Lee High School

How Has Technology Changed 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 has

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

the building planning, construction, and supervision. My decision to become a civil engineer is

because, my interest in not just building things but in knowing other stuff such as electrician or

plumbing, these jobs are done by a civil engineer too. 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 a garage, before, it would take from a couple of days to weeks

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. However, before constructing a house, the terrain must be inspected and

measured, this could take time and people might commit errors, drones allow to see the terrain

from air and can take measurements more precise. A more important step that becomes before

that, is making the plans for the house or also called “blueprints,” this are made on paper by the

engineer and could take time to design, but with the power of modern computers this time can be

reduced significantly and it can be done in a 3-dimensional view. ​With this technology, civil

engineering has not become just easier and faster, but it also has become more accessible to

less experienced people who want to experiment and make stuff by their own.
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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 there are 24 cameras that are spaced equally from each other, then he cut the

shape of each photo and traced them with a pantograph, this would remove the wood at the same

time that it would mark 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, which is 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 made 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 print in a

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

roof was install, finished works were done, and the building were complet. The estimated cost of

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

different from making any other thing, the techniques are the same in many constructions,
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whether being a five 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 big 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).

An important step before building a house is to inspect the land and make 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 equip

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 have electric batteries. Also with a great variety

of drones and models, they can be used for different task and different environments, small light

drones can be used to fly over to supervise the construction site and take pictures, bigger and

more powerful drones could be attached to more scanners and make measurements, also, they

can stay still longer and make more accurate photographs.

A Civil Engineer must make a blueprint for any official work. This is for future purposes

such as repairs and structural support and changes, it also 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 imagine the structure if you have no experience in

making blueprints. There are many programs, some more technical than others, which help you
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to make your blueprint. And they can even 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 benefit from this type of programs is the 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 for

publicity purposes for 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 captivating. And even though some of this technologies are not being used on

a larger scale, they could be used shortly to create a better world with smart buildings and lower

the impact that we have on our planet.

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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.

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.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.

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.

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

Apr. 2018.
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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.