B7 - Course reflection - Cristian Almendariz

            This class ended up being completely different from what I expected.  Going from its name Intelligent Buildings, I originally though would a lecture/project-based class in learning different BIM software.  Instead it was a more informative, analytical, and writing intensive class.  Although I would have preferred it to be the other way, I did learn a lot in this class.  Each lecture touched several different but important facts about the evolution of the construction industry and its current state. 

            Overall, the lectures were really informative and interesting.  I think that the guest speakers were the best part of them.  Each guest speaker came from different parts of the industry and had different perspectives the evolution of construction.  For example, before taking this class I did not know that robots and drones were already being used in construction.  Drones are really useful in several tasks of construction for example in site supervision and project control.  Now construction managers, owners, and designers can check the project progress from their home or office.  Additionally, it was really interesting to see what different professionals think about BIM software.  BIM software is definitely revolutionizing the construction industry and it has outstanding future potential.  As of now, most of them have realized that they must keep up with its evolution and learn how to use it.  Bentley’s lecture was the best.  I was amazed with the program capability to merge the architectural with MEP models and its ability for clash detection between elements.  This is a huge step forward in construction because it allows the detection of costly errors before construction.  In order to exploit this technology’s potential, all construction parties should be completely involved and work as a team.  I believe that BIM software training should be part of all engineering, architectural, or construction management undergraduate programs.  Professionals without software knowledge will definitely be in a disadvantage in the future. 

            The Revit project was an excellent introduction to the program.  Before completing the project I did not know how to use Revit.  Fortunately, prof. Mitchell’s video tutorials were really useful and easy to follow.  Moreover, it was an excellent foundation for the term project.  As I mentioned in B5 post, prior taking this class I did not know what databases were.  The lectures, blog post, and database project were an excellent introduction to them.  By completing the database project, I was able to accurately know what databases are and how they work.  Although my database was not too related to AE, I was able to develop a database that could be used in my dads company.  I develop a database to keep track the company’s cars and computer hardware.  This database could be expanded to become more complex and keep track of more assets. 

            The term project was an excellent opportunity to improve my senior design project house. I decided use Revit to develop, modify, and improve the original model of the house.  With little Revit experience, this project was quite challenging at the beginning.  It was really difficult to get used Revit’s toolbar and tools.  I had to watch several youtube tutorials to be able to modify the house roof, floor, walls, and furniture.  While completing the project, I noticed that Revit’s 3D visualization tool is really useful.  It help me a lot to modify and improve the overall house model and choose material finishes.  Overall, this term project was an excellent experience and opportunity to take my senior design house model to the next level.

            Although this class ended up being different from what I expected, it was really useful.  It brought me up to date in construction and its tendencies.  I was able to realize that technology is evolving at a really fast rate and I must keep up with it.  I can definitely conclude that the knowledge gained in this class is an excellent asset for my future architecture master degree program and profession.  I will definitely recommend all civil and architectural engineers to take this class.

Responses,

Mridul,

            

I also think that the guest lectures were one of the best parts about this course.  By having speakers from different sectors of the construction industry, I was able too see the impacts BIM, AI, and robots has had in them.  These technologies are definitely going to take over our industry and we must be ready to accept it.  In order to take full advantage of this technology, all construction parties must be involved and working as a team to develop the BIM models.  Moreover, I believe that architectural, engineering, and construction management undergraduate programs should include training in this technology.  

         

Alexis,

            I respectfully disagree with you that AI, robotics, and 3D printing will not be used in HVAC in the near future.  My dad owns an HVAC company in Ecuador and Asian companies like LG and Samsung are definitely starting to use this technology.  I will like to add that Robots and AI are going to become really useful especially for the installation of these ducts.  I believe that 3D printing and AI can potentially be used for the systems ducts.  Ecuador is a little behind in this industry and ducts are built manually from galvanized steel sheets.  This is really time consuming and labor intensive.  AI and robots can definitely be used in order to easy the process.  I am really looking forward for this technology to be applied in Ecuador. 

     

B3- Rebecca Lynch (Group A)

The main problem that I see in the future of BIM/Revit comes from the current problems that came up in class. As Laura Worley discussed, the major issues with BIM and Revit currently is the errors that occur when converting from one software to another. I think that because of the competition inherent in capitalism, companies will have more of a push to develop their software to compete with the others by offering the same program capabilities, such as structural and HVAC design for a model created in their particular interface, rather than creating more compatible programs that allow users to switch from one company’s program to another’s. For this reason, I think the main problem with BIM/Revit in the future will be companies competing against each other through broadening their products’ scopes and capabilities rather than specializing in one field, such as creating a program that is the best in steel design, that can then be transferred to and from other company’s interfaces that focused on the other aspects of the building’s design. The second would be more beneficial to the field of engineering because the programs that exist are already better at one thing over the others. If companies could focus on those specialties that they have already established, they could improve our abilities to model the real world, and improve our design abilities overall through the use of multiple different programs that have been fully developed to accurately and easily model and design for their one field specialty.

