{"id":23763,"date":"2023-12-07T14:11:45","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T22:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/meet-damon-hernandez-founder-of-the-aec-hackathon\/"},"modified":"2023-12-07T14:11:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T22:11:49","slug":"meet-damon-hernandez-founder-of-the-aec-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/meet-damon-hernandez-founder-of-the-aec-hackathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Damon Hernandez, Founder of the AEC Hackathon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/files\/membership-default-internal\/\" class=\"memberhide\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/01\/20220718_175041000_iOS.jpg\" alt=\"-\"><\/a><br\/><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><strong>I sat down with Damon Hernandez in Helsinki at Urban3, the home base of the Finnish digital built environment ecosystem. We discussed the AEC Hackathon and Damon\u2019s passion for connecting the digital and physical worlds.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I initially met Damon Hernandez in November 2015 at the first AEC Hackathon in Finland. The hackathon followed the trademark script for such events: a weekend over which hack teams solve AEC industry problems by leveraging new technologies. The atmosphere was enthusiastic, inspiring, and thought-provoking\u2014similar to what I experienced again when I attended later AEC Hackathons.<\/p>\n<p>The event lets people from various fields and backgrounds collaborate, even if they\u2019d be fierce competitors during weekdays. It\u2019s no wonder the hackathon has grown into a global community of innovators since its inception in Silicon Valley in 2013. As a co-founder and executive director, Damon is always there, encouraging and supporting the participants and ensuring that everything runs smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>This time, however, Damon is staying in Helsinki for a different reason: he\u2019s participating in the 90-Day Finn program by Helsinki Partners, a city-owned nonprofit supporting international businesses and helping them succeed in Helsinki. As a three-month resident, Damon interacts with local technology and business communities and creates new connections between Finnish and US individuals and companies.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/12\/damon-2015.jpeg\" alt=\"-\" class=\"wp-image-2014335 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/12\/damon-2015.jpeg 2400w, https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/damon-2015-1200x675.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/damon-2015-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/damon-2015-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/damon-2015-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\"><\/noscript><figcaption>Damon at the first Finnish AEC Hackathon in Helsinki in 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A former Texan who has lived in San Francisco for about 16 years, Damon has been a 3D web designer, Web3D Consortium\u2019s Student Director, a tech startup founder, and a product manager at Samsung Electronics, to mention just a few of his occupations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been driven for 22 years by this idea of where the real and the digital meet,\u201d Damon says. \u201cReally looking at how we can apply these interactive 3D technologies and things that I think my generation was exposed to as kind of the first wave of gamers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Damon remembers the seminal incident that made him ditch the idea of law school. It was the discovery of Neil Stephenson\u2019s 1992 sci-fi novel <em>Snow Crash.<\/em> The book made headlines last year as the origin story of the now popular concept of the \u201cmetaverse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Damon does not see the metaverse as a proprietary playground of a particular company or an immersive, disconnected 3D world. He reminds us that all the flavors of extended reality technologies have the word \u201creality\u201d in them.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-real-and-digital-could-meet\">How real and digital could meet<\/h2>\n<p>In 2006, Stanford Research Institute organized the Metaverse Roadmap Summit. It published <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.metaverseroadmap.org\/overview\/\" target=\"_blank\">a roadmap<\/a> that defined the metaverse \u201cas the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space. It is a fusion of both while allowing users to experience it as either.\u201d Damon favors this approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe built environment, it is the stage for which all of this digital content will live, and we will interact with. We cannot go completely digital because you\u2019re in a physical room; you\u2019re in a physical space. You\u2019re doing your VR, your AR somewhere,\u201d Damon says. \u201cImmersion to me isn\u2019t just about having a monitor slapped in front of your eyeballs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He imagines a future in which IoT protocols like Matter enable rich experiences in your built environment. You could, for example, play a game on your TV, and when you score, the room reacts by flashing lights on and off. Or you could have a virtual pet running around your house and demanding care like a Tamagotchi.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-hacking-construction-thinking\">Hacking construction thinking<\/h2>\n<p>In 2007, Damon became involved with fabricators and homebuilders, which shifted his focus more to the built environment. He began to wonder whether you could apply 3D and immersive technologies to the construction and real estate sectors.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of his interest in construction, Damon co-founded IDEAbuilder in 2007. It is a company that uses robotic manufacturing and immersive technologies to build timber structures and homes in the United States. Damon was the company\u2019s Director of Technology for 14 years.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013 Damon and his construction sector friends came up with the idea for the AEC Hackathon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone asked me one time, \u2018What is the AEC Hackathon about?\u2019 And what I really found is that we\u2019re hacking thinking first,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe cannot expect new ways of doing things or thinking about things if we do not change the way that we perceive things.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/12\/aec-hackathon.jpeg\" alt=\"-\" class=\"wp-image-2014336 lazyload\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/12\/aec-hackathon.jpeg\" alt=\"-\" class=\"wp-image-2014336 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/12\/aec-hackathon.jpeg 2400w, https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/aec-hackathon-1200x675.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/aec-hackathon-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/aec-hackathon-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/aec-hackathon-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\"><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-learning-from-finland\">Learning from Finland<\/h2>\n<p>Damon thinks Finland and Singapore are at the forefront of built environment technology. He\u2019s incredibly excited about the Finnish approach to openness and interoperability through standards. He\u2019s also fond of how gaming, building, and other industries work and talk together here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo as a Finn here, I hope to really help bridge more of those communities, I think, with, of course, Silicon Valley and then others, but really see how we can merge the real world and the digital to create the 3D world part of World Wide Web.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Damon will take a short break from his stay in Finland. The next AEC Hackathon will take place in Austin from October 14 to 16. Two weeks after that, the hackathon kicks off in Copenhagen. The previous Danish event attracted attendees from 31 countries, which shows how valuable a hackathon can be in terms of creating connections, exchanging ideas, and widening perspectives.<\/p>\n<p>Before those events, you can meet Damon on September 29 at the WDBE conference\u2019s second day in Tallinn, where he\u2019ll give his keynote speech.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/kirahub.org\/en\/wdbe\/\" target=\"_blank\">Get your ticket!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can listen to Damon\u2019s full interview on the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/kirahub.org\/en\/wdbe-talks-hacking-your-thinking-with-damon-hernandez\/\" target=\"_blank\">WDBE Talks podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <span class=\"et_social_bottom_trigger\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5143531171910809\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- News - Bottom -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5143531171910809\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"8320848692\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/aec-business.com\/meet-damon-hernandez-founder-of-the-aec-hackathon\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This article was originally posted at Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I sat down with Damon Hernandez in Helsinki at Urban3, the home base of the Finnish digital built environment ecosystem. &#8230; <a title=\"Meet Damon Hernandez, Founder of the AEC Hackathon\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/meet-damon-hernandez-founder-of-the-aec-hackathon\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Meet Damon Hernandez, Founder of the AEC Hackathon\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1062,1066],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aec-business","category-all-posts","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}