B9 - Eduardo Borja - Group E - Reflection

             From the beginning, even before starting to attend class I was interested in Intelligent Buildings, but I had a different idea of what intelligent buildings meant. Before I believed Intelligent Buildings were characterized as smart automated buildings. Through this course I understood that intelligent buildings are much more involved than the technological aspects of the final structure. Intelligent buildings take into consideration the design and the time efficiency of building a certain structure.

            I can definitely state that this class has had a great effect on my profession because it has fed my interest in aspects such as the creation of databases and BIM, which are becoming more and more important in the construction industry. Through AE 510 specifically, I have been introduced the creation of databases, as well as further deepening my knowledge about Revit. Through our assignment on databases I learned that planning before executing is quite essential in any aspect of design. If you didn’t plan the database before creating it, then this could have created a lot of problems once you tried to execute it. Also, databases prove to be quite effective once you want to find a specific set of points within a large amount of data. In regards to Revit, I have only scratched to surface on the program capabilities but from what I have learned in this class and from different tutorial videos, I have seen that Revit can become quite powerful. I can say that this class has affected my profession because it has showed me that the industry is changing and that this new technology regarding BIM will certainly be something I will need to fully understand.

            Regarding my future, this class has provided an introduction to an industry that is going to continue to grow and offer a lot of job opportunities. Understanding even a broad aspect of intelligent buildings and be able to discuss different aspects of intelligent buildings can certainly help me in my future job searches.

            Regarding actual class time, I personally would have enjoyed more small projects in order to learn a greater variety of BIM software. On the other hand, the lecture speakers in class gave an interesting perspective on how intelligent building techniques are applied and used outside the classroom. Similarly, the lectures provided by Dr. Mitchell were certainly useful and gave us as well a professional perspective on intelligent buildings and their applications.

Comments:

Alqallaf: From the beginning of your post I could identify with you. I joined this class even though I was taking another professional elective because the name caught my attention. Also, I can relate to the fact that the database project was quite instructive. I enjoyed how you related the project you did for your concentration.

Laura Hill: I enjoyed your post because it made me think of something really important in this class that i took for granted. The blog posts as you stated were quite helpful because it was an opportunity to reflect upon different new topics. The posts actually helped me understand and actually focus on the reading which ultimately helped me fully understand the different topics at hand.

  

B7 - Group E - Alqallaf

Initially, when I signed up to take this course I did not really know what the material of this course would be but the name grabbed my attention. Being an architectural engineering major pursuing a career in the building design industry I always strive to increase my knowledge in emerging technologies. I have learned from studying engineering and from work experience that efficiency and easy access to data/information is key when it comes to design. The notion of working smarter as opposed to harder is extremely prominent in the building design and construction industry. Taking this course has further reinforced my belief in this concept and opened up new interests for me.

Before taking this course I had a very general and basic idea of what BIM is and how it is implemented in the building design industry. Coming into this class my goal was getting better at utilizing BIM and understanding more about interoperability. I learned that BIM and interoperability are tools of efficiency in the building industry. Tools that should be utilized properly to maximize product output. Working for an engineering design firm for my coop I had to coordinate duct work with the structural system in a Revit model. That saved a lot of work and time. It gave more time for the structural engineers to innovate and come up with new ideas for the system.

Furthermore, I learned a lot about databases and the importance of a database in the building/construction industry. Being a mechanical concentration, I had to use multiple databases for HVAC calculations. This includes solar data, weather data, etc. Some databases are huge and are updated by the hour but I never paid attention to the importance of databases. The database assignment helped me better understand how a database is structured and how it helps with easily accessing information. I believe that I can implement using a database for anything in the future for it is a great way to organize information.

In conclusion, I learned a lot from this course. I really enjoyed researching and reading more into innovations and emerging building technologies. The assignments were very helpful and I believe that the class was structured really well. I hope to utilize what I learned from this class in my future career.

