grant Teams spoke on AI technology and adoption through a series of presentations, panel discussions, and education sessions.
- KP Reddy opened the Summit with a Keynote address empowering engineers for influence in an age where AI changes everything. His presentation equipped the SE profession to understand the impact of AI for the AEC industry, and understanding the future of business.
- The Keynote was followed by a Panel Discussion with KP Reddy, Rob Otani, and Zak Kostura focusing on the transformative role of AI in structural engineering, including trends, future impacts, and the importance of adopting a mindset and strategy that makes AI effective. A follow-up panel discussion the next day also included attorney Stephen Litchfield, who spoke to the risk and responsibility issues surrounding the use of data and incorporating AI into processes and deliverables.
- The AI Grant Team hosted two Conversation Starters during breaks in the Exhibit Hall. Attendees gathered around to meet the team, and asked detailed questions about the NCSEA Strategic Plan for AI, and about resources for getting started with AI in their own professional practice.
- The AI Grant Team delivered a presentation on Getting Started with AI in Structural Engineering. The standing-room only audience learned why an AI policy is important for their firms, basic technical details behind large language models and machine learning, how to use their own data with currently available AI platforms, how to identify internal professional education needs based on their goals for AI adoption, and familiarity with SE-specific tools available now.
Over the next few months, the AI Grant Team will be posting tutorial material for the examples presented at the Summit. The team is also planning to give presentations at local SEAs both in-person and virtual, with the intention of initiating more local discussions and collaboration over AI technology.