Assistant professor Minghui Cheng, center, talks with students about the AI-powered CivilBot tool. Credit: Betsy Martinez/University of Miami
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 (AI)-powered tool that generates code for a structural 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 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.
