In February 2024, the White House updated its list of critical and emerging technologies, a regular report that comes through the National Science and Technology Council. While the list often focuses on increasing national security, the committee also prioritizes technology that expands economic prosperity and defends the American way of life. The technologies highlighted in this report can serve as a guide to where the country will invest over the next decade and what technological advances the country will prioritize. According to the report itself, the list can act as a resource for:
- Inform about future efforts that advance US technological leadership
- Cooperate with allies and partners to advance shared technological advances
- Develop, design and govern technologies that bring tangible benefits to society
- Develop measures that respond to security threats
As infrastructure professionals tasked with improving and supporting the American public, this third bullet is the most relevant to our industry, although the rise of digital construction technology undoubtedly makes cybersecurity an important priority. In this article, we will highlight seven technologies that appear in the latest update of this list that we can expect to have a tangible impact on the infrastructure construction industry and, as such, provide tangible benefits to society.
Advanced computing
In a recent blog, we discussed the importance of data governance and quality control and how these practices are necessary for other advanced computing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to thrive. The White House specifically calls for high-performance data storage centers and advanced cloud services in the Advanced Computing section, two technology areas that are increasingly relevant to the infrastructure industry. As cloud platforms like AASHTOWare Project and Appia grow more advanced and are able to improve data collection using GIS tools, the data infrastructure will need to grow alongside them to store and process that data.
In addition, the White House also denounces the emergence of new data analysis techniques. As state and local agencies hone their data analytics skills to ensure they get the most value out of their contracts and stay ahead of rising labor and material costs, it’s easy to see the financial impact that the growing field of data analytics can have. about the industry To explore this further, feel free to check out our white paper on the value of cost-based estimating methodologies.
Advanced engineering materials
It is obvious that advanced engineering materials are highly relevant to the infrastructure industry. In recent years, we have seen the rise of advanced materials such as high-performance concrete to increase structural integrity, alloys with shape memory to external stimuli and can increase resilience, and even green materials such as plastic recycled and bamboo as engineers. address growing environmental concerns.
The inclusion of these materials on this list is not a surprise, but it is interesting to note that the White House also mentions “new and emerging techniques for material property characterization and life cycle assessment.” This inclusion is in line with the industry’s growing focus on transportation lifecycle management. More and more DOTs are implementing solutions like AASHTOWare Project Construction & Materials so they can closely track material usage and ultimately feed that data into an asset management system. You can read more about how state agencies are capturing digital as-built to support post-construction activities here.
Signature management and advanced and network detection
This area is primarily about military technology, as signature management itself is a military-adjacent term for detecting the electromagnetic signatures of assets and then modifying them to reduce detection. However, the White House document notes the rise of sensing technology in several sectors relevant to infrastructure, including energy, manufacturing, construction and the environment. This advanced sensing technology will continue the gradual march toward incorporating the workplace into the Internet of Things (IoT), the network of physical objects that transmit data about their status to a central database.
Of course, no technology will be more important to detecting and relaying this information than GIS, or as the list refers to it, “geophysical sensing.” We’re already seeing a large number of partnerships between companies like Trimble and Esri to connect GNSS hardware with Esri’s ArcGIS platform to map geo-enabled construction data. Our own partnership with Esri aims to connect field data to ArcGIS Field Maps to establish a record of geo-enabled, auditable digital com-builts. You can learn more about the benefits of geo-enabling your construction data here.
