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A subscription may be required to read entire story in ENR by Debra K. Rubin, Annemarie Mannion, Alisa Zevin, Scott Blair.

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Expanding Leadership Niches

Aiming to spawn the next generation of women tech and business innovators, construction law firm Peckar and Abramson, for which ENR produces GWIC, announced the annual Melinda S. Gentile Future Groundbreaker Scholarship, recognizing its retiring partner who launched the conference nearly a quarter century ago and who has been a key orchestrator of its content and execution since then.

Monetary awards will be given to a student, a high school teacher and a mentor who help inspire future industry professionals selected by the ACE Mentor program of America to support education and to attend the GWIC conference. The program links high school students with design and construction sector experts to encourage pursuit of careers.

Academic and company chiefs also focused on how students and emerging professionals are using artificial intelligence.

"I encourage our students to actually use AI not just as a tool, but also as a collaborator. It is truly important that students and the future workforce understand that they have to know how to maintain critical thinking with regard to AI,” said Doris Espiritu, district-wide Dean of Engineering at the City Colleges of Chicago. “Otherwise, you're going to have bridges that fall apart if we just believe in AI."

Added Lucy M. Labruzzo, CEO of San Diego-based Engineering Partners Inc., "We can solve the technical issues in a day, but managing stakeholders, communication and collaboration takes months, and that's really where we're focusing our team. We use AI, but that doesn't mean we're going to lose positions, it's to create opportunities for more growth."

Using AI for technical tasks such as data management "allows our people to get in the field, learn construction and how to connect," emphasized Emily Kay, CEO of Balfour Beatty California operations.