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The Joy of Not Knowing: Inside One Professor’s Quest To Rethink Engineering for the Age of AI and Open Data

Tomas Ward isn’t your typical computer science professor. A self-described “noob,” Ward heads up data analytics at the School of Computing at Dublin City University and serves as site director of Insight, one of Ireland’s largest AI research centers. But it’s not titles that drive him—it’s tinkering. Ward is a champion of curiosity, experimentation, and joyful failure. Whether organizing maker festivals or encouraging students to dive headfirst into hands-on urban tech challenges, Ward sees data and technology as tools for collective experimentation and progress. To him, a smart city isn’t just a city that uses data; it’s one where citizens shape their environment through access, openness, and play. We caught up with Ward in June during the first Urban Tech Challenge organized at DCU by Bentley System, the global infrastructure engineering software company. The hackathon brought together students, academics, and technologists to find solutions to real urban problems. We talked about how he teaches, how he learns, what he wants every student to take away, and why open data is critical to smart city innovation. Bentley: Why are events like the Urban Tech Challenge important for students, for DCU, and for Dublin? Tomas Ward: I’m a big fan of the

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Turning Points: Inside the Eureka Moments and Game-Changing Insights that are Rewriting the Rules Infrastructure

Infrastructure isn’t quick to evolve. Its sheer scale, cost, and complexity can make change painfully slow. But every so often, a person, an idea, or a tool cuts through – shifting how people see, plan, or act. Sometimes it’s a light bulb moment; other times, it’s a slow burn that catches fire. This is a collection of those turning points from across the Bentley Systems ecosystem – stories where possibility triumphed over inertia, and digital technology became a catalyst for change. 1. EchoWater’s $400 Million Saving What changed? Digital twins proved their worth in billion-dollar public works. The moment: Stakeholders on the billion-dollar upgrade to California’s EchoWater wastewater treatment facility weren’t convinced that modeling the construction process digitally would help them deliver the project on schedule and avoid cost overruns. So Jeff Campbell and Serelle Corn, the married co-founders of Project Controls Cubed, used Bentley’s SYNCHRO software to create a 4D animation of the project, on their own time and dime. During their presentation and just 30 seconds into their video, the stakeholders spotted a critical  flaw in the construction sequence that would have cost tens of millions to fix if it had been caught too late. Just like that,

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AI for Earth: How Google and its Partners Use Tech to Predict Disasters, Cut Warming, and Fix Streets

At Google AI for the Planet, an event recently held during London Climate Action Week in the British capital, Google’s global leaders in sustainability came together to explore a pressing question: How can artificial intelligence (AI) help us create a more sustainable, resilient planet? From wildfire prediction and food security to eliminating the aircraft contrails that contribute to global warming, this brisk three-hour event covered a lot of ground and left attendees with a sharpened sense of what’s possible. For the audience of about 200 people, drawn from across academia, nongovernmental organizations, industry, and policymakers, the key message was clear. “No single organization, no single technology, can address challenges of this magnitude,” said Kate Brandt, Google’s chief sustainability officer. “Collaboration is absolutely essential.” Kate Brandt by: Sean O’Neill That spirit of collaboration extended to a group of Google partners that were invited to share the stage. Chris Bradshaw, chief sustainability and education officer at Bentley Systems, the infrastructure engineering software company, stepped up to highlight how Bentley’s mobility analytics group, Blyncsy, is partnering with Google Street View to help cities better monitor and manage their streets using AI. The partnership is already transforming roadway inspections using AI to analyze imagery

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The Engineer Who Saw the Future: Remembering David Settlemyer Who Took a Pay Cut to Follow a Groundbreaking Hunch

David Settlemyer had a distinct knack for making the impossible seem inevitable. Armed with a Southern drawl and an arsenal of folksy colloquialisms — “as useful as socks on a rooster” was a favorite — the Kannapolis, North Carolina native could sell a room of skeptical engineers or investors on a future they’d never dared to imagine. That future included one where artificial intelligence would automate laborious civil site design work—or, as Settlemyer put it, letting “an engineer be an engineer, not a drafter.” That vision turned out to be his life’s work, legacy, and ultimately, parting gift to an industry he was deeply passionate about. Settlemyer, Bentley Systems’ senior product manager for civil engineering, passed away in April from cancer at the age of 54. His baby was OpenSite+, the groundbreaking, AI-powered engineering software that helps civil engineers design land development sites up to 10 times faster than traditional methods and with greater accuracy. “David was a brilliant engineer who, like an artist, could project into the future and envision the value a tool could create while maintaining an understanding of current reality,” says Francois Valois, senior vice president of Open Applications at Bentley Systems. “Usually engineers are very

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Landscape Artists: How HNTB is Using Cesium to Bring Infrastructure Projects to Life

Some engineering marvels were once highly controversial projects. As the Empire State Building grew above Manhattan during the Great Depression, many New Yorkers complained that the iconic Art Deco skyscraper was a waste of money. Throughout the 1990s, security-conscious Brits chafed about the Channel Tunnel, the undersea rail link between the U.K. and France. Even the Eiffel Tower upset Parisian salons, with the writer Guy de Maupassant eating his lunch on the wrought-iron tower to avoid looking at it.    The polarization over major engineering projects could soon be a relic of the past. Firms can now harness cutting-edge technology for their proposals to build stunning visualizations, which help to get communities onside before the laying of a single brick. Kansas City-based infrastructure giant HNTB is now using Cesium, the foundational open platform for creating powerful 3D geospatial applications that is now part of Bentley Systems, to render photorealistic landscapes around their highway, bridge, and interchange designs. HNTB teams are now publishing the sumptuous simulations online and garnering mountains of insightful feedback.   https://youtu.be/zm0Yz2NU4a4 A Community Service Dave Willard, who heads up HNTB’s Immersive Media Solutions unit, explains how interactive media and visualizations are raising the bar on public engagement.

