Jeff's 2023 Autodesk University AI and OpenUSD Cheat Sheet for AECO Professionals
With Autodesk University fast upon us, it can be hard to know which sessions to attend - there are nearly 700 of them to choose from! We all know AI and Machine Learning are going to transform the industry, but where do you start, and how can AI be leveraged in Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO)? I’ve manually combed through every session to extract the top AI sessions I think will be most interesting. There are also several cool sessions on OpenUSD that should be high on your list, as this powerful 3D ecosystem specification is now being championed by the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD), who’s founding members include Apple, Adobe, Autodesk, Pixar and NVIDIA If you are going to be at AU this year and are interested in AI or are already experimenting with AI in your firms, please reach out to me! I’d love to meet up in person while we’re there.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)
If you're excited about AI and have ideas about how it might apply to AutoCAD, join us for a discussion on insights, automation, and machine learning. We'll introduce AI technologies, learn how AutoCAD is currently using them to enhance your design workflows, and engage in an open discussion about how you would like to see AutoCAD leverage AI and machine learning.
Unlock the power of Generative AI in AEC! In this session, we'll ideate and envision unconventional solutions to address crucial challenges such as expressing design intents to AI models, training and personalizing your own AI, defining collaborative workflows, and establishing trust and fostering mutual learning with AI. Your contributions will shape the integration of generative models, optimizing your industry's practices. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of the innovation driving the AEC industry forward.
Join us for an exciting presentation on the intersection of ChatGPT and building information modeling (BIM) energy analysis in sustainable fractal design through the use of fractal patterns and structures in the design of buildings. Fractal architecture aims to create a functional connection between the built environment and the natural world, promoting a more sustainable and harmonious relationship between buildings and the earth’s complex ecological systems. In this talk, we’ll explore how machine-learning algorithms like ChatGPT can be integrated into fractal design to optimize building design for maximum energy efficiency and sustainability. We'll also discuss the potential that sustainable fractal design has to reduce a building's carbon footprint and improve indoor air quality.
As AI rapidly advances, we stand at the crossroads of AI's immense potential, and the risk and challenges it brings. How will this revolutionary technology affect our workflows and jobs? Join us to learn how the latest AI innovations can accelerate creativity, visualization, and simulation instead of replacing our skills. And get an inside look at experimental projects that transform co-creation between designers and AI.
As the relentless march of technology continues, it’s becoming increasingly imperative to explore the boundless possibilities and potential of AI. In this session, we’ll delve into the evolving landscape of AI, and examine the profound impact it has on industries and society as a whole. We’ll embark on a captivating journey that explores the innovative advancements in machine learning, deep neural networks, and natural language processing, among others. And we’ll highlight the real-world applications and transformative potential they offer. Renowned AI experts, industry pioneers, and forward-thinking professionals will share their insights, experiences, and strategies for harnessing the power of AI. The discussion will revolve around critical questions, such as: What’s next?
AS601596-L | Architects will save the world: simple AI tools to get to net zero in conceptual design
In this Lab, participants will use Forma to set up their own project and start designing and experimenting! We’ll cover how to use our rapid operational energy analysis to see and build intuition on the impact of compactness, orientation, and a few other basic building parameters on operation energy. We’ll dig into our AI-powered operational energy analysis to understand how a building’s form and primary materials impact energy consumption and subsequent carbon. We'll look at the tradeoff between these and other analyses—including sunlight, noise, UTCI and wind—to empower you to balance trade-offs and learn how to design in an informed outcome-based way. The built environment isn’t optimized for a single objective; you need all of this information in the same place, and with Forma you get that all in the browser. We'll also showcase how Forma is engineered for collaboration.
Discover how innovating with AI can easily and radically transform projects and collaboration. Whether it’s for early-stage planning, small and large-scale projects, urban development, or more, AI isn't just the future—it's changing the game today. Participants in our Design Thinking Activity will gather in small groups to discover how you might incorporate new methods or technologies into your business.
Decisions made in the earliest stages of design have the most impact on a building’s carbon footprint. Similarly, decisions made in the earliest stages of software development have outsized effects on its usability and adoption. Yet, carbon experts are generally brought into the design process too late to influence a building’s form and primary materials. And analysis tools usually target these experts, rather than the designers working in the early phases. Likewise, software users are often brought in when it’s too late to change the fundamental workflows the software is built around. In this talk, representatives from Forma and Stantec will cover how they’ve used their partnership to develop tools for all designers to bring carbon-focused design to the conceptual phase. They’ll showcase discovery work, prototype testing, and their plan for enabling sustainability-centered outcome-based design.
Building and infrastructure design and engineering fees have continued to constrict even as projects become more complex with stricter delivery requirements. Several design and engineering firms are in the process of remaking parts of their company to create a new way to deliver projects: Design Value-as-a-service. This panel of executives from ENR Top15 design firms will discuss how they are leveraging standard/repeatable workflows, big data, and human and artificial intelligence through process automations to create a new delivery paradigm that will revolutionize the engineering and design industry. Learn about the work being done on internal processes, data authoring, data processing, automation, and market analysis to determine how this may drive high quality project throughput at scale.
