Prof Kristof Crolla is an architect, educator, founder and principal of Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd. (LEAD), and Associate Head (Technology Transfer) at the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Architecture, where he directs the Building Simplexity Laboratory (BSL) and the BASc(Design+) programme. His work spans architectural practice, research, and education, with a focus on computational design, artificial intelligence, extended reality, material systems, and low-carbon, resource-efficient construction. Through LEAD and BSL, he develops built prototypes and research that translate emerging technologies into architectural and construction practice. Key projects include the World Architecture Festival-winning ZCB Bamboo Pavilion (Hong Kong, 2015), YEZO, and MemutAR (Taiwan, 2024). Earlier in his career, he was Lead Architect at Zaha Hadid Architects on projects including the Antwerp Port House.

George Guida is the founder and CEO of xFigura, the collaborative AI platform built for architects. xFigura brings together AI tools for concept ideation, visualization, and 3D workflows, and is used by thousands of designers at leading firms and universities worldwide, including ZHA, BIG, KPF, and OMA.

An ARB registered, LEED accredited architect and advises on industry policy through the RIBA and AIA Expert Advisory Groups on AI. Originally from Rome, he studied at the Architectural Association and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he now teaches. His earlier experience includes Foster + Partners and the MIT Media Lab.

Alex co-founded ShapeDiver, an online service for building design tools and configurators based on parametric 3D modeling. Before founding ShapeDiver, Alex led Evolute, a consultancy focusing on computational geometry and optimization. Alex is a mathematician by training.

Burçin Nalinci leads Zahner’s R&D initiatives at the intersection of robotics, computation, and craft. Her work defines computational tacit craft as the translation of embodied making into data-driven, collaborative systems that extend human expertise rather than automate it.

Guided by four interlocking pillars—Hardware & Robotics, Software & Computation, Material Innovation, and Lifecycle Knowledge—her team develops workflows that merge fabrication, field intelligence, and material computation. From robot-assisted welding to computational patinas, these systems convert a century of tacit craft into structured, quarriable knowledge—extending the reach of human craft through robotics, computation, and evolving materials.

Her current research links physical processes with sensing, imaging, and ML models to reveal relationships between process physics and performance. Within this feedback-rich ecosystem, knowledge stops being archival and becomes generative—a living framework where human insight, digital data, and machine intelligence continually evolve together.

Zak is a licensed professional engineer, MIT Master of Engineering graduate, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia GSAPP.

During 21 years at Arup, he became Project Director and Head of Digital Services for the Americas, leading complex, mission-critical work across disciplines.

His portfolio includes New York City’s $1.4 billion Fulton Center, Mexico City International Airport, and China Resources Tower.

Nicolas is a licensed architect specialized in computational design and BIM. After several years working within architecture firms in China and France, he moved into the software industry as a Solution Architect, delivering advanced automation processes for several industries (AEC, healthcare, automotive, mining). He now leads the team in charge of Virtual Twin asset creation within the CATIA Hub.

Moritz Rietschel is co-founder of Raven, building at the frontier of AI capabilities and CAD. His work builds on research at UC Berkeley from early 2024, bringing early LLMs into CAD as AI-collaborative tools with Prof. Kyle Steinfeld and robotic fabrication with Prof. Simon Schleicher. Moritz has lectured internationally on AI-based creative tools, published at ACADIA and the IJAC journal, hosted workshops at MIT and Tongji and contributed to international research conferences.

Sergey Pigach is a Senior Associate Applications Engineer at CORE studio | Thornton Tomasetti. Trained as an architect, he has spent nearly a decade developing computational tools for designers, architects, and engineers across the AEC industry. As part of CORE AI, the R&D group focused on practical applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in structural engineering, Sergey led the development of Cortex, CORE studio's ML-ops pipeline. His current work centers on research in agentic AI, AI safety, security, and emerging interoperability protocols such as MCP and A2A.

Sophie Moore is an Associate Application Developer at Thornton Tomasetti’s CORE studio. She develops web and desktop applications for the AEC industry, drawing on a background in structural and façade engineering.

Kam-Ming Mark Tam is an Assistant Professor of Architectural Structures at the University of Hong Kong and founder of StructurAI Lab. His research brings together structural engineering, computational design, and artificial intelligence, with a focus on graph machine learning, differentiable physics, and multimodal and large language models. His emerging work develops new graph-based representations of buildings and structures to model equilibrium more efficiently and to connect structural reasoning with goal-driven generation of structural geometry and building layouts across different data and design modalities.

