Based on planned and anticipated growth, global consultant STV has formed a strategic partnership with Transcend, a maker of generative design tools for wastewater treatment plants. The tech firm produces full 3D models for treatment facilities that larger project owners can incorporate into their capital planning and for design teams to adapt to changing client needs.

“Transcend brings lot of value in our ability to consider a universe of options, narrow those down, and ultimately make final select with the owner, compress that timeline, and create more efficiencies,” says Chris Haney, STV water operating group president.

STV anticipates more work not just in wastewater treatment plant upgrades and expansions but also to meet requirements of federal regulations that have been enacted in recent years. “PFAS regulations came in last year, and that’ll drive quite a bit of work over next several years and decades,” adds Haney, noting that there aren’t enough dollars available for all the projects needed, and owners will need to maximize the funding they’ve secured.

Transcend was founded in 2019, originally as an outgrowth of an EPC firm that was looking to come up for new design concepts in wastewater treatment. The system is based on parametric and generative design principles, as opposed to the newer kind of machine learning and large-language model-driven artificial intelligence-type systems seen with ChatGPT and similar AI systems. 

That’s an important distinction, says Transcend Chief Customer Officer Adam Tank, since his company’s AI system is not capable of the kinds of “hallucinations” and sporadically unreliable output some other AI tools can spit out.

“There’s a lot of talk going around about generative AI [like ChatGPT] versus generative design, and we are the latter,” he explains. “I would never trust a generative AI model to create a physical structure that needs to be based on engineering principles and decisions, since we can’t track the decisions that model made in creating the final output.”

Instead, Transcend works from basic engineering principles and rules in its generative output, and offers the user the ability to check its work. The goal isn’t to eliminate the designer, but to speed up their ability to iterate different designs to client needs, says Tank. 

“Every single decision the software makes can be traced back to a textbook rule of thumb,” he explains. “So if you ask why is there this number of blowers or membranes, it can show you in an engineering textbook the page where the formula it used is.”

Transcend’s models are exported in widely used formats, with its piping designs editable in AutoCAD and an option to export a RVT file for direct use in Revit.

Transcend’s system works through several stages. It starts off a base level of water quality and effluent processing goals and available treatment options. Then it takes into account site and civil data, the physical constraints of the plant’s location and how those factors would impact standard or nonstandard plant designs. This is not just useful for greenfield projects but also for optimizing existing plants, says Tank. 

“So we can pull up geolocated map and mark up the buildings, and give the software parameters for a clarifier, how deep the foundations, how thick the walls are, and the software can make smart decisions. You can also do this with a facility built 20 to 30 years ago where you’ve lost the as-builts and it’s operating differently than designed.”

A Useful Tool in a Demanding Sector

For STV, this kind of rapid automation can help meet the rising demand for water work, says Haney. “It’s not to say we push can a button and have a state-of-the-art wastewater plant delivered to us, but there are parts and pieces early on in the project that can be significantly automated and streamlined.”

But the deliverable models aren’t the real value of Transcend’s tools, explains Haney. “We are now at a place we can have much broader conversations with clients on selecting the right approach for a particular project.” And it’s not just in the design phase, but much earlier as well. “It’s very beneficial on the frontend, when the client only has an idea of what they want. With these scenarios we can create [in Transcend] the conversations can commence on bigger, broader ideas.”

STV doesn’t plan to replace human engineers’ input on projects, but Transcend is extending their capabilities as engineers, says Tank, who notes the tech company also has its own slate of licensed wastewater and process engineers shaping the generative design system.

“We want to build [designs] that are tried and true, but if there is an option to try something different in Transcend it’s just like checking a box,” he says. “Why not try a membrane plant, or granular activated sludge, or look at aftertreatment? When engineers can look at more options they can be more proactive.”

And for every engineer used to tweaking a few settings in simulation software and calling it a day, Tank says Transcend has found there are plenty of engineers who want to try out new ideas. “We find there are wicked-smart engineers looking at traditional treatment, but have a harebrained idea they think will work. Yet traditional engineering has no time or money to try it, so they give the client what they want. ‘Could we repurpose these tanks and change it around?’ Let’s run a scenario in Transcend and create the data to show it’s a valid option they should consider,” he says.

All of this is within the engineer’s existing job, but it allows for options that traditionally it wouldn’t be worth the time or money to explore. “They’re not trying to massage the data to get answer they want, but trying out ideas they don’t have time to simulate, show this wild idea can work,” adds Tank.

And for some growing markets, thinking outside the box may more of a necessity than ever, Haney says. “Texas already has challenges meeting its water demands, and the state’s water needs are valued at $150 billion,” Haney says, adding that high-demand facilities such as data centers will only tax water infrastructure further. “We see Transcend as partners and an opportunity to address these issues.”

Jeff Rubenstone is Deputy Editor for News and Technology at the Engineering News-Record. As news director of ENR he oversees the publication’s news coverage, and also covers emerging technologies and innovations in the construction space. With well over a decade of experience reporting on the industry, Jeff has a broad background in engineering and construction journalism. He is based in New York City.