Get XXcited Re/Cappers, we get feminine today with a lead Re/Cap on women in construction, particularly how it’s faring city-by-city.
Speaking of, one of the most exceptional – yet unsung – women in history has one of the most exceptional claims to fame in one of America’s most exceptional cities: Brooklyn, New York.
Industry’s booming. Civil War smoke is practically still dissipating. The Brooklyn Bridge is under the supervision of chief engineer Washington Roebling. That is, until he develops decompression sickness due to extended periods under water in the bridge’s caissons, the chambers needed for foundation work.
Superwife mode initiated.
Emily Warren Roebling knew as much about engineering as Terminator’s Sarah Connor does about knitting. But she’d be darned if that was going to be an obstacle. Dedicated to honoring her husband, city, and country, Roebling immersed herself in the panoply of bridge construction technicalities: mathematics, stress analysis, cable construction, materials strength & science, and beyond. Pfft, she even solved problems confounding the resident crew for weeks.
And all that may have paled in comparison to her people skills.
She managed day-to-day operations & contractor communication, inspected work, and interacted with policymakers and the media; all of whom, suuuurely, were hospitable to and optimistic about her role.
Emily’s zeal ensured the bridge’s completion in 1883, and she got some worthy spotlight; at the opening ceremony, she was honored for her contributions and became the first person to cross the bridge by carriage.
Her crusade evolved from engineering physical bridges to building metaphorical ones between the worlds of men and women. She conquered intellectual circles and academic halls, methodically dismantling arguments against women’s capabilities. Her words carried the weight of her achievements, and today, her legacy carries the weight of her bravado. So, bravo, Emily Warren Roebling.
What’s Cappenin’ This Week: Cities get ranked by percentage of women in construction, XR keeps rail training on track, 360° imagery sheds new light on early industry’s child labor, LiDAR gets a 2025 tutorial, and an AEC Error of the Week that made molasses fatal.
Quick ‘Caps: A spatial reality check as Apple Vision Pro turns 1, RealityScan 1.6 release notes, an architectural BIM masterpiece in Budapest, a TED Talk on AI bridging the hearing and dead worlds, a metrology-in-manufacturing podcast, and bird-resembling first-response drones.
Last week: A holodeck’s possibly on deck thanks to Gaussian splatting, robots are like a preemptive doctor for construction workers, laser scanning & photogrammetry uncover prehistoric bear tracks, UAVs map the oceanic plastic crisis, and an AEC Error of the Week at a Canadian stadium with more problems than radi
Want to WANTO? If you like the idea of a blossoming construction industry as the second half of the 2020s commences, you should.
WANTO = the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations. It’s got a grant program that’s dispatched millions of bucks to support numerous industries, chieftess among them construction. And it couldn’t be better timed, as a construction worker shortage might soon resemble jockeys in the NBA.
WANTO is working, firms are reimagining hiring, and tech is simplifying all of it; just in some places far more than others.
It’s evidenced in the Construction Coverage annual update of the Cities With the Most Women in Construction study, with data sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau. A teaser for you: Florida packs in a crowd for the overall city rankings, but a certain anti-sunshine land, way up north, takes the state crown.
If data, graphs, and an improving hiring framework across America excites you, click below for an unpacking of the methodology, industry wages by sex, occupation types, geographic differences, and more. For previous years’ results, hit the bottom of the page.
19th century railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt said “If I had learned education, I would not have had time to learn anything else.”
Oh, Corny, if only ye knew how tech would dramatically decrease – yet optimize – practical training and learning time. Better yet, it’s all off the tracks, and with the absolute weirdest sunglasses you’ve ever seen!
ADIF, a public company under the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, is a true conductor within the Spanish railway sector. And their collaboration with 3D enterprise software company Virtualware just brought home a trophy.
After extensive research, the duo designed the Railway Infrastructure Training Simulator ( RITS). This proved to be the Ritz of XR training, as preceding issues like prolonged production cycles, subpar collaborative exercises, and sparse system integrations got solved, rápido. Marked improvements also included the 3D operational environments, and the allowance for instructors to customize training modules. Choo choo to the who’s who of this thrilling development below, courtesy of XR Today.
They say history’s written by the victors. In the case of the American Industrial Revolution, that’s synonymous with “profiteers.”