Mark received his Dr.Sc. from ETH Zürich, his M.Eng. from MIT, and his M.Arch., along with undergraduate degrees in architecture and economics, from the University of Waterloo. His recent research has been recognized with the ETH Silver Medal and Honorable Mentions at CAAD Futures and for the Nervi Prize at IASS, while earlier work was recognized with the Hangai and Tsuboi Prizes. He co-chairs its Study Group on AI-Informed Structural Engineering & Design with Robert K. Otani and Pierluigi D’Acunto.

Dan Cascaval is the Director of Software Engineering at Branch, where he is leading the technical development of Branch Concept, a novel concept-stage platform for real-time structural design and analysis. Formerly a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at the University of Washington, his work combines graphics, programming languages, and parametric modeling in the service of evolving AEC technology into the next generation. Branch is incubated at StructureCraft, where it spans between real projects in the field to looking forward at the changing role of software in an AI-native future, and pushing AEC software forward from rigid workflows into intent-driven interactions.

Lily Huang leads product for Branch Concept, a web-based platform for structural optioneering that brings real-time structural sizing, embodied carbon, and supplier constraints into a single view, so design teams can shape the structure around each project's goals. A former practicing architect, her interest is in empowering designers to use data to advance conversations on sustainability and affordability in the built environment, and in closing the loop between the people who design buildings and the people who fabricate them.

Keyan Rahimzadeh is a structural engineer and architect who has spent his career building complex facades, and the software to make it possible. After 10 years working on high-profile projects at Front, Inc. in New York and London, he led Computational Design at Grimshaw, and built software at a venture-backed AEC startup. He is now a Principal and Global Technical Director at VIA, where he oversees the technical initiatives of the practice, including software development and automation across design, analysis, and fabrication.

Evan Troxel is a licensed architect with 25 years in AEC and a track record leading digital practice from inside an architecture firm. Since 2020, Evan has hosted TRXL, the longest-running podcast dedicated to technology in architecture and engineering, with 240+ episodes of long-form conversations with firm leaders, researchers, and founders. 

Matt Jezyk spent over two decades at Autodesk, contributing significantly to the development of Revit Architecture and Revit Structure. He also led the team responsible for Dynamo, a computational design tool widely adopted in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry.

Matt was most recently at Tesla, where he developed software to streamline the design, fabrication, and construction processes for the company’s Gigafactories.

Throughout his career, Matt has been instrumental in integrating computational and generative design with digital fabrication tools and robotics, and has presented his work at conferences such as ACADIA, SmartGeometry, and Robots in Architecture.

Andriy Mulyar is the founder and CEO of Nomic, which builds AI agents that help architecture, engineering, and construction firms deliver projects: reviewing drawings against firm standards and building codes, taking a first pass at submittals, and researching RFIs, with every finding cited to its source. Nomic trains its own models for reading drawings, specifications, and codes, and publishes research on them, including AEC-Bench, a benchmark for AI agents in AEC. Andriy founded Nomic in New York in 2022 after leaving a machine learning Ph.D. at NYU's Courant Institute, where he worked on interpretability. Before that, he was an early engineer at Rad AI, training language models on millions of radiology reports.

Joachim Viktil is CEO of Reope, a team of architects and engineers who code. Reope builds the customization layer for AEC design software and has for 9 years been turning scattered Dynamo, pyRevit and Grasshopper scripts into tools that work across a whole firm. Clients include BIG, KPF, Snøhetta, Heatherwick Studio and Autodesk. Joachim holds an MSc and an MBA. At AECtech he speaks on deterministic AI in AEC on Friday, and Reope runs the From User to Maker workshop with KPF on Wednesday, where attendees build working Revit add-ins.  

From a real estate development family, Clifton Harness fell in love with architecture at a young age and went on to obtain a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas. He soon found the need to bridge the gap between design and development, which led him to found TestFit with his cofounder, Ryan Griege, in 2017. Clifton strives to reinvent the development process to build what the world needs, fast.

