When architects create plans for a new building, they typically work with an engineer to design the structure so that the building is safely supported.
This process can be arduous and time-consuming, as engineers must determine the loads acting on the structure and analyze the resulting forces in its foundations, beams, columns, joists, trusses, and girders.
But a new software tool created by a University of Miami faculty member, along with colleagues in the field, could help speed up the process from days to hours.
CivilBot, an artificial intelligence-powered (AI) tool that generates codes for a structure analysis model, can help save engineers time by eliminating many of the repetitive mouse clicks needed to create a computer-based model of a building. Engineers simply describe the structural design, including the beam lengths, supports, and loads, and CivilBot automatically generates the code needed to create the computer model. The code can then be integrated into existing design software tools used by many engineers today, such as SAP2000, to create a computer model of the building. This helps engineers spend more time refining the design and less time establishing the computer models, said Minghui Cheng, assistant professor of civil and architectural engineering in the College of Engineering and one of the lead creators of the tool.
“It used to take a very long time to create a structural model because the engineers had to build it manually, so people get excited about CivilBot because it’s really fast,” Cheng said.
As an example, he described all the structural conditions of the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, and CivilBot created the code for it in five minutes.
To create CivilBot, Cheng and his graduate student Ziheng Geng worked with Ran Cao, an associate professor of civil engineering at Hunan University in Changsha, China, as well as Lu Cheng, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Chicago. In addition, Cheng’s former University of Miami graduate student Jiachen Liu helped to revise the tool and set up its website. Civilbot is now on its third version, and while it used to only provide 2D models, they are now working to produce 3D modeling for buildings.
University engineering students received training this spring from Cheng on how to use CivilBot to create their capstone designs. During the senior design course, structural engineering students led by assistant professor Matthew Trussoni created two different mixed-use shopping center designs for Publix.
“Structural engineers create computer models to aid in the design and engineering of all sorts of structures like buildings or bridges. Typically, it can take anywhere from one to five days to create the models in the computer and more time to edit them when changes are made,” Trussoni said. “CivilBot can transform a process that takes days and reduce it to an hour or so, depending on the project, of course.”
While Ryan Wallat and his classmates were creating their computer model of a mixed-use shopping and residential complex out of steel and concrete, they used CivilBot to code their calculations.
“It’s been very helpful to learn how to use CivilBot because in earlier classes, it took us days to do these calculations by hand, but CivilBot helped streamline the process, so it went about 20 to 30 times faster to create the computer models,” Wallat said.
Senior Ashlyn Winslow and her partner Priscilla Cevallos agreed and said they are glad they learned to use the new tool through the senior design project. Both were starting jobs this summer at Thornton Tomasetti, an international engineering firm with offices in Miami.
“I do envision AI tools to be integrated in the industry, and therefore a tool like CivilBot could be incorporated into professional settings,” Cevallos said. “For example, it can help us to understand if we have to change the column heights in our design.”
Trussoni is glad his students got a chance to utilize such a novel tool and plans to use it again next spring. In addition to teaching, Trussoni is also a practicing architect and architectural engineer and said he is not aware of any tools like it that are commercially available.
“Working with a tool like CivilBot will give students a leg up going into this industry because many practicing engineers are looking to use these new tools,” he said.
Cheng is positive that as word spreads about CivilBot, more engineers and students will begin using the program and providing feedback to help improve it.
“Ideally, I hope this will be used by practicing engineers to help get buildings created faster,” he said.