However, the U.S. National Park Service sought to share an unsung perspective, one from those most manually responsible for the industrial juggernaut the States would become. Predominantly, that was children. Specifically, it occurred in textile mills.
Thankfully, this modern story of an exploitive past just got told in a way only photogrammetry and 3D imaging could allow.
Because the NPS has only upped its usage of tech to virtually connect citizens with historic sites, 18th-century mills recently coming under their care couldn’t be more felicitous. Enjoy the full NPS account below that’s as striking as it is inspirational, in its endorsement of tech and its honoring of forgotten youth.
Topics include why the NPS, workflows & hardware, stitching error minimization, challenges unique to old mills, virtual creation, and of course, a motherlode of history. Oh, and if you’ve room for dessert, two final polished products: Vermont’s Slater Mill Virtual Tour and Wilkinson Mill Virtual Tour
If we’ve come far, we’ve flown even further.
During the LiDAR-born mapping revolution, what began as bulky gear mounted on OG aircraft has morphed into petite sensors that can hitch a ride on nimble drones. And with it, mapping agencies worldwide have fundamentally reshaped how they create DTMs (digital terrain models).
The exponential growth permeating hardware and software prompted LiDAR Magazine to publish the first of a four-part installment, penned by University Professor for Optical Bathymetry at TU Wien, Dr. Gottfried Mandlburger.
It’s titled “Basics,” but be warned, that’s like calling quantum computing Pong. It goes deep, so flight manifest yourself some profound knowledge below, on GNSS, point clouds, sensor specs, Geiger-mode LiDAR, direct georeferencing, and a whole Cessna worth of additional intelligence.
January 15, 1919. A day when physics, corporate negligence, and unmitigated liquid chaos decided to throw the stickiest block party in industrial history – The Great Molasses Flood.
A massive storage tank in Boston’s North End collapsed, releasing over two million gallons of molasses. The result? A devastating 15-foot high wave generating speeds up to 35 mph, claiming 21 lives and injuring 150 people.
The United States Industrial Alcohol Company, owners of this sticky situation, had been playing a dangerous game of “hear no evil, see no evil” with their improperly-constructed tank. Locals reported that the tank had been leaking since day one, with some even collecting the escaping molasses for their own use. The company’s ingenious solution? Paint the tank brown to hide the leaks. Because if you can’t see the problem, it doesn’t exist, right?
It gets worse. In the inevitable lawsuits thereafter, USIAC allocated over $50k to “expert” witnesses purporting that the calamity was the result of sabotage, not structural weakness. The court sniffed it out though, concluding that the tank’s failure stemmed from an inadequate safety margin in its design. The storage vessel had been shoddily constructed and subsequently received minimal upkeep – a seamless alignment with local residents’ testimonies on the tank leakage.
The aftermath left Boston smelling like a giant pancake for decades, with reports of the sweet scent lingering on hot summer days.
Hindsight is 20/20 for AEC Errors, and modern engineering analyses have illuminated multiple factors which caused or accelerated this mega molasses mishap:
Imagine the sweet success story reality capture could have authored in 1919, rich with proactive knowledge, and preventative action.
Laser scanning and photogrammetry could have created precise 3D models of the tank, revealing structural weaknesses and deformations. These models could have been integrated into a comprehensive Building Information Model (BIM), yielding a digital twin for ongoing, real-time monitoring and analysis.
Robotic tank inspections could have assessed without emptying the tank, measuring wall thickness and identifying areas of concern sans risking human entry. This data could be incorporated into the BIM for a holistic view of the tank’s condition.
AI-powered predictive maintenance, integrating data from those very robotic inspections and IoT sensors, could have analyzed trends and predicted potential failures before they occurred. XR simulations, mimicking the rail story earlier, could have been used to train workers on proper tank maintenance and emergency procedures.
By leveraging these technologies, engineers could have identified and addressed the tank’s structural issues, such as inadequate wall thickness, low-quality steel, and stress concentrations, before they led to catastrophic failure. Such an approach would have significantly enhanced safety, reduced the risk of disaster, and potentially saved lives.
Sometimes, it takes a sticky situation to bring about positive change. Here’s hoping that in the future, we’ll use our advanced technologies to prevent disasters, rather than cleaning them up.
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