Lee High School

How has technology change the way that civil engineers work?

Civil Engineer

John A. Perez Ramirez

Senior Capstone

Brian Cahoon

April 23, 2018

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John A. Perez

Brian Cahoon

Senior Capstone

March 14, 2018

Building the Future With Technology

People have been fascinated with the incredible structures and buildings that man had

made, the responsibility for this structures are the civil engineers, they are the ones in charge of

the building planning, construction, and supervision. I have decided to become a civil engineer

because, I have been always interested in not just building things but in knowing other stuff such

as electrician or plumbing, these jobs are done by a civil engineer too. And now with technology,

all of these jobs have become not just easier but way interesting and functional, for instance to

build a small storage room behind the house or garage, before, it would take from a couple of

days to a week or more, but now with 3D printing technology, that can be done in half a day, or

build a small house in just a day. But before constructing a house, the terrain must be inspected

and measure, this could take time and people need to take measurements by hand of the land,

however, it is easier to see it from the air and even take pictures and measurement, with drones

this is faster and more accurate. But even before that, a civil engineer must do the plans for the

house or also called “blueprints,” this are made on paper by the engineer and could take time to

design only the upper view of the house, but with the power of modern computers this time can

be reduced significantly and it can be done in a 3-dimensional view.

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The beginning of 3D printing goes back to the 1860s, where a French artist, François Willème,

experimented with a new method, in which the sculpture is placed in the middle of a circular

room, in which there are 24 cameras that are spaced equally from each other and the sculpture,

then he cut the shape of each photo and traced them with a pantograph, this would cut the wood

at the same time that it would trace them, later he assemble the 24 pieces to create that

photo-sculpture. 3D printing has come a long way since then, the first work is done with the

same method as we do it today, layer by layer is known as “stereolithography”. In 1984, Charles

“Chuck” Hull, created stereolithography, a printing method that uses UV light to create a 3D

object by building up layer after layer (Marquardt). Since then, 3D printing has become more

popular and advanced, today people can make about anything imaginable, and now it is possible

to create houses and structures faster, cheaper, and safer. In Europe, a company named Heijmans

with the help of MX3D and Joris Laarman created the world’s first 3D printed bridge. And now,

researchers from the University of Southern California created a 3D printer that can build a 2,500

square-foot house in 24 hours (Magdaleno). This house was created with all the conduct and

passages necessary for plumbing, electricity, and ventilation, this saves money and time. Also,

WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co is another company who also made a house using

3D printing technology. This house was build layer by layer with a concrete-like substance

called mortar, the mortar comes out of the nozzle of the machine. The walls were printed in a

factory, then transported to the site to be assembled with the doors, windows, and roofs. After the

roof was installed, finishing works were done and buildings were completed. The estimated cost

of each building is 4.800 dollars (Hager). Building a house with a 3D printing machine is not

much different from building any other thing, the techniques are the same in many constructions,
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whether being a 5 storage building, or a playhouse for kids. The most promising 3D printing

technology used in the building industry is called Contour Crafting (CC) technology. In this

technology, the material is poured progressively layer by layer, however, the whole process is

taking place on site. This technique gives a great opportunity for automation of the construction

process, by using a 3D printer that will be able to print a whole house directly on-site. (Hager).

But before even making the bases of the house, a civil engineer must inspect the terrain and

take measurements. As mentioned before this could take time, however, there is a solution,

drones can fly over and take pictures, this can also help to supervise construction in progress, and

they can also be equipped with scanners that can take measures and reproduce a full virtual copy

of it, so that engineers can have an idea of the dimensions. UAVs (Unmanned aerial vehicles)

will also revolutionize civil engineering through the use of photo scanning, an image capture

process that uses photos (rather than lasers) to capture images (Arkit). They are easy to operate

or program them, they are small and consume little fuel, although most of them are electrically

driven. Also with a great variety of drones and models, they can be used for different task and for

different environments, small light drones can be used to fly over to supervise the construction

site and take pictures, larger and heavier drones could be attached to more scanners and make

measurements, also, they can stay still longer and make more accurate pictures.

Another important step in constructing any structure is making the plans or “blueprints”. This

helps the civil engineer to make sure that everything goes well and how will the finished work

be, however, making a blueprint could take time, and sometimes it can be hard to actually

imagine the structure if you have no experience in making blueprints. There are many programs,

some more technical than others, that help you to make your own blueprint. And they can even
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project them in 3D so that you can see it. A system allows the storing of construction drawings

or blueprints in a plurality of computer files. The system allows automatic determinations of

lengths, areas, and count of dimensions displayed in drawings (Matthew). Another big aid from

this type of programs is the augmented virtual reality, or “VR”, with this technology people will

not just see the plans in 3D, but also they could see theme on real scale, and walk through every

room if they wanted it, this gives a great benefit to civil engineers to see how a project will end

up, and also it would help to show the public so that they could promote their job.

In conclusion, the work of a civil engineer has been affected by technology in many and

drastically different ways, not just making their job faster, efficient, precise, and better, but also

more dynamic and interesting. And even though some of this technologies are not used on a

greater scale, they could be used in the near future to create a much better world that we live in.
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Works Cited

"Drones: Advanced Mapping and Scanning Capacities for More Accurate Visualizations." Top

Technology Trends to Watch in Civil Engineering 2016, 2016,

www.arkit.io/blog/technology-trends-civil-engineering-2016. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

Magdaleno, Alex. "The Answer to Affordable Housing Could Lie Within a 3D Printer."

mashable, edited by Alex Magdaleno, Mashable Inc., 27 Jan. 2014,

https://mashable.com/2014/01/27/3d-printer-builds-house/#bUOigu6yrqqq. Accessed 13

Apr. 2018.

Goldin, Melisa. "Chinese Company Builds Houses Quickly With 3D Printing." News Gallery for

3D Printing, Alpha-3D, 2014,

alpha-3d.com/images/dt/slideshowhome_vn/18dyn_NG036-Chinese%20Company%20B

uilds%20Houses%20Quickly%20With%203D%20Printing.pdf. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

Hager, Izabel, Anna Golonka, and Roman Putanowicz. "3D printing of buildings and building

components as the future of sustainable construction? ." ScienceDirect, Elsevier Ltd.,

2016,

https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877705816317453/1-s2.0-S1877705816317453-main.pdf?_tid=

f705f601-1f02-42dd-b86d-e0a9cba86279&acdnat=1523626277_b5552363759de0d806b

012d09d4cff17. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

Marquardt, Tahnee, and Emmi Zheng. "History of 3D Printing." The Laurence University

Interdisciplinary Makerspace fro Engaged Learning., WordPress,

https://blogs.lawrence.edu/makerspace/history/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

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Hammer, Rik. Heijmans, 2017, https://www.heijmans.nl/en/projects/mx3d-bridge/. Accessed 13

Apr. 2018.