November 1-5, 2023 NYC / Global Event
ENGINEERED FOR COMMUNITY --DESIGNED FOR TECHNOLOGY
aectech.us
ABOUT AECtech Since 2013 Thornton Tomasetti has hosted the annual AECtech Conference in NYC orgnanized by CORE studio, Each year this event welcomes design and technology professionals from architecture, engineering, construction, fabrication, and software industries and beyond. Over the past decade the annual confernece has evolved from a two-day to a week long conference featuring professional development workshops, speakers, 24+ hour hackathons, and much more. We strive to offer the most enriching networking experience exploring the latest development in technology and practice that engage industry leaders in a forward looking forum for growth. By serving as a space where creative minds can devise new technologies, acquire skills and make new connections, AECtech builds an open community of knowledge sharing to promote industry progression and enhance collaboration and communication.
ABOUT CORE studio CORE studio is Thornton Tomasetti’s virtual incubator of ideas. Its name derives from the union of computational modeling and research and development, which are at the core of our firm’s mission. Our team is a diverse assortment of specialists, with each member bringing expert knowledge and an inquisitive mind to projects of every size and scope. Our experience working across all Thornton Tomasetti practices affords us unique insight into the needs of – and solutions for – our clients and our firm. CORE studio provides a valuable interface among design and construction teams, developing new workflows and processes that promote collaboration and enhance building design. Our analyses of today’s practices allow us to envision the optimized workflows of tomorrow.
FOSTERING GLOBAL INNOVATION
PROGRAMMING AECtech NYC 2023 was the eleventh annual event hosted by Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio. This week long event was by far the largest gathering of innovative and inquisitive minds with over 400 individuals participating from 165 companies and organizations originating in 19 countries. This year’s lineup featured 10 Virtual Workshops and 12 In Person Workshops hosted by experts from around the world. The Tech Crawl also expanded this year with 12 local architecture and engineering firms welcoming guests into their offices. This lead up to this year’s Full Day Symposium live-streamed from the Center for Architecture in NYC where 19 presenters and panelists shared their insight. The event finished strong with a 27-hour hackathon that produced 16 uniquely innovative projects.
27
Virtual Workshops
Wednesday November 1
Tech Crawl
Thursday
November 2
Workshops
Friday
November 3
Symposium
Saturday
November 4
Hackathon
Sunday
November 5
Hackathon
Friday
October
CONTRIBUTORS
Thank you to all the companies and organziations who made AECtech 2023 possible!
VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS
Thank you to all the outstanding hosts of this years Virtual Workshops!
Pollination Platform from “Pollination Revit Plugin for Extracting Valid Analytical Models” Workshop
Speckle Automate: CI/CD Pipelines for AEC are here! | Speckle Claire Kuang
Software Engineer Speckle
Gergő Jedlicska Software Engineer Speckle
KONSTRU: Streamlining BIM and Analytic Data Exchange | Konstru Nick Mundell
Director of CORE Modeling Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio
Design Automation for Revit | Autodesk Platform Services João Martins
Developer Advocate Autodesk
Kateryna Konieva
Software Engineer Speckle
Build Web Apps Using ShapeDiver & Grasshopper | ShapeDiver Alex Schiftner
CTO ShapeDiver
Michael Oppitz Lead Developer ShapeDiver
Exchange Data-Rich Geometry Between ShapeDiver & Desktop Applications | ShapeDiver Mathieu Huard Head of Product ShapeDiver
Pollination Revit Plugin for Extracting Valid Analytical Models | Pollination Mostapha Sadeghipour Roudsari Co-Founder Ladybug Tools
Chris Mackey Co-Founder Ladybug Tools
Pollination Rhino Workflows for Building Performance Specialists | Pollination Mostapha Sadeghipour Roudsari Co-Founder Ladybug Tools
Chris Mackey Co-Founder Ladybug Tools
Beyond Geometry: Crafting New Workflows with Grasshopper Data | Robert McNeel & Associates Andy Payne
Software Developer McNeel
Introducing the AEC Data Platform, Ellipse | Ellipse.studio Nico Azel
Senior Software Developer Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio
Sophie Moore
Engineer Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio
Exploring Novel Workflows with Rhino 8 Inside.Revit | Robert McNeel & Associates Japhy Walton
Application Specialist McNeel
Design Automation with Hypar | Hypar Andrew Heumann Software Developer Hypar
Eric Wassail
Software Developer Hypar
Scripting in Rhino 8 | Robert McNeel & Associates Ehsan Iran-Nejad
Developer McNeel
Omniverse: Design Collaboration Accelerated | NVIDIA Omniverse Robert Cervellione Senior Product Manager NVIDIA
Sebastian Misiurek Product Manager NVIDIA
Digital to Physical: Physics Simulations with Houdini and Rhino | Heatherwick studio Alfredo Chavez
Architect & Senior Computational Designer Heatherwick studio
Procedural BIM and Network-Based-Modeling | Grimshaw Architects Keyan Rahimzadeh
Computational Design Manager Grimshaw Architects
IN PERSON WORKSHOPS
Thank you to all the hosts of this year’s incredible group of In-Person Workshops.
