In this episode, Owen Keenan sits down with Brooks Smith, Chartered Structural Engineer, open-source contributor, and Head of Engineering R&D at ClearCalcs.

Brooks shares his unconventional career journey, from testing software at Ansys to conducting forensic investigations at the Empire State Building, before moving into cold-formed steel design and engineering platform development. Together, they explore how the engineer’s toolkit is evolving, from spreadsheets and hand calcs to cloud-based systems, AI-driven workflows, and data-informed design standards.

Whether you’re a design engineer, software-savvy practitioner, or just curious about the future of engineering, this episode dives into the mindset and tools shaping our profession.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps:

• 0:00 – Introduction

• 1:20 – Brooks Smith’s background

• 5:40 – Open-source projects and programming journey

• 7:20 – Transition into structural engineering

• 10:20 – Evolution of engineering tools over time

• 17:50 – How tools have improved practice

• 22:01 – Defining AI in the context of structural engineering

• 26:25 – AI’s role in structural design workflows

• 29:17 – What is emergent design?

• 31:36 – How innovation shapes standards and practice

• 33:47 – ClearCalcs tools and what’s next in development

• 38:30 – AI host summary and closing thoughts🔗 Resources & Mentions:

• 🔧 ClearCalcs
  https://www.clearcalcs.com/?utm_source=owenkeenan&utm_medium=partnerships&utm_campaign=podcast-feature

• 
  

  👤 Brooks Smith – LinkedIn
  www.linkedin.com/in/smithbh

• 
  

  💻 Open-source tools
  anaStruct (GitHub)
  pyCUFSM (GitHub)

• 
  

  📽️ CFSEI Presentation Slides (2024)
  Google Slides

• 
  

  📄 CFSEI Abstract
  Read the Abstract