Bentley Systems, Incorporated recently announced that Seequent, The Bentley Subsurface Company, has signed an agreement to acquire Flow State Solutions, an industry leader in geothermal simulation software. The move further solidifies Seequent’s position as the most comprehensive subsurface software provider for the geothermal industry.
Flow State Solutions’ geothermal reservoir, wellbore, and surface network simulation software helps project developers and operators better understand geothermal resources for asset development and optimisation and improved well performance. Combining Flow State Solutions’ Volsung portfolio with Seequent’s capabilities creates the most robust end-to-end solution for reservoir analysis available. Detailed models of the subsurface built in Leapfrog Energy can be utilised in Flow State Solutions’ simulation environment to build a full picture of a geothermal asset.
Geothermal industry leaders are already utilising both solutions to better understand their resources. Simon Webbison, Vice President, Exploration and Resource Management, Ormat Technologies Inc., said, “Ormat Technologies is one of the largest and most active geothermal companies globally, and we are delighted to see the combination of Seequent and Flow State Solutions software capabilities through this acquisition. We already use both companies’ software to better understand our geothermal assets and predict performance, and we are looking forward to working with the joint team to continue driving our success.
Graham Grant, CEO, Seequent, said, “We are delighted to welcome the Flow State Solutions team to Seequent. Geothermal has the potential to help solve the world’s biggest energy challenges. With this acquisition, Seequent’s best-in-class subsurface analysis software enables a full understanding of geothermal asset performance.”
Flow State Solutions co-founder Jonathon Clearwater, who joins Seequent as Technical Domain Expert, Reservoir Engineering, said, “We are excited to join Seequent’s energy team. By combining Seequent’s expertise and our technical capability in geothermal modeling, we are looking forward to making a significant contribution to the renewable energy transition through improved management of natural resources.”
At its annual Year in Infrastructure conference, Bentley Systems, Incorporated described 2023 as a “groundbreaking year” for infrastructure intelligence. Citing users’ projects, CEO Greg Bentley highlighted how infrastructure organizations are overcoming the engineering resource capacity gap through infrastructure intelligence strategies. When asked to quantify the engineering hours saved through digital advancements, the Going Digital Awards finalists reported significant median savings of 18%.
Engineering data serves as the foundation and digital twins as the building blocks of infrastructure intelligence. With iTwin Platform, engineering data in Bentley Infrastructure Cloud (ProjectWise for project delivery, SYNCHRO for construction, and AssetWise for asset operations) can be aligned, queried, and managed to increase infrastructure intelligence over the lifecycle of projects and assets. Bentley Systems estimates that the company’s engineering users accumulate at least 100 million new unique digital components per month within their respective ProjectWise environments, teeing up potential infrastructure intelligence benefits across construction, operations, and maintenance. As an indication that digital twins are becoming mainstream, the proportion of Going Digital Awards finalists crediting iTwin has risen to 64% in 2023.
Greg Bentley highlighted multiple infrastructure intelligence strategies that organizations are using to further compound the value of their data, including reusing digital components, integrating subsurface modeling, and incorporating, into evergreen digital twins, operational data from IoT sensors, drones, and even crowdsourcing. He also explained how Going Digital Awards finalists and organizations in Singapore are accelerating their infrastructure intelligence through the use of AI.
Groundbreaking Infrastructure Intelligence in Singapore
In Singapore, the location for the 2023 Year in Infrastructure conference, digital twins are extensively used to optimize decision-making and operations:
PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, is working in collaboration with Bentley Systems on a Singapore National Research Foundation-funded project to develop a new system in detecting and localizing water system anomalies and leaks in near real time. Through a high-fidelity digital twin, AI-based predictive models, and hydraulic network model calibration and simulation, the project could potentially help in improving network resilience and water conservation.
SMRT Trains, the leading multi-modal public transport operator in Singapore, uses AssetWise Linear Analytics software as the basis for its Predictive Decision Support System to prioritize maintenance. The digital twin system has enabled SMRT to meet its service reliability targets by optimizing maintenance deployments.
Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) fully leverages Bentley Systems’ EMME and DYNAMEQ mobility digital twin software for its long-term and short-term planning, including operational traffic models for traffic impact and scheme analysis. This includes using Bentley Systems’ agent-based travel demand model.
The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is a leader in digital twin adoption. Dr. Victor Khoo, Director of Survey and Geomatics, SLA, joined the Year in Infrastructure conference to discuss Singapore’s national digital twin journey and share how a 0.225-meter accurate nationwide reality mesh from aerial surveying is incorporated with extensive inputs from other mapping datasets to produce a complete digital twin of the city, which is then shared with multiple agencies and research institutes to support Singapore’s sustainability initiatives.
Accelerating Infrastructure Intelligence with Bentley Infrastructure Cloud
Following Greg Bentley’s keynote, Bentley Systems’ product and technology leaders explained how the company’s offerings increasingly help users derive greater infrastructure intelligence from their data.
“Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, including ProjectWise, leverages infrastructure digital twins to unlock data in order to apply AI and accelerate infrastructure intelligence,” said Mike Campbell, Chief Product Officer.
Henry Okraglik, Global Director of Digital, WSP Australia, joined the Year in Infrastructure conference to explain the benefits of becoming data-centric through Bentley Infrastructure Cloud.
“As we’ve digitally matured, we’ve been able to embrace capabilities from Bentley Infrastructure Cloud to improve construction staging and planning, track and export quantity data across project phases, reduce the need for physical site visits, and a lot more,” said Okraglik.
For example, using ProjectWise, SYNCHRO, iTwin, and other Bentley products, WSP was able to reduce modeling time by 60%, increase productivity by 25%, and reduce the carbon footprint by 30% on a rail network project in Melbourne.
Advancing Bentley Open Applications with iTwin
To systematically introduce the benefits of digital twins in the design phase, Campbell announced the addition of iTwin capabilities in Bentley Open Applications, for modeling and simulation, starting with MicroStation. With iTwin capabilities and workflows natively integrated, Bentley Open Applications will be able to automatically create digital twins during the design process, enabling users to collaborate in real-time, evaluate the impact of changes more seamlessly, reduce rework, and expedite infrastructure intelligence.
“Today, digital twins are critical enablers of how infrastructure assets are built and operated. With iTwin-powered capabilities coming to Bentley Open Applications, all our users will also be able to leverage digital twin technology to improve their efficiency and effectiveness during design,” said Campbell.
Generative AI, powered by iTwin
Embracing AI’s potential to accelerate infrastructure intelligence, the company highlighted its existing analytical AI capabilities, powered by iTwin, for asset monitoring, and articulated its multi-faceted approach to generative AI for design. This approach is guided by the company’s commitment to help users gain ever more value from their own engineering data secured in Bentley Infrastructure Cloud – maximizing their potential from generative AI, while also ensuring each account retains explicit access and control.
Julien Moutte, Chief Technology Officer, provided examples of generative AI for infrastructure engineering, beginning with an AI agent assisting engineers in further optimizing site layouts by leveraging designs and data from previous projects. He also showed how generative AI can be applied to minimize time spent on project documentation by automating drawing production with fit-for-purpose annotations.
“We believe iTwin-powered generative AI capabilities will support engineers by augmenting the work they’re already doing. We see iTwin becoming a copilot to support better decision-making, reduce repetitive tasks, and increase design quality. It can help close the engineering resource capacity gap – not only by empowering current engineers to produce more but also by enabling a more rewarding work experience, enticing future engineers to join the community advancing infrastructure,” said Moutte.
Bentley Systems, Incorporated the infrastructure engineering software company, recently announced the finalists of the 2023 Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure. The annual awards programme honours the extraordinary work of Bentley software users advancing infrastructure design, construction, and operations throughout the world. Twelve independent jury panels, representing 12 award categories, selected the 36 finalists from over 300 nominations submitted by 235 organisations from 51 countries.
Representatives from the finalists’ organisations presented their projects to a panel of independent judges to determine the winners and meet with global press and industry executives at the 2023 Year in Infrastructure and Going Digital Awards event, which was held at Marina Bay Sands from 11 to 12 October 2023.