Frasca,

I really enjoyed reading your course reflection. Likewise, I believe that the lectures were very long and splitting them up or having a shorter lecture would’ve probably been a lot better. I personally have a short attention span and it’s very hard for me to focus for 3 continuous hours. I agree with the amazing learning experience I had taking this class. There were many things that I did not know about advancements in the building design and construction industry that I know now.

Kate Flint,

I agree with your opinion on BIM being an important aspect for people looking to work in the construction industry. I really enjoyed learning more about BIM. Especially databases. I had little to no knowledge in databases. I did not even know how important databases are until I took this course. I learned that efficiency and easy access to information is key in the building industry. 

B6 - Course Reflection - Allison Lock - Group E

The AE 510 course was a compelling introduction into the various up and coming technologies related to architectural, civil, and other building design professions. Throughout my college, high school, and work experience I have encountered and become very comfortable with many of the industry tools that are common in engineering firms. This course forced me to assess the future of the field I intend to work in and how effective I will be in that field.

The main exercises that I completed throughout the class broadened my outlook on the developing technologies today. First we learned about robotics development and their implementation into both engineering and other fields. That was one of my favorite lectures. We also looked at BIM systems; which in my opinion are likely to become one of the major new industry technologies with proper development. The course also covered databases (which I had never even thought about the construction of before) and Revit. Students had the opportunity to interact with one another and share their real world experiences and ideas via blog posts and in class discussions. I enjoyed these aspects of the class as they offered interesting insights to work practices and material studies. Generally I found that every lesson of the course introduced me to a technology that I was unfamiliar with or expanded greatly upon one that I had previously used.

This class also caused me to do some serious self-inspection. Towards the end of the term we completed exercises that intended to provide us with the opportunity to assess how the technologies we studied would be implemented into the design processes that we have been studying for years. Groups were required to invent a construction scenario. Descriptions of major stakeholders and the technologies that they would utilize throughout the process were to be provided. I found that, unfortunately I did not even think about incorporating new technologies into the process apart from sensors in the final design despite the focus of the class. This was disappointing to me. I am fascinated and interested in learning about new technologies. When new lessons were presented they were just really cool however I found that I have a hard time integrating them into my own personal design process. I learned that if I do not actively follow developing ideas and do not continually try to integrate them that I will overlook them. This is a lesson I intend to keep with me as I continue on into my professional life as to be effective as an engineer I will need to adapt and incorporate new technologies into my projects. I really enjoyed the course. It taught me material and about myself but was fun.

I commented on Gary Reiff’s and Rebecca Lynch’s posts.

B7- Laura Hill- Course Reflection

Coming into this course, I was unsure what exactly I would end up gaining from it. I was originally drawn to this class because of the course description mentioning that tools including BIM modeling would be discussed. I previously had little experience with BIM, therefore having a project creating families in Revit was very beneficial for me. With this, I also gained a lot of new experience with the Database assignment. Database’s are a key tool in various career fields today, and creating them is an important skill that I can now carry with me.

The layout of this course included a lot of in class videos, readings, and guest speakers. Personally, I felt that it was a successful technique having weekly blog entries about assigned topics. This helped me gain information and knowledge on subject matter that I otherwise wouldn’t have been drawn to research about. I was able to learn a lot just through doing research on the topics and writing a 350-word post about them. Stemming from that, it was also nice having to comment on other peoples posts each week. Reading other peoples thoughts and opinions and comparing them to my own was a great way to broaden my thinking about certain topics.

One thing I specifically enjoyed about this class is the video examples that were used for a lot of the topics. For example, when we talked about robotics we watched different video examples of how robots are being executed today. When we talked about drones and how they are being used for ‘3D Printing’ buildings, we watched a few different videos to show the advancements in technology over the years. These are things that are very crucial to us in the field we are in, however, they are things that we may not know are happening if we don’t take the time to research or watch the news. Therefore, it was very valuable having those examples shown to us throughout the course.  