Road to Generative AI : ML Basics to Advanced Techniques | CORE studio Seyedomid Sajedi
Senior AI & ML Engineer CORE studio | Thornton Tomasetti
Machine Learning with LunchBox for Grasshopper | Proving Ground Nathan Miller CEO Proving Ground
Introduction to Forma | Autodesk Krzysztof Jedrzejewski Senior Project Manager Autodesk
Magnhild Gjestvang Product Manager Autodesk
Introduction to Analysis Extensions for Autodesk Forma | Autodesk Håvard Wormdal Høiby Software Engineer Autodesk
Log Monitoring of your Revit API Plugins with Elastic Observability | Archi-lab Konrad Sobon CEO Archi-lab
Synthesis of Vision: Mastering AI-Driven Architectural Visualization and Concept Design Communication | Woods Bagot Amir Ashtiani Senior Designer Woods Bagot
TECH CRAWL
Thanks to all our Tech Crawl partners for opening up their offices to host fantastic conversations! Walter P Moore
ARUP
SOM
nbbj
Grimshaw
SOFTlab
Perkins & Will
CORGAN
KPF
BIG
SHoP
CORE studio
Engineers
Engineers
Architects
Group 1 FIDI
Architects
Architects
Designers
Group 2
Union Square to Flatiron
Architects
Architects
Architects
Group 3 Midtown
Architects
Group 4
Dumbo to FIDI
Architects
Engineers
SYMPOSIUM
Thank you to an absolutely incredible lineup of Presenters and Panelists! MORNING PRESENTERS
BIG Architects
Alexander Matthias Jacobson Life Cycle Design Lead
Snaptrude
Altaf Ganihar Founder And CEO
Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio Alloy Kemp Vice President
Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio Abhishek Bawiskar
Associate Applications Engineer
Block Research Group, ETH Zurich Philippe Block Co-Director
ROUNDTABLE
Cultivating Innovation: Academia and the Next Generation of Practitioners PANELISTS
University Of Southern California Dr. David Gerber
Professor of Practice, Program Director
CASE at RPI
Dennis Shelden Director
IAAC
David Andres Leon
Director of MACAD / Private Consultant
Pratt Institute
Thomas Hanrahan Professor
Block Research Group, ETH Zurich Philippe Block Co-Director
MODERATOR
Thornton Tomasetti | CORE studio Robert Otani CTO
AFTERNOON PRESENTERS
HKS Architects Tim Logan
Principal, Computational Applications Developer
SOM
Neil Katz, FAIA
Associate Principal
Skema
Marty Rozmanith Co-Founder And CEO
Morphosis
Kerenza Harris Associate Principal
Boston Dynamics Brian Ringley
Principal Product Manager
ROUNDTABLE R&D in AEC
PANELISTS
Mithun
Jason Steiner
Partner and Director of Digital Design
Foster + Partners Martha Tsigkari
Senior Partner, Head of Applied R+D
NBBJ
Pragya Gupta
Firmwide Design Computation Team Leader
Heatherwick studio
Pablo Zamorano Mosnaim
Senior Associate, Head of Computational Design
KPF
Luc Wilson
Global Head of Design Technology
MODERATOR
Boston Dynamics Brian Ringley
Principal Product Manager
Hackathon CONGRATULATIONS to this year’s WINNERS! Best Overall Hack: All The Way Down
AllTheWayDown allows for managing dependencies within design workflows, which decreases length of time between design iterations, introduces Git-based version control, and eliminates discrepancies between different stages of design. Initially, AllTheWayDown works for Grasshopper script graphs and Rhino models. Future iterations will expand to other design tools and data inputs.
Team
• • • • • • •
Chau Nguyen, Foster + Partners Keyan Rahimzadeh, Grimshaw Max Dumas, Ulama Nathan Barnes, A Zahner Patryk Wozniczka, PJW Sarang Pramode, Ulama Tyce Herrman, Ulama
Best Open Source: Rhino Anywhere
Rhino Anywhere is a framework that enables high definition streaming of a Rhino Model Viewport to the web. This allows you to reskin and interact with Rhino in any way you desire, whilst still working in the native Rhino Environment. You can create specific command sets for users,
Team
• • • • • • • • • •
Callum Sykes, Structurecraft Alfredo Chavez, Heatherwick Studio Jo Kamm, Dimensional Innovations Dan Cascaval, Structurecraft Eleftherios Kourkopoulos, Foster & Partners Emil Poulsen, Thornton Tomasetti Josh Grift, StructureCraft Justyna Szychowska, KPF Kyle Slugg-Urbino, Stride Geospatial Sergey Pigach, Thornton Tomasetti
Best Collaboration: FURN-E
This Vue.js application uses the OpenAI API to generate images based on a user-provided description and presents the generated images for selection. Additionally, it displays product options based on those generated images.