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Project stakeholders need to understand the state of their projects in a simple and easy-to-consume format. Autodesk Construction Cloud users can maximize the power of Construction IQ software to produce predictive insights and display the project analytics in a powerful but easy-to-understand dashboard with live links to the information. Construction IQ, with the help of machine learning, allows AEC teams to prioritize issues, and streamline and expedite decision making, thus improving the project delivery outcomes for all stakeholders. This presentation will showcase GHD’s use of machine learning within Construction IQ to surface the data on safety and quality, enabling the resolution of issues before they become critical on site. Through this session, you’ll better understand how to implement Construction IQ on your project today, gaining insights into projects that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
Generative AI is fundamentally disrupting design and make industries. Imagine a day when 90% of all design effort could be automated and simplified just as design and make tools and platforms are becoming more accessible to more people. In this session we’ll discuss how AI impacts product development methods, design and make workflows, user experiences and team structures, and even business models. Although we encourage enrollment for the Theater, seating will be based on a first come, first served basis.
Recent news of AI advances have us all wondering how our professions will change. Committed to driving future-ready innovation, WSP Digital Solutions engaged with Autodesk Research to explore the potential of AI-assisted automated structural design after seeing a prototype at Autodesk University 2019. In this class, you’ll see how we worked together to understand the technology’s promise and how to use it effectively. We’ll describe the possible benefits we identified, from more-meaningful, agile engagements with architects in early design phases through assistive technology that automates away tedious tasks and helps explore more options ("rapid optioneering"), to surfacing sustainability trade-offs when most impactful decisions can be made. And we’ll share how our unique collaboration came to be, and how you too can engage with Autodesk to prepare for and shape the future of work and the world of tomorrow.
The success of all construction projects and the health of the industry relies heavily on the capacity to obtain fair contracts. Whether you’re a small team, or a large national firm with in-house legal counsel, understanding the complexities and negotiating fair contract terms with increasingly tightening deadlines is a risky and challenging task. In this presentation, Josh Levy—a veteran of construction law and CEO of Document Crunch, an AI-assisted contract intelligence platform built for construction—will show how firms can maximize data to quickly understand, track, and negotiate fairer contract terms. By capitalizing on the insights obtained by the data, construction professionals are empowered to make timelier, better-informed decisions that help improve project performance and profitability.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot that OpenAI developed and released in November 2022 with an $11+ billion investment from Microsoft. Going from a prototype we developed during an Autodesk Hackathon, you’ll learn how you can use ChatGPT to create modeling objects or take action on your existing model design by either voice or text input. You will also get a chance to hear firsthand about the benefits and challenges we learned while integrating this developing technology into a flagship application.
Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) are bringing disruption across industries, changing the way we create images, text, and code. Within theAEC industry, these tools will transform the design and construction process. Professionals in AEC must stay informed of this fast-moving technology to remain competitive and aware of the innovative design-and-make software. TileGPT is an LLM-powered prototype developed within Autodesk Research to generate optimized designs using intuitive and flexible text-based input. This session will cover the technical capabilities of this generative AI system, which uses optimization to enable rapid design exploration. It presents example use cases within AEC design, including performance-driven generation of building massing, site design, facade layouts, and more.
Meetups are casual networking opportunities designed to help you find like-minded people and make meaningful connections. Join intelligence leaders from the Autodesk Construction team to connect and share and insights. We’ll begin with an icebreaker outlining the major categories of AI in construction and collect your input on use cases and favorite tools of the trade. Then we’ll move to networking discussions sharing your successes, challenges, or new ideas. We can break up into small groups or choose to continue a casual, open conversation.
OpenUSD / AOUSD
Creating movies involves a lot of work, including delivering productions with increasingly impressive special effects and realistic computer-generated scenes, all while meeting tight deadlines and compressed budgets. Collaboration and efficiency are essential as complexity increases. This talk will use real-life examples from the film and game industries to show how open technologies can help clients improve collaboration and efficiency while providing strategic benefits for enterprises contributing to these open technologies.
As a 3D generalist working in architecture, engineering, construction, or manufacturing, it's essential to understand Universal Scene Description (USD). USD is quickly becoming the industry standard for data exchange between different software applications. It offers a powerful and efficient way to manage large and complex 3D scenes, allowing for better collaboration between different departments, and reducing the risk of errors during the production pipeline. In addition, USD enables the creation of real-time workflows using original source data, allowing for faster iteration and feedback. With the rise of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), distributed computing, and cloud data aggregation, USD's importance will only increase. A strong understanding of USD will empower 3D generalists to work more efficiently and effectively with multiple data sources between different teams.
It’s 2023 and you’ve been wondering “WTF is USD?” You’re not alone! Software never stops evolving, and it's easy to feel left behind when new tech enters the scene. Funny enough, that's exactly what USD is aiming to address. USD is an open-source initiative, meaning it is being built in a public-facing manner, without any single company claiming ownership of its development. Rather, multiple companies share the same vision—a world where sharing production assets among programs is consistent, reliable, and easy. In this class you'll learn USD’s origin, where it’s currently at in the Media & Entertainment Industry, where it’s headed, and how these techniques and technologies add benefit to any industry pipeline.
Partner at TILTPIXEL
1ySee you at AU!