Engineers win talk fest against city’s top lawyers

An action-packed debate this week between Brisbane engineers and construction lawyers on the hot topic of artificial intelligence saw the shovel win against the gavel.

Sascha Kurz says debate fostered good relations between engineers and lawyers.

It’s official, the shovel is mightier than the gavel.

Well that’s according to an action-packed debate this week between Brisbane engineers and construction lawyers on the hot topic of artificial intelligence. Engineering firm Infrastructure Project Solutions (IPS) teamed up with Helix Legal and Engineers Australia’s College of Leadership and Management for a mock debate on whether AI will become fundamental to project success. The engineers overwhelmingly convinced the more than 100 strong crowd in attendance that project management should remain primarily in the human domain – gaining around 75 per cent of votes in a virtual poll.

The Brisbane Club event on Wednesday night was hosted by Queensland Major Contractors Association chief executive Andrew Chapman and saw engineers Sarah Parrish from IPS, Amy Wood from Jacobs and Daniel Field from The Stratoship Group, take on Janelle Kerrisk, Emily Taylor and Jonathan Miliszewski from Helix Legal.

Construction and Infrastructure Lawyer Janelle Kerrisk

Unexpected twists and turns included an appearance by an AI version of one of the lawyers, a race between a lawyer and an AI program to review a contract, and a largely unsuccessful attempt by the engineers to train AI to write sentences that made sense.

IPS Director and civil engineer Sascha Kurz (illustrated) says she is delighted to see the engineers claim victory but said the biggest winner from the event was the positive alliance between the two professions. “This was a great opportunity to get some of Brisbane’s sharpest minds together in the same room to consider one of the most important topics facing everyone in business,” Kurz says. “Whether it’s a debate or some other format, we’re now hoping to make this an annual event.” Helix Legal CEO Janelle Kerrisk say that being litigation lawyers they were excited to have fun and be creative in the mock debate. “It’s not every day that we can step out of our usual roles and approach a challenge with a blend of playfulness and strategy,” she says.

Digital countdown

The countdown is officially on for the state’s premier digital innovation event, Something Digital, bringing together an all-star line-up of speakers from Meta, NASA, Bluey, CSIRO, Doctors Without Borders, Canva, Google Cloud, and many more.

Now in its seventh year, Something Digital is returning to the heart of Brisbane from August 27-28 and promises to be an unmissable experience for tech enthusiasts, students, professionals, and innovators alike.

Festival Co-founder Lisa Renneisen says this year’s event is shaping up to be its biggest yet and is urging all Queensland businesses to attend and consider how digital innovation can benefit them.

QUT Digital Economy Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz

“We’ve curated an incredible lineup of speakers who are true leaders in their fields, covering everything from artificial intelligence, mastering your brand, consumer habits, data-driven growth, and agricultural innovation,” Renneisen says.

Headlining this year’s festival at Brisbane’s Tivioli are some of the brightest minds in digital innovation, including Professor and Chair in Digital Economy at QUT Business School Marek Kowalkiewicz. Recently named one of the top 100 Global Thought Leaders in AI, Professor Kowalkiewicz is set to deliver a keynote on the evolving role of algorithms and harnessing AI in our lives and business. Other headliners include Yao Ding, the accessibility research dead at Meta and Brittany Brown, director of the digital and technology division at NASA,