, "13":"YEN DEBATE TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER SAYS: ARE YOU SURE? Engineers are becoming too dependent on technology and must get back to basic physics, according to participants in this years CIBSE Young Engineers debate. Ewen Rose was listening in T he availability of increasingly powerful communication tools and modelling software has been a huge benefit to the engineering community and its clients, but threatens to produce future generations of engineers who have lost basic skills. This was the main message to emerge from this years CIBSE Young Engineers Network (YEN) debate sponsored by CIBSE Patrons and hosted by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) in London. The panel, chaired by Arup senior mechanical engineer Angela Malynn a former CIBSE ASHRAE Graduate of the Year agreed that traditional skills are essential to ensure good quality information goes into models and that the results are actually buildable, and stressed that engineers must understand building physics and be prepared to challenge computergenerated results. There is a danger that we are not practising the fundamentals of engineering because we trust the technology too much, said Buro Happolds William Holley. It is important that we have good data going into our models. Technology had the advantage of a much more visual product to show clients and now we can do the same. She warned that clients were also becoming dependent on computer modelling, but may not always understand what they are getting. It is a case of using the right tool at the right stage of the project, she added. You dont want to do a complete BIM model at the design stage at that point it is much more about engineering judgement, but the technology really comes into its own later in the process. However, Morwenna Wilson, projects director at the developer Argent (and another former Graduate of the Year), said clients love all the technology, because we like to visualise what is being designed. She said 3D models allow contractors to walk me through the project so I can make practical decisions. Malynn, who won the Graduate Award in 2011, asked the panel to consider the implications of this for contractual risk. We are yet to see the full results of the BIM process and whether there are legal ramifications to come from completed buildings that Jairo Jaramillo (left) and Lee Tabis Morwenna Wilson and David Fitzpatrick to the process, he said. There are a lot of exciting new technologies emerging, but we need to take a step back and find a way of managing basic things properly. Tabis agreed: We can end up just reacting to things that are thrown at us, but we are creative people and need time to think and produce good solutions, he said. IMechE president Mark Hunt felt this less to do with the technology and more with the people using it. We need better discipline. We are not allowing the technology to enable because we are not disciplined in the way we use it. People should ask themselves whether all of these emails need to be sent. He felt that engineers were devolving too much responsibility to other team members, and eventually to clients, via email. Because it is so easy to do, they end up asking the client to make too many decisions they could easily make themselves, said Hunt, who added that it was also becoming too easy to use a mobile device for calculations. We need to question the technology more not always trust the results, he added. That way we will also build can improve our final product, but we have to take a step back and make sure the younger generation is focusing on the fundamentals and on its communications skills. Struggling Holley, who won the CIBSE ASHRAE Graduate of the Year Award in 2013, said the technology was freeing up more time for engineers to develop their ideas, but the industry was still struggling to sell those concepts to clients. Another former Graduate of the Year, Lee Tabis of NG Bailey, believes we are in danger of producing a generation of engineers who are only good at software and pushing buttonswe need to get back to fundamentals. There is an over-reliance on technology. A building is only as good as the physics behind it, he said. However, the availability of highquality computer models can help engineers have more influence on the project process, according to Ruth Shilston, chair of the IMechE Young Members Board. We are starting to close the gap on architects, she said. They have always iMechE engineering director Colin Brown and Ruth Shilston, chair of the IMechE Young Members board Graeme Maidment with Peter Kinsella behind Former Graduate of the Year William Holley dont perform as they should, she said. There is potential for oversimplification with this technology and a question about whether we can be confident in the outcomes. Wilson confirmed that clients were acutely aware of the risk issue and mindful that computer models were not contractual documents, so people cant be held to account. The model is helpful, but it is not enough to produce a complete building and operate it, because no-one will take responsibility for the information, she said. Contractors often assume that the BIM model at stage D and E of the design process is fixed and so gives them a final picture from which they can build, but that is a serious mistake, according to Tabis. The model is still very fluid even late in the design and it is procurement-driven, so will change all the time, said Tabis. They assume the data is reliable, but there are often mistakes and changes in the project that have not been recorded in the model. We are yet to see the full results of the BIM process and whether there are legal ramifications to come from completed buildings that dont perform as they should Morwenna Wilson Institute of Refrigeration president Graeme Maidment, who is also a lecturer at London South Bank University, said it was a major concern for universities and colleges that they might not be teaching young engineers to use the right software. Are we missing the next big thing? he asked. Apart from computer modelling, the discussion also looked at other technologies that are transforming the way engineers work. 3D printing stood out as a potential game-changer because of its ability to produce manufacturers prototypes quickly and cheaply; speed-up production of key components; and eventually complete project packages. 3D printing is a great way of running concepts past customers and then translating those ideas directly into new products, said Sam Whitfield, product design engineer at Monodraught. We can create our own tools, and that allows us to make pretty much whatever we want. Using this technology can free project design teams from the restrictions of conventional manufacturing allowing them to be more innovative in the knowledge that manufacturers can keep up, Whitfield confidence into the next generation to be more questioning and come up with better solutions, he said. However, Jairo Jaramillo, chair of CIBSEs London YEN, said the building services industry was yet to go through its data revolution. We are a long way behind other sectors like manufacturing and, as a result, building services engineers are still performing heroics on relatively poor data, he said. Buildings are the last bespoke products left. We have to react really quickly to make changes late in the process. We could drive it more successfully by insisting that the building will only work properly if we restrict how much detail is allowed into the design process. Managing data and resisting the temptation to throw everything into the design melting pot will be crucial to successful outcomes particularly in the long-term operation of buildings, the panel agreed. CIBSE Patrons chairman David Fitzpatrick felt the availability of properly managed data would help engineers to tailor solutions more closely to clients needs. By using technology to share information, we Dwyer: There are risks to inhabiting a virtual world Practical It is important not to be totally reliant on the model, says Tabis, because there will be lots of things that look right, but will not work on site. The guys with practical skills are hugely valuable because they have been delivering these things in the real world for years. The panel members were also concerned that things might be going wrong during the education process. CIBSE ASHRAE Group chairman Tim Dwyer said there was a risk that graduates increasingly inhabit a virtual world and do not understand the underlying engineering fundamentals, to enable them to recognise whether something that is modelled is likely to work in practice. And, he added: There is a lot more to engineering than running simulation packages. believes. Spare parts and building components can be quickly and easily printed, marking a step change for current delivery arrangements. It is also much more sustainable because you only make the parts you need, when you need them, without the waste. Its very cost-effective too, he added. Fellow young manufacturer Callum Jarrald, a graduate trainee at ventilation equipment supplier Air Diffusion, said GPS tools had transformed the way his sector operated by making it easier to communicate with a long and complicated supply chain, and to log information more successfully. We have the ability to deliver more integrated designs by building our technology into others, he said, and we can provide information in a more portable format and make it easier to distribute. Volume But, ASHRAE president Tom Phoenix said that the sheer volume of information being shared was damaging quality. The number of emails we all receive makes it hard to keep up, and, to respond in a way that adds quality can deliver solutions that are more relevant to our clients businesses and also to explain what we are doing in a way they will understand, he said. It is also important for employers to feed and nurture the passion of young engineers and use communication tools to ensure they dont work in silos, but share ideas and information with the whole supply chain, added Fitzpatrick. CIBSE president Peter Kinsella concluded that future generations would have to be trained to exercise an appropriate level of engineering judgement about what the technology can deliver and to question its output continually. CJ "