Team
• • • • • • •
Sophie Moore, Thornton Tomasetti Jaxon Fortune, Thornton Tomasetti Pablo Herraiz, Shepley Bulfinch Daniel Lu, NYU Mona Mirzaie, Pickard Chilton Ben Zuill-Smith, GDS Estimating Christopher Smith, Promptly Technologies
Hackathon Thanks to all the project teams! SAiF-GPT
SAiF-GPT aims to provide a solution for using Chat GPT in a secure and compliant manner, even when dealing with sensitive information. To ensure that corporate policies and NDAs are respected, the code and process automate entity detection and anonymization by replacing them with analogous values. The end goal is to allow AEC industry to use AI technology like ChatGPT for document analysis while protecting confidential data.
Team: Agustina Aboy, Slantis / Alexis Kotzambasis, LPA / Aman Sharma, Baker Risk / Carlos Luiz Amaral, SGH / Dan Miller, Degenkolb Engineers / Kodai Endo, Shimizu / Omid Sajedi, Thornton Tomasetti / Rintaro Yamashita, Shimizu / Samuel Winson Tanuwidjaja, Thornton Tomasetti / Sierra Davis, LPA
Building Forge
Humanity’s only realtime construction pricing engine for planning. Integrate TestFit Schemes and Historical Construction data in Join for quick option evaluation
Team: Clifton Harness, Testfit / Ryan Griege, Testfit / Dan Anthony, Join / Jules Becker, Join / Tim Ngo, Join / Shea Kusiak, Join
Boring
Smart Real-time Naming for Your Spaces
Team: Mostapha Sadeghipour Roudsari, Pollination / Alexander Matthias Jacobson, BIG / Victor Barbosa, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects / Ellen Berglund, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects / Daniel Boba, Perkins & Will / Jason Diammond, Perkins & Will / Nick Cameron, Perkins & Will
AECademy
A Sketch-Based Content Retrieval System, an innovative search engine that allows users to use sketches to search for relevant content within a digital database. It is designed to interpret the attributes of the sketched input and provide results such as PDF documents, 3D models, and detailed text descriptions that closely match the sketch.
Team: Chenzhang Wang, HLW / Junling Zhang, KPF / Sen Zhang, Ennead Architects / Emily Guan / Alan Cation, Ennead
It Takes a Village
Why 5 platforms are better than one
Team: Marcel Slootweg, VIKTOR / Håvard Høiby, Autodeks / Håkon Matland, Autodesk / Mostapha Sadeghipour Roudsari, Pollination
Ez.Rx
EZRX is a plug-in for Rhino that helps a user use Chat GPT to create scripted Grasshopper nodes.
Team: Christopher Diggins, Ara 3D / Travis Potter, Buro Happold/ Sun Lee, Handel Architects / Emma Xu, Pratt Institute/ Bell Wang, Pratt Institute / Haki Sallaku, Manhattan College / Marcelo Villalba, MEGA
FindIT
Forestry Identification and Navigation forDigital Imaging Transfer
Team: Shariful Anik, Mithun / Pawel Sapiecha, Olson Kundig / Pablo Derendinger, e-Verse / Hailey Kim, ARUP / Quoc Dang, KPF
Wasted
Unlock value in existing end of service buildings. Use Reality Capture, AI and Parametric Design to define value, repurpose, and reuse.
Team: Michael Zarrella, HDR / Jared Friedman, Walter P Moore / Tim Li, SHoP Architects / Gorkem Okudan, Thornton Tomasetti / Val Tzvetkov, Skanska / Brandon Perry, Thornton Tomasetti / Nezar Abraham, Thornton Tomasetti / Yutan Sun, KPF / Erika Santos, AECOM / Sheldon McLeod, SHoP Architects
Clippy AI
QC your model Or else: many RFIs
Team: Abhishek Bawiskar, Thornton Tomasetti / Russell Feathers, Thornton Tomasetti / Chris Chan, Juno / Francisco Maranchello, e-Verse / Matthew Breau, BBB / Peter Zhang, Corgan / Alloy Kemp, Thornton Tomasetti
RAMit
Revit to Ram Concept Interoperability
Team: Atishay Lahri, Thornton Tomasetti / Rolando Villena, Thornton Tomasetti / Gregorius Budhijanto / Joydeep Chatterjee/ Kohei Hayashi, Shimizu
XRVZ
Open source WebXR viewer that works on any WebXR-enabled device running in an immersive model viewer, plugging into analysis models like Forma, Hypar, or Viktor for heightened understanding of data
Team: Andrew Swartzell, Pickard Chilton / James Blanchard, Flad Architects / Atharva, NBBJ / Ben Howes, Thornton Tomasetti / Attalia Brown / Martin Johnson / Ben Ferrer, Turner Construction / Magnhild Gjestvang, Autodesk
COLLAB
This hackathon leverages a diverse range of tools to create a interactive structural optimization and review web applet built in Viktor.
Team: Alexander Schiftner, Shapediver / Brian Stuchel, Walter P. Moore / Moustafa El-Sawy, AECOM / Georgios Athanasopoulos, Thornton Tomasetti / Nicolas Azel, Thornton Tomasetti / Murat Melek, Walter P. Moore / Stijn Jansen, VIKTOR / Wendy Chikowero, Thornton Tomasetti /Yang Xie, Degenkolb Engineer / Victor Calderon, Walter P. Moore
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