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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.” A woman in a bright pink suit stands on stage in front of a screen displaying the text “Google AI for the Planet” to an audience. 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

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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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More Than Just Floodwalls: How New York City Is Building Higher and Smarter to Defend Against Rising Seas

For Roni Deitz, this work is personal. She grew up in New Jersey, so Deitz had never experienced a major hurricane. Then Hurricane Ike stormed ashore the Texas coastline in 2008, while she was an engineering student in Houston. “I was ultimately just so struck by how a storm could suddenly shut down the city, how it could forever change the urban fabric and deeply impact daily life,” says Deitz, now global director of climate adaptation at Dutch engineering giant Arcadis. Then in 2012, Superstorm Sandy struck close to home. The deadly hurricane inundated and devastated parts of New Jersey and neighboring New York City, the place Deitz had known as simply “the city” growing up. “It almost felt like a call to action,” she says. “It was personal. I felt this strong pull to return home to New York, to help New York City build back in a way that was smarter and stronger, that was more sustainable.” Protecting The Big Apple Within months of Sandy, Deitz joined Arcadis, where for the last several years she has been involved in one of the most high-profile climate resilience efforts in the United States: the project to help protect Lower Manhattan

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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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Sustainability Stories: These 6 Examples Show How Digital Tools Are Making Infrastructure More Resilient and Ready for the Future

A digital twin proved crucial when a transmission tower supplying electricity to a U.S. hospital was damaged during the COVID-19 pandemic. High-tech models reduced water loss in drought-hit Colombia, and a virtual replica improved sustainability at a university campus in Lithuania. What all these projects have in common is the use of digital tools to make infrastructure assets more sustainable and resilient in the face of the huge challenges—such as climate change and urbanization—that are straining the world’s critical infrastructure. To coincide with Earth Day, and the release of Bentley Systems’ Impact Report 2024, here are six case studies that illustrate how users of Bentley software are helping to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon future. Each project addresses a challenge related to energy transition—the theme of this year’s Earth Day—by helping generate renewable energy, secure its transmission, or make cities more energy efficient. How a Digital Twin Helped Fix a Critical Grid Tower in Missouri For a power line in central Missouri, it was a perfect storm. During the COVID-19 pandemic, an inspection by Midwestern energy utility Evergy revealed that flooding had damaged one of the transmission towers on the 161-kilovolt Clinton Stillwell Line. Construction on an adjacent major

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Impact Report 2024: How Bentley Systems Is Helping Make the World and Our Infrastructure More Sustainable and Resilient

Not too long ago, students at an elementary school in eastern Pakistan’s Pakpattan district faced a daunting problem: Their source of drinking water was a drum filled by a contaminated tap. Bentley Systems, the global infrastructure software company, offered a solution. Through its STEM Grant program, which funds education projects selected by staff, Bentley helped the school build a water filtration room with a new submersible pump. The room also has a 500-gallon water storage tank and two large electric water coolers. The setup draws power from a new solar system with enough spare capacity to churn classroom fans and cool the school’s 400 young scholars. The Pakistani school is among 240 beneficiaries worldwide that shared $800,000 in grants—all donated by Bentley employees—through the STEM Grant program last year. The funding supports projects that not only utilize Bentley’s cutting-edge technology in digital twins and artificial intelligence (AI), but also illustrate the heart of Bentley’s mission: to advance sustainable and resilient infrastructure necessary for a better quality of life, for everyone. On Tuesday, which is also Earth Day, Bentley released its 2024 Impact Report highlighting several of these projects. The annual report also shows how Bentley is shrinking its own environmental

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The Earth Beneath Our Feet: Our Greatest Asset and Challenge

As we celebrate Earth Day we find ourselves at a critical juncture in our relationship with the planet. In late March, I traveled to Washington, D.C., for a week of discussions with elected officials, appointees and staffers across state and federal government. When I left, one thing became abundantly clear: The ground beneath our feet represents both our greatest resource and our most significant vulnerability. We increasingly recognize that the subsurface—the hidden realm of aquifers, mineral deposits and geothermal potential—is essential to our economic and environmental future. Yet our understanding and management of these resources remain dangerously inadequate and under-financed in the face of accelerating climate change, ubiquitous pollution threats and growing resource demands. These challenges are existential in nature. Water scarcity threatens communities across the globe, with groundwater depletion occurring at alarming rates. Critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements (REEs), which are necessary for energy technologies and digital infrastructure, face supply constraints as geopolitical tensions complicate access. These minerals are indispensable for electric cars, batteries and key sources of renewable energy like wind and solar, which is the theme of this year’s Earth Day. Beyond minerals, energy security requires diversification beyond traditional sources, with geothermal energy

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Engineering the Future: Training the Next Generation with Some of the Most Complex Infrastructure on Earth and maybe Mars

Louisiana is no stranger to devastating storms and floods, but you’d never know it every February when New Orleans erupts in Mardi Gras, a festival of sound and color flavored with boisterous parades, jazz, and spicy crawfish boils. Locals know that beyond the beads and feathers and brass band music sits some of the most complex infrastructure on the planet, from levees and seawalls to canals and spillways, all built to protect the city surrounded by water from flooding. Keeping the system up to date is an urgent task. The latest initiative to do so is the brainchild of James Scott Fargason, a business professor at Louisiana State University, and his former student, Russell J. “Joey” Coco Jr., now an acclaimed infrastructure engineer and executive. The duo is leading a revolution to digitize all infrastructure, from single bridges to entire cities, with an eye toward making it “smarter” and more resilient. Their vehicle is Digi-Twin Global, a company they started in Baton Rouge, home to LSU, to advance digital twin technology for infrastructure owners, managers, and operators. “The future of digital twins is going to be what you can do with the huge amount of data that’s out there,” says

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