Founder of Speckle, an open source ecosystem for the digital transformation of the AEC industry.
Architect & programmer. Previously at Arup, Marie Curie Fellow at UCL, Architect at Bogdan & Van Broeck. Alumni of the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture (MSc), PhD in digital design communication from UCL/The Bartlett.

Martha Tsigkari is a Senior Partner and Head of the Applied R+D (ARD) group at Foster + Partners. Her background spans architecture, engineering, and computer science. She has two decades of experience working on projects of all scales and uses. Her work incorporates computational design, human-computer interaction, machine learning, and optimization. She has investigated the usage of deep neural networks and genetic algorithms in the design process, aiming to solve problems ranging from passively actuated micromaterials to performance-driven urban layouts. She is also an Associate Professor at the Bartlett, UCL, and has lectured and published on the subject of computational design internationally.

Evan Troxel is a licensed architect with 25 years in AEC and a track record leading digital practice from inside an architecture firm. Since 2020, Evan has hosted TRXL, the longest-running podcast dedicated to technology in architecture and engineering, with 240+ episodes of long-form conversations with firm leaders, researchers, and founders. 

Denis brings more than two decades of experience leading digital engineering, technology, and innovation teams on major projects worldwide. In 2026, he became Suffolk’s Director of Jobsite of the Future, where he manages a team focused on identifying opportunities to improve project delivery, developing custom software, and deploying artificial intelligence tools across project sites. Denis and his team work directly with project teams to turn operational challenges into scalable solutions that improve design, schedule, process, safety, quality, cost and decision-making.

Previously, Denis served as Suffolk’s Director of Digital Engineering for New York, where he led a team responsible for virtual design, construction, and logistics planning across the region. His team supported major projects including South Shore University Hospital, White Plains Hospital, NYU Langone Health’s Brooklyn Ambulatory Hub, and the $2 billion Regeneron Tarrytown Campus Expansion.

Before joining Suffolk, Denis served as VDC Director for Delta Air Lines’ Construction Management Team, leading digital engineering efforts on the $4 billion, 1.2 million-square-foot LaGuardia Airport Terminal C project. Earlier, he was BIM Development Director for Samsung Construction & Trading in South Korea, where he led BIM and technology initiatives across the Samsung Corporation and supported projects in South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Denis began his career at Lend Lease in New York, where he created the VDC and Logistics Departments. His notable projects included the World Trade Center cleanup and the Time Warner Center. He also served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he developed and taught a graduate course on technology in construction.

Nora Swanson leads JB&B’s firmwide innovation, learning, and knowledge management initiatives, bringing more than 20 years of AEC industry experience and a reputation for challenging the status quo at the intersection of technology and the human experience.

Since joining JB&B in 2023, she has helped shape the firm’s innovation strategy, building and leading a team focused on operational excellence, technology transformation, and knowledge sharing. Her work includes advancing the development of in-house AI solutions, as well as spearheading the launch of the firm’s learning and knowledge management systems.

A licensed Professional Engineer, Nora combines extensive industry knowledge with a passion for creative problem-solving and emerging technology. Her industry recognition includes being named one of Women Builders Council’s Outstanding Women, a 40 Under 40 honoree by the Mid-Atlantic Real Estate Journal, a 20 Under 40 honoree by PWC New York, and one of Crain’s 2019 Notable Women in Tech.

Mark is the founder and CEO of Visoid. He's an architect who started modeling buildings at 16 and never left the space between architecture and technology. He spent years at LINK designing everything from a scenic viewpoint structure to a 100,000 m2 office complex, specializing in early-phase residential. He joined Spacemaker early and helped scale it into what is now Autodesk Forma. Today he develops Visoid, which is used by architects globally to quickly and clearly communicate their ideas.

Hiroyoshi Satake leads the Digital Design Center (DDC), the digital team within the Design Division of Shimizu Corporation,

one of Japan’s leading general contractors. He has more than a decade of experience as an architectural designer and over

a decade of experience driving organization-wide digital adoption. DDC provides training and digital tools to designers

across Shimizu’s Design Division, supports project collaboration, and conducts R&D across a broad range of digital

technologies. The Shimz DDE platform developed by his team is recognized as a leading example of an organization-wide

digital initiative in Japan’s architectural design sector. The team’s pedestrian flow simulation tool, Shimz DDE Pedex+,

received the 2026 Engineering Encouragement Special Award from the Engineering Advancement Association of Japan.