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Reconstructing Reality: This Scientist is Teaching Machines to See in 3D

A blood-red helicopter swooped low over a French village at the foot of Mont Blanc, dangling what looked like a miniature wrecking ball.  Renaud Keriven feared that his enthusiasm for the project – for the chance to change how we see and study the world – had led him into a career-ending faux pas. “It was insane. Completely unauthorized,” he recalls. “But if we hadn’t been a little crazy, nothing would have happened.” That “wrecking ball” was a 50-kilogram sphere stuffed with 25 cameras – an improvised aerial capture system designed to photograph the village from every angle. In just three minutes, Keriven and his fellow guerilla researchers from École des Ponts ParisTech had captured what they needed. A full week of computation later, the result was a detailed 3D model of the entire village. “It felt fantastic,” says Keriven.   That was in the late 2000s, the swashbuckling beginnings of “reality capture.” Today, Keriven is a distinguished engineer at Bentley Systems, the infrastructure engineering software company, helping shape the future of digital infrastructure and infrastructure digital twins. But his mission remains unchanged: to teach machines how to make visual sense of the world – and reconstruct it in 3D. What

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A View of The Future: Visiting Pau, the French City With a Digital Twin That’s Showing the World What’s Possible

The French poet Alphonse de Lamartine famously proclaimed that the city of Pau in the southwest of France has “the most beautiful view of the Earth, just as Naples has the most beautiful view of the sea.” He was talking about the snow-capped mountains of the Pyrenees, which stretch high across the horizon to the south of the city. In fact, the view is so beautiful, that it is part of France’s national heritage and safeguarded by a national decree called Horizons Palois. It’s now also protected by the latest digital technology. They have built a digital twin of the entire city to help it improve operations, planning, and public trust. So when city officials showed residents the project plan for the “Rives des Gaves” and the famous Boulevard des Pyrénées, with its  protected view, they didn’t rely on, static drawings and 100-page reports. The digital twin allowed residents to explore, interact, and see—all in 3D—exactly how the skyline project integrated into the landscape without affecting Pau’s scenic skyline in any way.  Software and Sustainability Pau’s digital twin is a great example. It sits at the heart of city planning and operations. Municipal departments use it to simulate traffic scenarios, manage utility networks, model architectural projects, track

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From Earth to Orbit: First Cesium Developer Conference Lands in Philly to Explore the Future of 3D Geospatial Tech, Digital Twins, and Open Data Innovation

Philadelphia can claim a variety of firsts — from where the first general-purpose digital computer was built to being home to the country’s first botanical garden. Let’s add another one: Hosting the inaugural Cesium Developer Conference, an event that brings together a robust community of professionals, builders, and innovators shaping the future of geospatial technology. The 2025 Cesium Developer Conference, running June 23-25, will bring together a community of experts to share and build on their knowledge in a field that is transforming the modern world. Geospatial technology is integral to everything from predicting extreme weather and tracking real-time traffic to mapping critical infrastructure, monitoring construction sites, managing underground utilities, and responding to natural disasters. Using location-specific data and high-fidelity imaging, the geospatial industry is projected to reach $1.2 trillion in sales by 2030. The Philadelphia gathering, hosted by Cesium, Bentley Systems’ geospatial company, also underscores the huge potential of an open geospatial ecosystem, where developers, users, and vendors seamlessly exchange data to collaboratively drive innovative solutions. “The conference marks an inflection point for Bentley to demonstrate our commitment to growing and empowering the open geospatial ecosystem,” said Chris Andrews, Bentley’s vice president of platform integrations and conference chairperson. That commitment

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High Wire Act: From Jokes to Marathons, Bentley’s AI Guru Delivers Under Pressure

Karl-Alexandre Jahjah is nearly impossible to catch off guard – or to outrun. He, where quick thinking means survival and glory. He also runs marathons, including one less than a year after rupturing his Achilles tendon. That mindset – face a challenge, get to work, push through – underlies Jahjah’s success as Bentley Systems’ director of applied AI, where he leads the team building the next generation of AI-powered infrastructure tools. Inside the company, he has built a reputation as someone who can transform complex engineering problems into working products. He’s also known for his collegial workplace style, a trait polished by his improv background. “Even the fiercest-seeming improv battles are actually collaborative,” he says. “The magic always comes when you build off each other’s best ideas.” It’s the same spirit he brings to his current flagship project: OpenSite+, which was released to testers at Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure event in 2024 and will be generally available later this year after a limited release in late June. From an early age, Jahjah was one to watch. On his first day of kindergarten, he walked over to the reading corner, chose a book, and began reading aloud to the other children.

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The 10 Best Infrastructure Stories Of 2025 … So Far!

We’re only halfway through 2025, yet we’ve already brought you stories from around the world about how AI and digital twins are transforming the way we design, build, and maintain the infrastructure around us. From flood-proofing the bustling streets of New Orleans to helping firefighters work faster and safer in Dublin, here are 10 of the most powerful stories we’ve brought to you so far this year on our blog, Bentley Insights & Inspirations. Protecting The Big Easy Revelers taking in New Orleans’ famed Mardi Gras parades may not know that the streets hosting the boisterous celebrations are near or below sea level, in a city surrounded by water. Keeping everyone dry – from floodwater, at least – is a marvel of U.S. infrastructure. The city known as the Big Easy is ringed by a system of levees, floodgates, pump stations, spillways and other infrastructure that keep residents and visitors safe. One key component is the giant 17th Canal Pump Station, which takes water from a canal that drains New Orleans and dumps it into a lake north of the city. Now, that pump station has a digital twin, built using software developed by Bentley Systems. Joey Coco, president and

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