Chris Bradshaw, Bentley Systems’ Chief Marketing Officer, said, “We are so excited to be back in Singapore to present the Going Digital Awards finalists in front of our users and those attending virtually, as well as invited press and analysts at the 2023 Year in Infrastructure and Going Digital Awards event. These projects reflect how organisations have improved their workflows by embracing digital technologies to maximize efficiency and cost savings. I congratulate the finalists for advancing infrastructure intelligence by adopting Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, iTwin Platform and products, and Bentley Open Applications and I wish them success on their future projects.”
The finalists in the 2023 Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure were:
Bridges and Tunnels
China Railway Changjiang Transportation Design Group Co., Ltd., Road & Bridge International Co., Ltd., Chongqing Expressway Group Co., Ltd. – Comprehensive Application of BIM-based Digital and Intelligent Design and Construction for the Liaozi Grand Bridge, Chongqing City, China
Collins Engineers, Inc. – Digital Twins and Artificial Intelligence for Historic Robert Street Bridge Rehabilitation, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States
WSP Australia Pty Ltd. – Southern Program Alliance, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Construction
Dura Vermeer Infra Landelijke Projecten, Mobilis, Gemeente Amsterdam – Bruggen en Straten Oranje Loper, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Laing O’Rourke – New Everton Stadium Project, Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom
Arcadis – RSAS – Carstairs, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Mott MacDonald – Standardizing Delivery of Phosphorus Removal Schemes for the UK Water Industry, United Kingdom
Phocaz, Inc. – CAD Assets to GIS – A CLIP Update, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Facilities, Campuses, and Cities
Clarion Housing Group – Twins: Creating a Golden Thread across Digital Estates, London, United Kingdom
Port Authority of New South Wales – Port Authority of New South Wales: A Case Study in Digital Transformation, New South Wales, Australia
vrame Consult GmbH – Siemensstadt Square – Digital Campus Twin in Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Process and Power Generation
MCC Capital Engineering & Research Incorporation Limited – Green and Digital Plant Construction Project of Linyi 2.7 Million Tons of High-Quality Special Steel Base, Linyi, Shandong, China
Shanghai Investigation, Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd. – Digital Asset Management of Hydropower Projects Based on Digital Twins, Liangshan, Yibin, and Zhaotong, Sichuan and Yunnan, China
Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Engineering & Research Institute Co., Ltd. – Digital Twin Application Project of Electrolytic Aluminum Engineering of Chinalco China Resources, Lvliang, Shanxi, China
Rail and Transit
AECOM Perunding Sdn Bhd – Johor Bahru–Singapore Rapid Transit System Link, Malaysia and Singapore
IDOM – Value Engineering Stage for Detailed Design & Supervision of the Rail Baltica Project, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
Italferr S.p.A. – New High Speed Line Salerno – Reggio Calabria, Battipaglia, Campania, Italy
Roads and Highways
Atkins – I-70 Floyd Hill to Veterans Memorial Tunnels Project, Idaho Springs, Colorado, United States
Hunan Provincial Communications Planning, Survey & Design Institute Co., Ltd. – Hengyang-Yongzhou Expressway in Hunan Province, Hengyang and Yongzhou, Hunan, China
SMEC South Africa – N4 Montrose Interchange, Mbombela, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Structural Engineering
Hyundai Engineering – Automated Design of Civil and Architectural Structures with STAAD API, Seoul, South Korea
L&T Construction – Construction of 318 MLD (70 MGD) Wastewater Treatment Plant at Coronation Pillar, New Delhi, India
RISE Structural Design, Inc. – Dhaka Metro Rail Line 1, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Subsurface Modeling and Analysis
Arcadis – South Dock Bridge, London, United Kingdom
OceanaGold – Validation of Digital Management Tools for OceanaGold’s Waihi Tailings Storage Facility, Waihi, Waikato, New Zealand
Prof. Quick und Kollegen GmbH – Deutsche Bahn Neubaustrecke Gelnhausen – Fulda, Gelnhausen, Hessen, Germany
Surveying and Monitoring
Avineon India P Ltd. – Provision of Services on the Generation of CityGML Models of Kowloon East for the Lands Department, Hong Kong SAR, China
Italferr S.p.A. – The Digital Twin for Structural Monitoring of St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
UAB IT logika (DRONETEAM) – DBOX M2, Vilnius, Lithuania
Transmission and Distribution
