MIT Program Can Design New Structures That Use Far Less Material

New research from MIT provides a proof of concept for an innovative approach to structural design, arguing that if the technology is widely adopted, it could have a major impact on climate change.

The production of construction materials is one of the largest single contributors to carbon emissions, accounting for 7-9% of overall emissions. While construction itself emits greenhouse gases, just providing a project with raw materials is a polluting process in its own right.

Much of that pollution comes from concrete production, but a lot of it also comes from steel production. Bridges and skyscrapers might not read as inherently polluting, but the sheer volume of building materials still means they represent a real environmental footprint.

This new paper offers a solution called topology optimization. The team designed a computer program (which, incidentally, is not an AI model) that not only figures out how to reduce the volume of...

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