Tamaho Shigemura is the Founder and CEO of Algorithm Design Lab (ADL), a Tokyo-based computational design firm, and a Lecturer at Waseda University — one of Japan’s foremost practitioners of computational design and environmental performance in architecture. Before founding ADL in 2012, she worked at Obayashi Corporation and Maki and Associates, contributing to projects including World Trade Center Tower 4 in New York.

Through ADL, she has dedicated her career to advancing computational design, BIM, and environmental performance simulation in Japan’s architecture and construction industry — through project consulting, custom software development, professional training, and education. She is the author of two books on Rhinoceros and Grasshopper, and contributed to the development of Shimz DDE Pedex+, recipient of the 2026 Engineering Encouragement Special Award from the Engineering Advancement Association of Japan.

Alexander Groth is the co-founder and CEO of Cityweft, based in Copenhagen. He has spent the last two years leading the commercial team at Cityweft, which turns geospatial and reality capture data into usable 3D geometry that works directly in the tools teams already use. Cityweft serves users around the world across AEC, real estate, insurance, and more.

Luc is the Global Director of Design Technology at KPF, which encompasses computational design, BIM, visualization, digital fabrication, data analytics, research, and software development. In particular, Luc founded the Urban Interface team (KPFui,) which leverages data and develops technology to understand city building and tackle 21st-century urban challenges. He believes that smart cities & buildings are not about drones, sensors, or autonomous vehicles. A truly smart city should leverage data for design and utilize technology to increase transparency and accessibility. He has taught previously at NYU and Cornell and most recently helped develop the new Computational Design Practices masters program at Columbia, where he teaches one of the core courses.

Nick Cameron is an architect and Firmwide Director of Digital Practice at Perkins&Will, where he leads innovation across design, delivery, data, and emerging technology. Drawing on his architectural background and commitment to design excellence, Nick is responsible for integrating modeling, simulation, AI, and custom tools into the firm’s daily practice. He drives scalable solutions that amplify creativity, improve collaboration, and connect knowledge to deliver a more resilient built environment for clients and the communities they serve.

A licensed architect based in New York City, Charles was recently elevated to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) in recognition of his contributions to computational design practice. He has strong interests in exploring new methodologies that link computation, design, and fabrication. Currently, he is a Senior Associate and Digital Innovation Strategist for Perkins&Will's I/O group, where he focuses on envisioning 3D models and data as a focal point for project design and delivery strategies. Charles also teaches Environmental Parametrics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE) program, where he focuses on combining parametric modeling, optimization, and daylighting as a strategy to inform design. Previously, he has taught and guest lectured at multiple institutions, including Pratt, CUNY College of Technology, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and MIT.

Robert K. Otani, PE LEED AP is Chief Technology Officer at Thornton-Tomasetti, Inc., a 1700+ person multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm, and founded the CORE studio, an applications development, advanced computational modeling, and R&D group at his firm. He has extensive structural design and project management experience involving commercial, infrastructure, institutional, cultural and residential structures on projects totaling over $2 billion USD of construction. His professional and academic interests focus on informed architecture relating to optimized structural typologies, high performance structures, and structural sustainability. He has served as President of the Structural Engineers Association of New York in 2007 and has been an Adjunct Professor at Pratt Institute School of Architecture and Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

Murat Melek is Senior Director of Design AI at Suffolk Construction, where he works at the intersection of software development, data, and building design, including the practical application of AI in design and construction workflows. With more than two decades of experience on complex projects worldwide—including cultural and institutional buildings—his background spans data-driven and computational approaches, structural engineering, and software-enabled design workflows. He holds a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from UCLA and a Master’s in Data Science from UC Berkeley

Robert K. Otani, PE LEED AP is Chief Technology Officer at Thornton-Tomasetti, Inc., a 1700+ person multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm, and founded the CORE studio, an applications development, advanced computational modeling, and R&D group at his firm. He has extensive structural design and project management experience involving commercial, infrastructure, institutional, cultural and residential structures on projects totaling over $2 billion USD of construction. His professional and academic interests focus on informed architecture relating to optimized structural typologies, high performance structures, and structural sustainability. He has served as President of the Structural Engineers Association of New York in 2007 and has been an Adjunct Professor at Pratt Institute School of Architecture and Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.