FoDES - Future of Design & Engineering Software

We explore how smart glasses moved from bulky prototypes to practical tools, why waveguides make displays vanish into lenses, and how hybrid AI solves the offline problem. Dr. Chris Parkinson explains the tradeoffs between tethered and on-board compute, and where enterprise adoption is outpacing consumer demand.

• Waveguides turning thin lenses into bright displays
• Tethered glasses as lightweight monitors vs full Android on-head
• Enterprise durability, all-day shifts, and safety constraints
• Privacy lessons from Google Glass and why context matters
• Vuzix strategy supplying components and building solutions
• Manufacturing waveguides at scale in the US
• Weight, battery, comfort limits and power tradeoffs
• Monocular vs binocular displays, resolution realities
• Prescription clip-ins and optical placement
• AI voice interfaces, cloud vs edge, hybrid workflows

We explore how complex electrical systems can be designed faster and with more confidence by combining an intuitive canvas with deep electrical intelligence and pragmatic AI. Anthony Samuel shares lessons from aerospace startups, Y Combinator and competing with incumbents while staying focused on validation and usability.

• Seed funding from YC, Floodgate, Boost VC, enabling hiring and product build
• Why New York and other hubs matter for advanced hardware
• Startups versus incumbents framed as validation of the market
• Respect for safety: AI as assistant, not replacement
• Common failure modes in harness design and integration
• Artifact’s core: collaborative system schematics to manufacturing outputs
• Visio-like ease with domain intelligence under the hood
• Parts libraries, BOM accuracy, and rules checking roadmap
• Concept-to-detail design flow and future integrations
• De-risking: technical execution and market fit through real users

We explore how GIS connects BIM, CAD, and reality capture into usable context for design, construction, and operations. Gaussian splatting takes center stage as Patrick Wallace explains how it preserves fine detail and enables point clouds, meshes, and object detection at scale.

• Indoors product ingesting DWG to power floor-aware campus maps
• Difference between authoring tools and GIS as the system of context
• Drones, LIDAR, photogrammetry workflows for operational models
• Weekly drone flights for 4D construction review and issue forensics
• Gaussian splatting fundamentals, benefits, and capture best practice
• Filling gaps with open imagery and managing artifacts
• Building point clouds and meshes from images and video
• Cloud-first processing, streaming data, and single source of truth
• AI deep learning models for solar panel and asset detection
• Living Atlas curation, partner data, and scalable access

Tassos Hadjicocolis, CEO of Phenometry, and Stephanos Androutsellis-Theotokis, CTO and founder, give a detailed demo of Phi, a browser-based modeler that makes organic shapes quickly and precisely, then sends results to Onshape as clean NURBS for downstream CAD operations. 

• Running Phi inside or alongside Onshape
• Direct push–pull of vertices, edges, faces
• Curvature combs and smoothen for fairing
• Precise move, rotate, and scale with inputs
• Image‑based modeling and pop‑out extrusions
• Exporting to STEP with tight NURBS tolerance
• Snapping to Onshape faces and edges
• Dissolve to replace face groups with a single patch
• Mirror vs symmetry for flexible constraints
• STL attachment and flatten for surface control
• Limits of round‑trip import and current workarounds
• Roadmap toward G2/G3 continuity and shape optimization

We dive into why CAD feels hard and how natural-language automation can remove friction without forcing a platform switch. Co-founder and CEO Owen Dourneau explains MecAgent’s approach to compiling plain English into SolidWorks actions, the limits of file translation, and where AI can truly help engineers.

• Pain points with feature trees and steep learning curves
• Why building on top of SolidWorks beats starting from scratch
• LLMs as a CAD compiler for dependable automation
• Examples like DXF export and sheet metal unfolding
• Simplicity over code editors to reach non‑programmers
• Risks from incumbents and startup speed advantage
• Drawings automation tradeoffs and scope
• Library, remixing, and sharing of automations
• Roadmap toward more autonomous CAD agents
• Auxiliary tools for engineering Q&A and part finding
• Partner discussions and realistic adoption paths

We talk with Mastercam CEO Russ Bukowski about how AI, vertical integration are reshaping CAM. From voice‑enabled Copilot to reseller acquisitions under Sandvik, Russ lays out a roadmap for faster programming, safer code, and a tighter art‑to‑part thread.

