This was a very interesting course in my personal opinion. I have never had a class go into this kind of depth on futuristic technology. The first thing we discussed in class was artificial intelligence. While this does not currently have as much of a direct effect on my future profession (structural engineer), I can see it impacting the profession in a major way in the future, especially during the construction phase of structures. Artificial intelligence could have a positive or negative impact on my profession in the future depending on whose point of view your looking from. From an owners point of view drones and other forms of artificial intelligence can be beneficial by saving money on laborers, as well as on insurance for the workers or any other type of injuries. At the same time, artificial intelligence can take jobs away from hard working and innocent people just because owners want to save money and reduce the chance of injury on the job. I will be very interested to see how this plays out over the next 10-15 years.
Next, in class we went into great detail discussing BIM and databases. These two topics I believe will have less of an impact on my profession in the future. While BIM can be very useful for a structural engineering working on buildings, I personally am working more on the transportation side with bridges. Therefore, I will not be working with BIM very much. Also, BIM is used more on the architectural side of buildings rather than the structural side. The same can be said about databases.
So overall, I would say this was a very good course to have taken during my time here at Drexel University. Not only did I learn an incredible amount about the future of the architectural engineering field, I learned a little about how the field of structural engineering might be effected as well. I would highly recommend others to consider taking this course in the future. My only critique is to focus a little less on databases on the future. I just have trouble seeing myself ever making databases in my field in the future. While I can't say that is the same for everyone else taking this course, I can personally say that about me.
Comments
1.) Rebecca Lynch's Comment
2.) Laura Worley's Comment
Gary,
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed the 510 course. The artificial intelligence portion was my absolute favorite lesson. I was thoroughly impressed and interested in the technologies that exist and were presented. So much so that I looked further into the technologies on my own. I think part of the reason I find them so fascinating is because I am not comfortable designing such a machine. I think that there are several justifiably acceptable applications of artificial intelligence in both engineering and production methodology. Robots have the potential to increase workplace safety by completing dangerous jobs and increase productivity by performing repetitive menial jobs that are tedious and boring for human workers. I think every technology has the potential to be incorrectly applied but that the possibilities of what these technologies may bring are much more positive and exciting. I am also interested to see ow this technology grows in the next 10-15 years and throughout the rest of our lifetimes.
Good post. I agree with you that as structural engineers we won't really need to create databases but I do think there is the potential to utilize BIM modeling as a structural engineer. I also really enjoyed the portion about AI.
ReplyDeleteGary,
ReplyDeleteI like that your course reflection focused on relating the class to your personal career interests. It was also important to state that there are positives and negatives when analyzing the future of Artificial Intelligence. You stated that new drone technologies could take away jobs from laborers, which is a very valid concern. While the initial transition to a drone-heavy labor force could be very difficult and turbulent (especially with unions), I think it is more important to focus to the outcome. This would result in significantly safer construction sites and many new jobs in the technology industry. And ask any general contractor or subcontractor and they will tell you that safety is there number one priority.
It is also interesting to point out that BIM and databases seem to be much more popular with buildings. Do you foresee any opportunities for BIM and heavy civil to join together in the future?
And I agree with your opinion on databases. Personally, it would be much more helpful to gain hands on experience with BIM instead of building my own database.