There are always new things to learn. I think perhaps a decade ago I would have got a different response when I said to my firm: “Can I go and do a data science degree?” I originally started at Atkins after coming out of university with a civil engineering degree. I developed an interest in smart cities, data science and future cities, and the company funded me to do another degree at the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London.

I can see the industry moving in a direction that’s really gratifying. We started talking about digital technology in a big way a couple of years ago; and, looking at change in the built environment sector in the last five years, we’ve really seen the sector start to adapt to technology. Take the commercial market: we’ve seen people such as serviced office provider WeWork disrupt the model by using technology to affect how people rent workspaces. In the same way, the construction industry is experiencing a digital transformation on a scale we haven’t seen before.

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