The Impact of Machine Learning and Data Science in Real Estate

If you ask Dr Andrea Chegut, one of the most exciting aspects of applying data science and machine learning in the built environment is the possibilities it has to offer. For example, being able to create a ‘digital twin’, namely taking a physical asset like a building and turning it into a digital replica, will allow us to push the boundaries of what’s achievable in everything from architecture and construction to finance and demolition.

Transcript

There are many ways in which data science and machine learning can be applied in the built environment.

These can impact the real estate industry in ways that you should consider. Let’s look at how data science and machine learning has been used so far and how it has impacted individuals, companies, and the built environment. One area that is often not looked to, but is actually really a driving force is the construction sector.

More than 50 years ago, astrophysicist and engineers envisioned a way to be able to work on technologies that were physical assets and turn them into digital replicas, so that they could enable and envision a stimulated and fabricated future of a physical thing without having to change it. The built environment has caught on to this technology, which is called a digital twin. The idea where I can take a physical thing and create an exact digital living replica of it.

This technology is fundamentally driven on the idea that we get the basic data, the basic nuts and bolts of a physical object, like a building or transportation infrastructure, and then we take that data and we enable it to be transformative or time bearing with sensors. When we take this pairing of basic static data and pair it with living time sensitive and dynamic data, we create an environment where we can start to envision a dynamic digital twin of a living, breathing, physical thing and watch it how it changes over time.

Now the power of this technology for the built environment is for us to be able to understand what we could do in a physical asset without having to fully build it, or to enable changes to something that is physically, already built, but enabling different futures or programming possibilities. The power of this technology will impact construction, architecture, finance, demolition, you name it.