Overall, I thought this Intelligent Buildings course was very successful in teaching us about technology when it comes to the building industry. The layout of the course, the assignments given, and the projects we were expected to complete all showed to be beneficial in one way or another, and I would therefore recommend this class moving forward.

Comments:

Karan Sagar Sinha-

I like that you mentioned how this course differs from traditional courses. I also agree with the fact we don’t get exposed to much Revit here at Drexel, and this course definitely went in depth on some of its functions. I didn’t mention it in my post, but I completely agree that all of the guest speakers were very well chosen.

Danielle Beynon-

Like Karan and my posts, you emphasized how beneficial the BIM software exposure was in this class. I, too, feel these skills will be very beneficial to my future profession. I also like how you said that the information from this class will help you to think more ‘innovatively’. I think we are so used to learning the basics and things straight from the books, that this class really opened our eyes to things outside of that, that we wouldn’t otherwise get to learn about.

Course Reflection - Adrian Kuzniarowicz

Prior to entering the Intelligent Buildings course, I did not have much knowledge about the capabilities of BIM programs or how databases worked at all. During my time in the course, I have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge on the possible applications in which BIM software could be utilized. I found that Professor Mitchell's guest speakers were all very passionate about the BIM software which they use on a daily basis and really did an overall good job on explaining the benefits and downfalls to using BIM technology to model various systems within a building.

Throughout the term, I found Professor Mitchell’s weekly lectures to be very informative. The various examples which he presented, in both presentations and videos, to be highly interesting and informative. I also found the group discussions and activities that were held weekly during lecture to be very collaborative and intriguing. Having the opportunity in class to break into smaller groups and brainstorm creative ideas amongst other classmates was also very beneficial. The classes in which Professor Mitchell provided how-to tutorials were, in my opinion, the most beneficial, especially during the database portion of the class.

Between the in-class information and online video tutorials provided by Professor Mitchell, the assignments related to the course became much easier. The goal of the class was for students to understand the importance of BIM and databases and how they work. The class provided a good analysis of how each of these technologies work and how they can be integrated with one another.

Since starting this course in January, the best aspect I found in the class was having industry professionals come in to class to speak to us about how the engineering field is changing to incorporate Building Integration Modeling software into the design process at a very early stage. Given that I am planning on working as a transportation engineer in the rail discipline, I will most likely not be using Revit to assist in my designs. Although my goal is to become a rail engineer, the ability to understand the way Revit works may serve me in the future if the opportunity to change disciplines presents itself. 

Comments:

Samuel,

I completely agree that after taking the course, I feel as I can actually hold a conversation about intelligent buildings and have meaningful input. Unfortunately, I did not have as much ease as you with the database assignment. Although the class helped me understand how they work, I still don't know if I'd trust myself creating one in a professional setting. 

Karan,

Before coming into the course at the start of the term, I had also imagined it being similar to AE 390 and AE 391. I found the way that this course is taught to be much more open ended and I feel like that is why it was much easier to learn. I also agree that the Revit assignment was definitely a good refresher in demonstrating the power of this BIM program as well as other related ones. 

Course Reflection - Karan Sagar Sinha

I found this course to be really interesting, we take a lot of courses that have traditional knowledge and same old calculations. This course was really different in the approach of combining technology and buildings together. I expected one of two things coming into this course, that it was going to be a BIM class or that it was going to be a class similar to the AE 390-391 series but with more work and explore fields in technology.  Much to my surprise it was neither of these two.  For that I am glad.  I took the course because it sounded interesting but it was also one of the few graduate level courses that were offered this term and I wanted to feel the level of graduate courses that are offered, also it was fulfilling my professional elective criteria.

During 10-week long syllabus, we worked on several projects, such as working on Revit and creating the family. At Drexel we are barely exposed to BIM’s and I was really glad that we were again introduced to Revit as it is a very powerful tool. Also in this course, I was exposed to Microsoft Access, which we had used for the database project. These two projects dealt with topics that I had never covered before and I feel that they will be beneficial in the future, especially the database knowledge.  Modern day society is so dependent on databases that even a minor understanding can be extremely beneficial.  Knowing how to create families in Revit can also be very helpful in the professional world, although, I hope to never have to make one because it was somewhat annoying setting up all the parameters and relationships.  But it’s better to know and not need than need and not know. 