Another future problem that I think will be a major issue is the problem discussed by Laura Worley that engineers will become too dependent on these programs for our calculations rather than learning the basic principles and equations ourselves. In my graduate classes, there is a significant emphasis on not just putting things into our programs and taking the output as it is. Instead, our teachers have us check our work using the programs to make sure we obtained the right values. The reason for this became apparent to me in CIVE701, when my friends and I would create the same exact structure with the same loads and would somehow get different results, even though we cannot find any differences between the models. There are clear errors in the program interface and human inputs. As we use these programs more and more, it becomes dangerous how much weight we put on their answers.

Comments:
Laura Worley
Derek Zaccheo

B2 - (Group B) Matthew Zabiega

                As defined by himms.org (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society), Interoperability is “the ability of health information systems to work together within and across organizational boundaries in order to advance the effective delivery of healthcare for individuals and communities”. Interoperability, although typically for health information, can be used by other fields of expertise.  There are three levels of interoperability: Foundational, structural and semantic.

                Foundational interoperability allows one information technology system to exchange data to another information technology system which can receive but does not have to interpret it. Structural interoperability allows for uniform movement of data from one system to another such that the data is preserved, unaltered and can be interpreted at the data field level. Semantic interoperability allows two or more systems to exchange and use the information that has been exchanged.

                The use of electronically transmitting data has a very basic, yet valuable aspect. It eliminates the need to manually copy data which can be time consuming.  This ensures that the data that is transmitted is more exact and pure than anything that can be manually copied due to human error.  If copied wrong by human error, it can prove disastrous as it can lead to repeat previously wrong work or have multiple copies of the same work with minute changes.

                Moving on to the BIM world, Revit is what I believe to be the program that utilizes interoperability the most (from experience at my last co-op).  Revit can hold vast information and very detailed models that include every system of a building or structure. This information does not have to come from one source, multiples models can be opened on different computers and the model will update via information exchange. The new data is uploaded and transmitted to all other computers with that model opened. This greatly improves that speed at which projects can be completed because multiple people, from different fields, can work in the same model. The electrical engineer can work on his system in the model when the mechanical engineer is working on his system in the model and they can both see one another’s work (if they choose to). Unlike AutoCad, all of the systems of a building can be viewed in one coherent model that can be scanned to see of any probable errors that could arise when construction begins. This can save a huge cost percentage because plans would have to be redone much less because the error was caught early on.

                Although Revit uses interoperability in its infancy (it’s still one model uploaded on a server), the communication aspect is still present. Communication can be slowed by large models (typically over 300MB) and can present problems while sharing data. One personal story while using Revit at my last co-op was when a project was at its 90% completion and was on its way out of the door. Our company had just gotten the model back from a sister company in another country, so one of our lead designers was going through and reviewing the work. It turns out that the work was incomplete and over-all bad. In the following few days, we had over 20 engineers and designers in the live file at the same time. For a while it was working well, but as more and more people began saving and reloading the current model, the system lagged and some data was not uploaded to some computers which in turn caused clashes in the model which had to be fixed. This problem is belittled compared to the advantages that interoperability can give a program.

Sources:
1) http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzM2NDIzOV9fQU41?sid=da4563e0-e15d-4cf3-8b8a-eee24671dc73@sessionmgr113&vid=0&format=EB&lpid=lp_99&rid=0
2) http://www.himss.org/library/interoperability-standards/what-is-interoperability

Comments:
http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b2-group-b-kai-waechter.html?showComment=1453231772828#c4535368355876116387
http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b2-group-b-yasmina-shields.html?showComment=1453241697511#c1802465014986591942

B2: Group A- Janet Tran

BIM Tools and Parametric Modeling

                      The significant distinction between Building Information Model (BIM) software and Computer Aid Drafting (CAD) tools are the ability to input parameters determined by the user.  These parameters allow one to attribute unique identity among objects within a family, while also commanding constraints. Constraints can relate to relationships with other objects, geometry, dimensions, etc. Unique identities for specific elements can also be attributed such as: airflow, velocity, lumens, etc. The hierarchy of these objects and elements are referred to as families, which share specific common attributes.

