Martin Fischer: How AI and Virtual Reality Can Build Better Homes, Buildings, and More

The engineering professor explains how computer science tools could reshape the field of construction.

Illustration of the world with mountains, buildings, and wind turbines.

For a profession that has existed essentially since the beginning of human civilization, few people fully appreciate the importance of construction in our everyday lives, but Martin Fischer does.

To build the key infrastructure of society, he says, requires intimate understanding of human nature, the environment, the materials and the ever-evolving techniques of building things.

Fischer has grown frustrated with the present state of his profession and decided to change its trajectory using artificial intelligence and virtual reality to redefine what construction will look like in the future.

It’s an effort he hopes will unite the profession in creating more efficient, safer and more livable homes, buildings, airports, bridges and more. Fischer muses all about the future of construction in this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast with host Russ Altman, who is a Stanford HAI associate director. Listen and subscribe here.

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