Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

As artificial intelligence (AI) moves from research to reality, new insights and increasingly automated decision making are disrupting entire supply chain networks. AI will affect everything-from raw materials sourcing to factory floor productivity. These emerging technologies will unlock business value while simultaneously revealing opportunities to better utilize the workers within those ecosystems.

Fueled by growth across its networked infrastructure, smart city applications, and grid modernization services, Black & Veatch has retained the top global telecommunications ranking among U.S.-based engineering companies – the eighth time in the past nine years the company has held that distinction in the Engineering News-Record’s “Top 500 Design Firms” report.

Munich Airport has an ambitious target to become the first carbon neutral airport in Germany. We spoke to Bernd Schönhofer, Strategic Sustainability Manager at Munich Airport, who told us about the company’s ambitious sustainability programs and how reporting has helped them remove silos in the organization.

Powered by 100 percent biofuel, FedEx's Boeing 777 ecoDemonstrator celebrated Earth Day with a stop at the shipping giant's Memphis hub.

Electric utilities are realizing that distribution modernization programs, also referred to as grid modernization, can no longer be put off. Overhauling the electric distribution system will require upgrades to OT, as well as to the networks that allow IT and OT components to communicate to improve reliability. The benefits are clear: Grid operators need advanced sensors, communications and automation so they can see what’s happening in real time, which will lessen disruption while enhancing efficiency, reliability, security and safety.

Intent on safeguarding the nation’s largest electric grids from potential mayhem, federal regulators have stepped up their oversight of the security of power utilities in an attempt to protect it from threats and incidents such as widespread, long-duration blackouts caused by digital saboteurs. Cyber threats linger, however, with operational technology (OT), including water systems that are far less centralized and, thus, more vulnerable.

New technology is changing our work and social lives at unprecedented speed and intensity. Leaps in technological advancement are nothing new, and innovation often results in incredible step changes in the home and the workplace: the printing presses of the 1400s widened access to books (and therefore knowledge) for the first time; the Industrial Revolution’s mechanisation led to an explosion in both industrial output and urbanisation; cars, aeroplanes and the internet have connected people around the world like never before.

Consulting Engineers of Alberta (CEA) presented Tetra Tech (EBA) with an Environmental Award of Merit at the CEA Showcase Awards Gala, an event attended by more than 500 industry leaders in February 2017. The Showcase Awards recognize excellence in consulting engineering in Alberta and throughout the world. Tetra Tech received the Environmental Award of Merit for its work with Newalta Corporation to design a closure approach for a former oilfield waste land treatment facility south of Drayton Valley, Alberta.

The fisheries sector is vital to the economy of the Philippines, particularly for the population whose livelihoods depend on small-scale fisheries. Excessive and unsustainable fishing, population growth, uncontrolled development, and the effects of climate change have degraded fish populations in recent decades.

Tetra Tech is supporting enhanced fisheries management through the Ecosystems Improved for Sustainable Fisheries (ECOFISH) project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). We are using innovative interventions and technological solutions to conserve marine biodiversity, enhance ecosystem productivity, and restore profitability of fisheries in key marine bio-diverse areas.