How to Make Geotechnical Software More Readable and Usable in the Future – Ep 064

In this episode, we talk to Louis Aaron, a senior at Princeton working on a geotechnical software program to help geotechnical engineers record soil data in the field and why he thinks it will be the future of geotechnical engineering. Engineering Quotes: Here Are Some of the Questions We Ask Aaron: How did your interest in the geotechnical field started? As someone whose academic focus is on data and data analysis, what was it about the geotechnical engineering industry that caught your attention during your time at your internship? Since returning to school to finish your degree, you started building a product to solve some of these problems. Can you give us a sense of what that solution looks like, and tell us why you think it doesn’t exist yet? Why do you believe this class of software is the future of geotechnical engineering, and what does it mean for engineers’ careers today? Where are you with your solution now, and how can people get involved? What advice would you like to give to geotechnical engineers out there? Here Are Some of the Key Points Discussed About How to Make Geotechnical Software More Readable and Usable in the Future: Sometimes older software packages can be limiting engineers by the way they do things and cannot do things. They also provide many places for data error re-entry and human error when the same data is captured multiple times. There has been a lack of innovation regarding geotechnical data capture software, and many engineers have been waiting a long time for an updated solution. It is the reason why Louis decided to start developing updated software that geotechnical engineers and public sector companies can use. Louis’ solution is a web-based platform where engineers and geotechnical labs can enter or upload their geotechnical data. The data is then stored in the same data structure for firms and geotechnical labs, which reduces the need for data re-entry. It helps geotechnical engineers spend less time on data entry and quality checks and focus more on the important work they should be doing. Louis’ solution is still in development, and he is getting feedback from engineers, municipalities, and DOTs on where it can be improved and what can be added. The website version of this solution will be made available in the beginning of December. The tablet app is still very much under development but should be ready for prelaunch in mid-December 2022, and made available to everyone by February 1, 2023. This kind of data entry solution will be the future of geotechnical engineering data capture because many different institutes are already requiring a form of data to be submitted digitally to them, and the demand is expected to grow significantly over the coming years. Proactive geotechnical engineers will start generating very valuable and easily searchable databases to enable borings to be mapped instantaneously. If you would like to get involved in this venture or would like more information about it, please send Louise Aaron an email. Geotechnical engineers must not be afraid of digitization. Most geotechnical data is already entered digitally but in the wrong format. Transitioning to cloud-based platforms is simple and the process should take around an hour. Once you have a viable database, you can start to perform analysis very easily. Do not procrastinate about digitization in your company. It is easily done and it will unlock many tools for your company. More Details in This Episode… About the Guest: Louis Aaron Louis is currently a senior at Princeton University studying Operations Research in the engineering school. He took a gap year in 2020-2021 to work for nine months at The Boring Company (TBC), Elon Musk's tunneling venture,