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