Civil engineers in Ghana has been called upon to embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) to facilitate and enhance infrastructural works in the country to improve the lives of the citizenry.
“What AI is doing is to help us take decisions to deliver on timelines, processes, and reports; so, let us embrace this data-driven future to become proactive rather than reactive.”
The call was made by AI experts during panel discussion on the topic: “AI Tools and Application in Civil Engineering – Relevance for Ghana” held on Thursday at the Engineering Centre in Accra
The panellists are Dr Prince Boakye-Sekyerehene, Lecture, Researcher, Mentor, AI and Digital Innovation Strategist of the University of Ghana, and Mr Aaron Boateng-Duah, Civil Engineer AI Strategist at Trygglek Sverige AB, Stockholm, Sweden.
The rest are Yaa Amanua Safo, Transportation Engineer, in Denver, Colorado, USA. And Mr Kwabena Atobra, Chief Executive Officer, Bloomcore Labs, Finland.
The programme brought together leading engineers, industry experts, policymakers, and technology practitioners to explore the transformative role of AI in civil engineering practice and its implications for Ghana infrastructure development.
Mr Aaron Boateng-Duah, the lead panellist in an interview with the media said engineers could leverage on the presence of AI to build their capacity to provide safe infrastructure for the people.
He said the data-driven handle would assist civil engineers to take fast decisions and reduce the time spent on processes and report writing.
Mr Michael Obeng Konadu, the Chairman of the Civil Technical Division of GhIE in an said the discussion has come at a critical time when Ghana was undertaking significant investment in infrastructure.
“We have been hearing of AI, and we have some idea of its importance and challenges. We as professionals we want to interact and get to understand it better and how it can improve the way we do our work hence the dialogue,” he stated.
He added, “So, it is not just the everyday conversation we have but how it can improve our professional output as engineers. So, we brought these guys here because they work with AI – they live outside the country in areas where these things are more common.”
He said previously engineers struggle to memorise, recollect things, do calculations, do manual checking, which were tedious but with AI handle a lot of these things could be done easily and quickly.
“We analyse, re-analyse, and evaluate before carrying out any activity – that is one of the biggest advantages. So, it makes our work easier in terms of timelines, predictability, analyses, evaluation, among other things,” he pointed out.
Mr Konadu said, “So all-in-all AI is going to make life easier if we learn how to use it properly.”