Elia – Digital Transformation and Connected iTwins in Smart Substation Design, Brussels, Belgium
PowerChina Hubei Electric Engineering Co., Ltd. – Full Life-cycle Digital Application on Xianning Chibi 500kV Substation Project, Xianning, Hubei, China
Qinghai Kexin Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd. – 110kV Transmission and Transformation Project in Deerwen, Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China, Gande County, Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai, China
Water and Wastewater
Geoinfo Services – Achieving Drink from Tap 24×7 Water Supply System for Emerging Economies, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India
L&T Construction – Rajghat Multi Village Rural Water Supply Scheme, Ashok Nagar and Guna, Madhya Pradesh, India
Project Controls Cubed LLC – EchoWater Project, Sacramento, California, United States
The structural design of the Marina Bay Sands was done by Arup and was the 2010 Year in Infrastructure Award winner for Innovation in Structural Engineering
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions and digital twin cloud services for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure will host its Year in Infrastructure 2019 Conference and awards ceremony at one of the most iconic buildings in Asia, the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore.
Advancing BIM through Digital Twins is the theme of this year’s conference, which takes place 21 to 24 October, 2019.
The Year in Infrastructure Conference is an annual global gathering of leading executives of infrastructure design, construction, and operations focused on best practices and technologies for going digital. This year’s conference features nearly 100 speakers and more than 150 informative sessions including keynotes by leading industry experts, user success stories, interactive workshops, panel discussions, and technology demonstrations.
Dr. Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO of ADDO AI, is a keynote speaker for the Year in Infrastructure 2019 Conference
Dr. Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO of ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) advisory firm headquartered in Singapore, is one of the guest keynote speakers for this year’s conference. Dr. Khanna has been a strategic advisor on artificial intelligence, smart cities, and fintech to clients including SMRT, SOMPO, and Smart Dubai. She was also named one of South East Asia’s groundbreaking female entrepreneurs by Forbes magazine in 2018.
Keith Clarke, chairman of the board for UK-based Forum for the Future, is the other featured guest keynote speaker. Clarke is a chartered architect with more than 40 years of experience in construction and engineering and was formerly the chief executive of the global engineering and design consultancy firm, Atkins. He is a non-executive director for Sirius Minerals plc, chair of Future Cities Catapult and Tidal Lagoon Power plc, vice president of the Institute of Civil Engineers, patron of the Environmental Industries Commission at Oxford, and has honorary fellowships from the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Structural Engineers, and Cardiff University. He is also visiting professor for sustainable design at Aston University.
Attendees will hear from other industry thought leaders and learn about technologies and best practices that are shaping the future of infrastructure delivery and operations. Speakers from Bentley’s strategic partner organizations, including Microsoft, Siemens, and Topcon will participate in technology demonstrations, presentations, and discussions on numerous topics.
New to this year’s conference are ACCELERATE sessions led by Bentley’s application experts. Featuring more than 20 topics, the sessions give infrastructure experts exclusive insights into how their organizations can master the latest enhancements and key capabilities of Bentley applications to help drive efficiency through multidiscipline workflows.
Attendees can learn best practices through Academies Day sessions led by industry experts. Academies Day features six sessions: digital advancement, construction, constructioneering, research, reality modeling, and process industries. The academies team will also conduct live, interactive sessions in the Technology Pavilion throughout the conference.
In addition, the 2019 finalists in Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure Awards program will present their projects during industry-focused forums — Buildings and Campuses, Digital Cities, Industrial Infrastructure, Rail and Transit, Roads and Bridges, and Energyand Water Utilities.Winners will be announced at a gala and awards program at the conclusion of the conference.
