Is Construction Material Science Lagging Other Industries?

For over a decade, construction material researchers have largely ignored the world’s largest publicly accessible molecular database, The Materials Project. Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) coupled with material databases is the new starting point for innovating products in the construction industry. More well-documented advancements in material performance have occurred in this century thus far than the last one. Coupled with Machine Learning, the possibility of rapid construction product improvement is realistic, given several verified breakthroughs in other fields. This is an efficacious way to approach advancement. Highly accurate data provides AI with the needed information to connect molecular dynamics with decision-making rules set by researchers. Given that the construction industry is approximately USD 12 trillion in revenue, this is a significant “blind spot” However, construction material science has slowly embraced this evolution of approach. Much like the construction industry itself, cautious improvement has occurred. Some say researchers are lagging, just as contractors have been accused of. If so, what other tools and processes have material scientists missed? This paper adds to the body of knowledge by identifying a valuable input to transform material performance and exploring a relatively new methodology that will be critical in meeting future construction industry challenges.