• Modernizing Mastercam’s UX and onboarding the next generation
• Vertical integration of sales, service, and support to get closer to customers
• Sandvik acquisition and the digital thread from design to inspection
• Copilot as an action layer: voice commands, automation, and scripts
• Leveraging tooling data for safer feeds and speeds across materials
• Enabling one‑off and small‑batch work with generative programming
• Partner tools for faster quoting and job breakdowns
• Elevating experts while reducing time‑to‑competency for novices
• Competitive stance on AI leadership in CAM

Eduardo Torrealba, founder and CEO of Lumafield, on how industrial CT gives engineers a safe, fast way to see inside products and make better decisions. He discusses LumaField’s approach to trials, safety, resolution and GD&T from scans.

• Value of non‑destructive 3D inspection for complex assemblies
• Differences between industrial and medical CT and how shielding works
• Try‑before‑you‑buy approach and what it costs
• Main manufacturing use cases across batteries, plastics, and electronics
• Limits and trade‑offs for resolution, contrast, and dense materials
• CAD‑to‑scan comparison and ethical lines around reverse engineering
• GD&T from scans as a faster alternative to extensive CMM programs
• Company footprint, manufacturing in Massachusetts and software in San Francisco

We talk to Fraser Patterson, CEO and founder of Skillit, about how digitizing skilled trade workers would affect hiring speed and quality, why construction jobs are resistant to AI displacement, and what new data reveals about women entering the trades and pay equity. Practical AI supports recruiters and workers without removing humans from high-stakes decisions.

•Diagnosing labor shortage as an access and data problem
• Founder’s journey from journeyman carpenter to tech builder
• Fuilding data-rich worker profiles and semantic search
• Privacy-preserving eligibility checks via co‑pilot outreach
• Scale and demand for data center and energy projects
• Worker-friendly onboarding designed for deskless realities
• Rigorous screening and trade assessments as skill signals
• Women in trades data, faster ramp, smaller pay gap
• Why construction resists automation and offshoring
• AI for scheduling and sourcing with humans in the loop
• Focus on US now with future global expansion

SPONSORED EPISODE

Shiva Dhawan, CEO & Co-Founder at Attentive.ai shares his journey from mechanical engineering to building an AI-based takeoff software for construction, and explains why manual takeoffs from PDFs remain one of the biggest bottlenecks in bidding workflows. The conversation dives into how AI can read construction drawings, the role of human verification in ensuring accuracy, and why PDFs, not BIM files, still dominate the bid phase in North America.

The discussion also covers:

• What construction takeoffs are and why they’re foundational to estimating
• How AI interprets drawings, symbols, and schedules from PDFs
• The challenges of inconsistent symbols and design standards
• Why human-in-the-loop QA is critical for reliable AI takeoffs
• Scaling from 50/50 human–AI effort toward a 90/10 model
• Why automation is essential as estimating labor remains scarce
• What’s next for AI in preconstruction, including estimates and bid filtering

This episode is especially relevant for estimators, preconstruction managers, contractors, and engineers interested in how AI can increase bid capacity without sacrificing accuracy.

For more about Sponsored Episodes, see our Sponsorship section. 

We explore how 3D utility-centric design on top of AutoCAD speeds grid and fiber projects by connecting CAD, GIS, and SAP  by enforcing standards that prevent costly errors with Al Eliasen of SBS. We also dig into pragmatic AI uses that shorten proposals and enhance UX without risking safety.

• Origins of SBS and Autodesk utility heritage
• Competition with Bentley; partnership with Esri
• GIS as source of truth for underground design
• 2D input with 3D models for true digital twins
• Intelligent design rules for safety and standards
• Training designers fast with drag-and-drop workflows
• Pragmatic AI for planning, help, and materials selection
• Substation design in 3D with embedded logic
• Fiber design acceleration and strand peel-off handling
• Security and reliability realities for modern grids