In February 2024, the White House updated its list of Critical and Emerging Technologies, a regular report that comes via the National Science and Technology Council. While the list is often focused on increasing national security, the committee also prioritizes technology that expands economic prosperity and defends the American way of life. The technologies highlighted in this report can serve as a guide to where the country will be investing over the next decade and the technological advancements the country will prioritize. Per the report itself, the list can act as a resource to:

• Inform future efforts that promote U.S. technological leadership
• Cooperate with allies and partners to advance shared technological advances
• Develop, design, and govern technologies that yield tangible benefits for society
• Develop measures that respond to security threats

As infrastructure professionals charged with improving and supporting the American public, it’s that third bullet that is most relevant to our industry - though certainly, the increase in digital construction technology makes cybersecurity an important priority. In this article, we’ll highlight seven technologies featured in the latest update of this list that we can expect to have a tangible impact on the infrastructure construction industry - and as such, provide tangible benefits to society.

Advanced Computing

In a recent blog, we spoke about the importance of data governance and quality control and how these practices are necessary for other advanced computing technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to thrive. The White House specifically calls out high-performance data storage centers and advanced cloud services in the Advanced Computing section, two technology areas that are becoming increasingly relevant to the infrastructure industry. As cloud platforms like AASHTOWare Project and Appia grow more advanced and capable of enhanced data collection through GIS tools, the data infrastructure will need to grow alongside them to store and process said data.

Additionally, the White House also calls out the rise of new data analysis techniques. As state and local agencies hone their data analysis skills to ensure they are getting the most value out of their contracts and staying ahead of the rising costs of labor and materials, it’s easy to see the financial impact that the growing field of data analysis can have on the industry. To explore this further, feel free to check out the whitepaper we produced on the value of cost-based estimation methodologies.

Advanced Engineering Materials

It is obvious that Advanced Engineering Materials are highly relevant to the infrastructure industry. In the past few years, we’ve seen the rise of advanced materials like high-performance concrete to increase structural integrity, shape-memory alloys to external stimuli and can increase resilience, and even eco-friendly materials like recycled plastic and bamboo as engineers deal with rising environmental concerns.

The inclusion of these materials in this list is no surprise, but it’s interesting to note that the White House also mentions “novel and emerging techniques for material property characterization and lifecycle assessment.” That inclusion falls in line with the growing industry focus on transportation lifecycle management. More and more DOTs are implementing solutions like AASHTOWare Project Construction & Materials so they can closely track material usage and ultimately feed that data into an asset management system. You can read more about how state agencies are capturing digital as-builts to support post-construction activities here.

Advanced and Networked Sensing and Signature Management

This area mostly deals with military technology, as signature management itself is a military-adjacent term for detecting the electromagnetic signatures of assets and then modifying them to reduce detection. However, the White House document notes the rise of sensing technology across multiple infrastructure-relevant sectors, including energy, manufacturing, building, and environmental. This advanced sensing technology will continue the gradual march towards making the jobsite part of the Internet of Things (IoT), the network of physical objects that transmit data about their status to a central database.

Of course, no technology will be more important to sensing and transmitting this information than GIS, or as the list refers to it, “geophysical sensing.” We’re already seeing a large number of partnerships between companies like Trimble and Esri to connect GNSS hardware with Esri’s ArcGIS platform for mapping geo-enabled construction data. Our own partnership with Esri aims to connect field data back to ArcGIS Field Maps to establish a record of geo-enabled, auditable digital as-builts. You can read more about the benefits of geo-enabling your construction data here.