Chris Barron, chief communications officer for Bentley Systems, said, “We’re pleased to be hosting our Year in Infrastructure conference and awards gala in Singapore again this year. Singapore is a leader in innovative use of technology for the delivery and operations of infrastructure and was named a Smart City in 2018, so it is a fitting and inspirational location to host an event that explores the innovations and best practices of technology use for outstanding infrastructure projects around the world. And we’re proud to note that the extraordinary Marina Bay Sands structural system was designed by Arup using Bentley software and is a spectacular example of excellence in structural design and engineering.
Bentley Systems, Incorporated presented Synchro, a 4D construction modeling solution at the Microsoft Inspire conference in Las Vegas in July 2018. The use of Synchro as part of a mixed reality construction management solution for FC Barcelona’s Espai Barça sports stadium project was featured during the Mixed Reality (MR) and the Cloud session at the conference.
The Microsoft Inspire session, led by Microsoft’s Nancy Li, detailed how Bentley’s Synchro, a cloud-based 4D construction modeling solution, will be used for FC Barcelona’s major renovation to the Espai Barça sports arena in Barcelona, Spain, which when completed will accommodate more than 100,000 fans. In conjunction with time-lapse monitoring footage of the construction site provided by EarthCam, Bentley’s Synchro will help the stadium project team to visualise and compare construction progress with the 4D construction model.
Greg Demchak, technical architect for Bentley, said, “The scope of this project demands that we look for new solutions, and for this, we turned to Microsoft. Using Azure infrastructure, HoloLens technology, and Cognitive Services, multiple users can interact with a holographic representation of the stadium data at any moment in the construction process. We are also leveraging machine learning and on-site images to digitally track actual progress with Synchro.”
Bentley Systems is a Mixed Reality and CityNext partner with Microsoft, and will receive the 2018 Microsoft CityNext Partner of the Year Award during this year’s Microsoft Inspire Conference for its Azure-enabled software solution for Mass Rapid Transit Corporation’s world-class, Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya high-speed railway project in Malaysia.
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing infrastructure, recently announced the acquisition of Mumbai-based concrete building design and documentation software company S-Cube Futuretech Pvt. Ltd.
The addition of S-Cube Futuretech’s applications expands Bentley’s offerings specific to the needs of concrete engineering design and documentation software users in India, South East Asia, and the Middle East.
S-Cube Futuretech’s applications, including RCDC, RCDC FE, RCDC Plan, and Steel Autodrafter, deliver flexible and powerful design and documentation solutions for structural concrete building engineers and designers. Automated concrete documentation is localised to regional requirements and provides users with compelling value and capabilities which are complementary to Bentley’s widely used structural analysis, steel design, and BIM applications, STAAD, RAM, and AECOsim Building Designer.
“More than two billion people will fill the world’s cities over the next 30 years. This growth will continue to be concentrated in the developing markets of Asia, particularly India, China, and South East Asian countries. Efficient, automated, concrete design and detailing tools will be instrumental to every nation’s ability to address this demand,” said Raoul Karp, Bentley’s vice president of design engineering analysis.
Since 2014, Bentley Systems and S-Cube have collaborated to develop fully integrated concrete design and analysis applications. The acquisition brings together the knowledge base of S-Cube and Bentley’s respective teams of experts, representing decades of combined industry experience to provide state-of-the-art structural design and analysis technology.
“We are excited to be joining with S-Cube’s expert team whose proven technology provides interactive and automated concrete design and drawing capabilities to our STAAD, RAM, and AECOsim Building Designer users. S-Cube brings a wealth of experience in providing concrete design and drawing automation for the India, Middle East, and Southeast Asia markets,” said Santanu Das, senior vice president of design engineering for Bentley.
Sajit Nair, CEO of S-Cube Futuretech said, “As a global leader in the structural analysis and design space, Bentley brings state-of-the-art BIM and structural analysis technology, a strong user-centric ethos, and global market experience that will help scale our solutions to a much broader market. We are excited about bringing more functionality and capabilities to more users globally, in a shorter timeframe than we would have been able to otherwise.”