                       A critical benefit of parametric-modeling is its ability to increase productivity, mainly for construction documentation value. Traditional drafting software requires manual edits that often result in human error. However, BIM software allows global changes to take place automatically. This dramatically reduces the effort in making small changes that may occur during the design process. For instance, when the change in a duct size changes on one sheet view (for purposes of construction documentation) it will also change in all sheets related to that change. This is especially notable because time can be expended on design rather than drafting.

                       From a contractually point of view BIM software such as Revit can also help to reduce patent and latent ambiguities in these drawings that serve as contract documents. In “Successful Contract Administration For Constructors and Design Professionals” by Charles W. Cook, BIM is referenced as a tool that in its development can help with coordination. As building become more complicated and new types of systems such as: security, telecommunications, etc. are involved coordination becomes crucial. Various designers can work within the same model and coordinate the way in which systems interact to prevent “crashes”. Warnings are displayed in parameters do not meet buildable conditions. This is because Revit allows for a 3-dimensional explicit representation of the building, whereas 2D traditional CAD software can only provide an implicit model. Another advantage of Revit is the intelligence to formulate quick schedules for contractors to process cost estimations.

                       Expanding beyond Revit, software that allows for quick input an generation for energy and design analysis is called Trane TRACE 700. It enables users to input information on a building and create a baseline model to be compared with various other types of mechanical system. This allows designers to make important decisions and know the implications of various systems for an optimal design.

                      Some shortcomings of BIM software today are a result of its ability to model a large amount of details. With so many systems modeled in one central model, the capabilities of such software have surpassed the available memory and processing power of contemporary computers. However, it is believed that these issues with naturally decreases as computers get faster. Additionally, the complexity of the software results in a bigger learning curve, which take a longer time to gain proficiency.

Sources: 

[1] Eastman, Charles M. BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Infromation Modeling for Owner, Managers, Designers, Engineers, and Contractors. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2008. Web. 

[2] Cook, Charles W. Successful Contract Administration: For Constructors and Design Professionals. New York: Routledge, 2014. Print. 

Student Comments: 

Comment  on Cristian's Almendariz's post

Comment on James Redus' post

B1 - Group A - Derek Zaccheo

Artificial intelligence is a rapidly expanding topic and a very controversial one. Artificial intelligence is how machines “think” or how much intelligence they show. The first article I looked at shows how a company, owned by Google, called DeepMind was able to get an AI system to learn how to play Atari games. This may not seem so significant but it was done on a general platform where the AI had to learn for itself how to play and had to learn all of the rules itself. In the video embedded in the article you can see the AI play after 100 games and see how much it had improved after 500 games. By the end it had created a top level strategy for maximizing the number of blocks hit per time it hit the paddle by digging up the side and hitting it around back. This AI is being built to beat all 100+ Atari games and then will be used to span into 3D gaming, simulations, and finally in intelligent robots that may end up learning better than humans can. It may also help the health care field with diagnosing issues. They did a lot of the AI creation for this by studying how our own brains interpret and process the environment around us. This AI being developed is sure to spark further conversation into how to program AI to behave ethically.

The internet of things has been a topic that has been discussed a lot recently. This is that all devices are interconnected, for example smart lights, speakers, and car doors are sometimes interconnected with similar hubs and will interact with you. Intel recently showed the direction their company was progressing in with wearable chips the size of buttons that could be worn to help the visually impaired know when something was near them. Though internet of things wasn’t explicitly mentioned they were undoubtedly working to interconnect the real world and processors. They also showcased drones that actively avoided objects and drones that could be worn on the wrist to fly out, take pictures and then come back. They created a door lock system that can use a multitude of sensors to determine if the person approaching it should be allowed to enter and open or stay locked accordingly. This door system uses how close the person’s smartphone is, their fingerprint, and their face to make these decisions. Personally I think the most exciting prospect they talked about was the one that can help the visually impaired. Helping them interact with the world in a safer way is a vital goal that will make them happier. Flying wearable drones is both an exciting and scary prospect. I feel like it will be innovative for taking pictures or for inspections but it will definitely aid stalkers and criminals as well.

Microsoft is in the middle of developing something called the HoloLens. HoloLens are goggles that allow you to see holographic models that have been designed for buildings. So this would allow engineers and architects to interact with their designs in a way that has never been seen before. We would be able to meet someone regardless of where they were in the virtual building and see how the design is shaping up and see if there are any conflicts. This would change the industry and make 3D modeling essential for all engineering firms. It also seems like it could have practical applications if paired with Google Maps in experiencing the whole world around us. 

References:
1. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/2016-google-tracker-everything-google-is-working-on-for-the-new-year/9/#h5
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/ces/11329790/Intel-shares-futuristic-vision-of-the-connected-world.html
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXVW4sUsh3A

Comments:
Comment on Yuanjin Li
Comment on Gary Reiff
Comment on Laura Worley