Corporate Vision September 2017

10 CORPORATE VISION / September 2017 , Carollo Engineers, Inc. is an environmental engineering firm that specialises in the planning, design, and construction of water and wastewater facilities. As an exclusive winner of the Software & Technology Innovation 2017 – USA, we find out more about the firm’s workwith water including its foundation in Phoenix, Arizona back in 1933. A Passion for Water From a single office with three engineers, Carollo has grown to more than 1000 people in 42 offices throughout the United States. Their staff includes civil, structural, electrical, mechanical, environmental, and instrumentation and control engineers, as well as scientists, planners, architects, and CAD designers. Charlie He, an Associate Vice President with Carollo in charge of its decision support system R&D team, begins by telling us about the firm’s work and their thoughts on winning the exclusive Software & Technology Innovation 2017 – USA accolade. “At Carollo, water is our focus, our business, and our passion. It’s all we do. And we are experts at managing the most valuable resource on earth while supporting our clients in the protection and enhancement of their water supplies. We are industry leaders in potable water supply, wastewater treatment, and storm water management strategies, as well as direct potable and indirect potable reuse technologies and practices. “It’s a big surprise, very exciting, especially because we are not a software company. Receiving a phone call from London informing us that we won a software innovation award means a lot to me and my team. Indeed, such recognition and encouragement is one of the best testimonies of Carollo’s successful R&D program. It is a proof of our passion and dedication to providing innovative solutions to the world’s water challenges.” Staying on this note of optimism, Charlie then offers his thoughts on the extent to which 2016 was a year of outstanding innovations through the world of software and technology. He also explains how software innovation has exceeded expectations, increased the possibilities of business expansion, and has improved the overall development of business operations. “2016 was a year of outstanding innovations through the world of software and technology. Indeed, many exciting milestones were accomplished in the software and technology worlds, including rapid growth in the field of big data machine learning, cloud computing, cyber security, and rapid adoption of business intelligence platforms. “In the water engineering related software field, we saw the development of Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment (QMAR) tools for direct and indirect potable reuse, reliability assessment software for water system resilience to earthquake and other natural disasters, a web portal and several web apps for distribution system water quality modelling, and integrated “One Water” management. Carollo’s Blue Plan-it® Decision Support System integrated all these new developments in 2016, through the implementation of application service provider (ASP) technology, SQL Server, and Tethys web portal, the adoption of the Monte Carlo Simulator, and the creation of an innovative nonlinear solver.” “However, the Blue Plan-it® Decision Support System has exceeded our expectations. It has enhanced Carollo’s creative problem solving capabilities by applying scenario management, genetic algorithm, full factorial solver, and Monte Carlos simulation to conventional water engineering. This contributes to business expansion, helping us to serve our municipal utility clients as well as those in the industries of power, semiconductor, textiles, mining, food and beverage, chemical, petroleum, and pharmaceuticals.” Charlie explains that Blue Plan- it® Decision Support System is a fully customizable integration, simulation, and optimization model suite. He develops this interesting point in more detail. “Using a commercially available ExtendSim® platform, BPI connects with SQL servers, Tethys Platform, web GIS, a series of external dashboards, business intelligence tools, and specialty model applications to support our clients in making decisions for complex water system challenges. Integrated with our almost 85 years of water engineering expertise, this powerful tool allows our engineers to incorporate chemistry, biology, hydraulics, treatability, regulations, equipment data, cost estimates, and financial and statistics analyses into one platform.” Finally, Charlie brings things to a close by detailing where he sees software innovation heading in the future and the role that his firm will play in this, underlining that the 21st century is an exciting age for the software developer and that it will continue to grow rapidly in every aspect of our lives. “At Carollo, water is all we do and now we do it online. We do it using innovative software tools such as The Blue Plan- it® Decision Support System. We are committed to bridging the gap between fundamental research and practical, innovative, and reliable solutions for those we serve. We believe that creativity, science, and technology must be integrated with sound engineering to meet the complex challenges facing our industry. Challenges such as aging infrastructure, increasingly stringent water quality and discharge requirements, the movement toward sustainability, and growing water supply shortages require innovative thinking and innovative tools. “2017 so far has been another promising year for Carollo. As for the Blue Plan-it® team, we are working on training more users, developing new features and establishing new applications. Several new technologies that we are developing and testing include applying Monte Carlo simulation to water facility design, leveraging big data machine learning for asset management and real time process control, and integrating multiple business intelligence dashboards into our project delivery. 1705CV15