I really enjoyed all the lectures and all the in class activities. Most of it I really enjoyed having guest lecturers. Every single guest speaker was very well chosen because they were all able to contribute with their insight at a topic we were covering. I believe that Hue Robert’s Lecture was very well done; it gave me hope for the industry and the growing figures in infrastructure.

Also I really enjoyed reading other people’s blog posts, and writing my own blog posts. Reading blog posts from other groups really opened up a lot of thought provoking areas. I absorbed a lot of knowledge while reading the blog posts. I would’ve loved going in depths of this course and I would’ve loved having another sequence to this course, which would focus on the use of different BIM platforms.

Comments:

Samuel – I completely agree with your view-point of this course. Both the assignments were well thought out. I am really keen on seeing how your final paper turn out to be, wearable technology always interested me and it would be wonderful exploring how in the future buildings and wearable technology can be linked.

Yuyang – As you had mentioned that the videos on robotics caught your eye, I found it really interesting where the drones were involved in the controlled constructing of a structure. This class was very interesting although I really wish there was a sequence to this course.

B5 - Databases in Construction - Eduardo Borja

            Computerized databases started in 1960’s. This happened when the computers became more cost effective options for different firms and organisations. Databases in general have great benefits for companies. Databases are essential in reducing the amount of time spent managing data. Data management can be tedious and mundane and if there is a large amount of data to handle, the time spent processing could be excessive. One interesting example of a database that was basically one of the first commercial successes was SABRE. SABRE was a system that was used by IBM in order to help American Airlines to manage its reservations.

            Specifically related to construction firms, databases can provide a particularly easy way to contact customers, suppliers, even employees. For example, something that could seem meaningless, such as being able to pull up an email address, could actually be as easy as typing a name. The ability to find information easily creates an effective and productive work force. Organisation in a database i believe is crucial as well. Making an element easy to find should be a goal of any creation of a database, but if the database is not organised then the database loses its purpose.

            Another example of how critical databases are in a construction firm relate to estimating. Estimating could be extremely tedious if you would have to input the data for each element of a structure. In this case, databases allow keeping records of a variety of properties of elements. Also, in construction firms, cost and scheduling is greatly affected by the use of databases. Also, databases can extremely facilitate the life of an engineer. This is due to the fact that in a database one can input many different trade information that could certainly prove to be useful when estimating a project. One example of a typical database used in industry is RSMeans. RSMeans is used when estimating the price per square foot of a structure. This database provides data for both renovation projects and new buildings and has costs for over 900 cities in the US and Canada. Construction firms could also establish a database for all of the past projects they have taken. This could be quite beneficial because the firm could reference any project that could actually help with a current bid or estimate.

1. http://www.rsmeans.com/
2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140724234418-100956650-coming-soon-construction-databases-why-use-a-database
3. http://pmbook.ce.cmu.edu/14_Organization_and_Use_of_Project_Information.html

Comments:

Mohammed Alqallaf: Mohammed, i particularly enjoyed reading through your post. I enjoyed the fact that you discussed how databases have evolved through time and how computers/clouds have helped with this evolution. I completely agree, and also i must add that organisation must be key with databases. Dealing with such a large amount of elements in a database must have a certain degree of organization. Also, i agree with the fact that the databases must be updated regularly. For example, if RSMeans does not update regularly the cost estimate of a construction firm could not be competitive.

Kuzniarowicz: I enjoyed reading your post because i also did some research on RSMeans. This is certainly a great database and its uses are quite extensive. The last point you touch on in your post is really interesting and i believe it is a future of many companies with their products as well as a future of BIM. I believe many companies will develop a database and have the ability to import their products into a BIM software in order to make the designers life much easier with regards to cost and scheduling.