Arup

This category is open to any geotechnical company that can show excellence in the way it has used digital technology to improve systems, performance, processes or project delivery within its own business between January 2022 and January 2023. Entries in this category should focus on business-wide innovations and, where applicable, be used on multiple projects. Project-specific innovations should be entered in the Technical Excellence category. Entries could focus on a particular digital innovation - such as an initiative to improve safety, employment practices, collaboration or delivery - or present how digital innovation is fostered and encouraged across the business and the benefits this is driving. The innovation could be site or office based, and entrants should present clear evidence of how the innovation has delivered performance, cost, health and safety or reliability improvements for the business and how this benefits both clients and society.

Powering pile design through parametrics

Arup’s project to Power Pile Design Through Parametrics embodies digital innovation in piled noise wall analysis and design. Our Grasshopper-based parametric workflow offers a 3600x speed improvement over the traditional pile analysis method. Further time savings are achieved through the modular plug-and-play approach adopted for the tool and the ability to link together various analysis software packages, in-house ArupCompute calculation frameworks, embodied carbon calculations, and link into existing automated drawing workflows. Optioneering is facilitated through PowerBI dashboards and reporting of key design parameters, allowing the impact of major design decisions to be understood earlier in the project’s life-cycle.