Perspectives
Jack Kavanagh is leading an effort to make municipal data work harder. As the open data lead at Smart Dublin, a joint initiative of the Irish capital’s four local authorities, Kavanagh manages a portal that...
Perspectives Recent Articles
Kevin Carmody has seen the future of infrastructure — sometimes quite literally. During his 15 years as a juror of the Going Digital Awards, he has reviewed cutting-edge engineering reshaping our cities and infrastructure. The innovations include a building designed...
A century ago, astronomer Percival Lowell caused a global stir by claiming he saw a network of canals on Mars, supposedly built by intelligent builders. He was so convincing that Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, told his wife...
There’s a discreet charm to drawbridges, and Florida is the perfect place to experience it. The state boasts 50 drawbridges along the Intracoastal Waterway alone, including the picturesque Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, which has served locals and visitors...
Everybody’s caught the “Fever”. From Peggy Lee, Elvis Presley and James Brown, to Billie Eilish and Beyoncé, the list of stars who’ve covered the R&B hit first released in 1956 by Little Willie John reads like a who’s-who of rock...
For some people, lightning strikes more than once. Such was the case for Keith Bentley with MicroStation, the computer-aided design (CAD) software behind some of the world’s most ambitious infrastructure projects—from bridges and buildings to airports and power plants. MicroStation...
Some of the most famous inventions were happy accidents. In 1827, English pharmacist John Walker was puttering around at home when he clumsily scraped a chemical-coated stick across his hearth, which burst into flames, sparking the idea for the friction...
Five brothers enamored with computers and their potential pursued a bold idea to create software that could revolutionize how engineers design and build things. They spent the last four decades developing engineering software that has helped shape infrastructure around the...
The London skyline is hard to pin down. Turn your back on it even briefly and another skyscraper seems to pop up. It’s not an illusion. The Standard newspaper reports that every 10 days, on average, another 20-story-plus building gets...
If you haven’t heard the news yet, Bentley Systems has acquired Cesium, the foundational open platform for creating powerful 3D geospatial applications. The acquisition brings together the leading open platforms and developer communities for the built and natural environment. However,...
