Technology Should Have Been There...

I'm a huge supporter of engineering interwoven with cutting-edge technology, and here's why: DO IT CORRECTLY ONCE AND IT NEVER FAILS. There's that old saying "why is there never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over?" which is especially evident in the structural engineering field. Some people are perfectly willing to work with a flawed design in the interest of savings, but then get upset when they need to do it over the correct way. Technology can solve this problem. If an engineer creates a structural design using technology, he can invest his time and energy in the critical areas, and can even re-create or revise those results within seconds. Even better, the engineer can be instantly notified if he's over-designing or under-utilizing parts of his structure. A simple change in the thickness of a structural tube can save thousands of dollars on the project (thereby making his engineering more valuable).

For instance, this picture has been floating around the internet for a few months:

This building's demise was probably caused from a multitude of errors, but here's my opinion of a typical example and how this led up to a failure:

• The soil engineer didn't test the ground properly, or didn't report the results correctly, to the structural engineer.
• The structural engineer assumes the soil engineer knows what he's doing and takes the results at face value. He then designs an appropriate foundation from the data he was given.
• The contractor receives the structural engineer's directives, and thinks to himself "well I don't think they need to be quite that big, or quite that deep. I'm sure if I go 6" short I'll be able to make a profit, plus I doubt anyone will ever find out."
• The structural engineer, unaware of the changes being made to his design, inspects and approves a foundation that is actually smaller than it should be, but without communication or checks on the contractor, nobody's the wiser.
• The weight of the building eventually overcomes the resistance of the soil, and it tips over.

Now I'm not saying that computers will fix everything. Far from it. But if technology would have been better utilized in this situation, all professionals involved would have been more informed. The contractor could have even used a simple widget to double-check if that 6" made a difference in the weight or bearing of the footer, by modifying this simple widget below:

Next up, and my personal favorite, is the Google Engineer. You didn't know Google had structural engineers all over the place did you? Well, technically it's called Google Earth. The full-blown advent of technology in the last 5 years has created ways for engineers to review structures that we never even thought possible before. Here's an example:

• A building in NYC was cited for having a crack running from the first floor to the third. The May 1 complaint from the Building Department says “Approx 1/2 inch to 1 inch wide vertical crack line in east wall (east south corner) facade from 1st to 3rd floor.” The inspection also found cracks on the interior wall on the third and fourth floors.
  

• Google Street View had actually caught the image of the building around this same time, which clearly shows the crack running up the side:

• The building eventually did collapse, but fortunately did not hurt anyone. Here's the aftermath:

While Google Street View is sometimes viewed as invasive, this shows an unexpected benefit: images that once seemed irrelevant are suddenly at the center of a major news event. Engineers can learn from this by using technology creatively and more proficiently. Just imagine what will be here in another 5 years....we'll probably have a McDonald's of Engineering (hint: it's called Engineering Express).