The real world is a tricky place. Taking a design from concept to reality can be a complex task, especially when that design is a building. The construction industry relies on both precise planning and constant awareness on site to minimize the problems that happen when ideas meet the real world. Management tools that help in this regard are very valuable.

Autodesk makes those tools, and as a company, it has been moving toward the new world of cloud and the Internet of Things. “I’m really interested in what’s coming next. We’re always looking at the future to figure out what we can build and what we can leverage,” said Nathan Murith (pictured), senior software development manager at Autodesk Inc.

Murith spoke to David Goad (@davidgoad) and George Gilbert (@ggilbert41), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live-streaming studio, during the Spark Summit 2017 conference in San Francisco, California. They spoke about the process of construction and the impact of new technology. (* Disclosure below.)

Tracking the life of a project

As a company, Autodesk does a lot of things, including making software for businesses in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. Murith’s team, in particular, covers cloud and mobile products, primarily for construction-related industries.

The lifecycle for a construction project is complex, he explained. Typically, it starts on computer and then moves to coordination exercises between different disciplines, such as architecture, structural and plumbing. Only then does the company go on-site to start the actual construction. Companies leverage Autodesk tools to track the thousands of issues that come up during the building process.

As for machine learning and data science, Autodesk is still in the early days, Murith stated. The company’s goal is help customers gain insight into their data. Using image and text data taken from mobile devices, Autodesk can build models to bring out the things that are most critical at a site. Apache Spark, an open-source processing engine, helps build those models.

While the construction industry isn’t considered high-tech, even there data science and machine learning have an impact. Streaming applications are very useful, and more sites are putting up sensors so they can be proactive in dealing with problems. To companies considering data science, “Get started now is my advice,” Murith said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Spark Summit 2017. (* Disclosure: DataBricks Inc. sponsored this Spark Summit 2017 segment on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither DataBricks nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE