Class Reflection - Rebecca Lynch

Like many other students, I too found this class very interesting. I came into the class with very little expectations as the topic seemed so broad that it was hard to determine what we would be learning. I also had almost no experience with Revit or any other BIM software, besides from using Bentley products for structural design. I found the class projects to be a great way to demonstrate the tools that are available to us and how they work. The Revit project taught me a lot about the benefits and potential of these kinds of software in drafting buildings. This was further emphasized with the guest speakers who demonstrated the usefulness of these products in the professional world through showing how they use them every day, although my favorite speaker was the one who had his own firm and talked about the faults in new technologies. The database project then taught a lot about the uses of databases and how they are used. It also exemplified the importance of planning in databases as making changes to tables then must be propagated in the design of the queries and forms for ease of use of the database. However, the project then showed that once the database is properly designed and built, the insertion and editing of data becomes simple for the users as changes only need to be made once and everything else will update. Finally, I found the blog posts and term report to be an interesting way of allowing us to branch into the topics that were interesting to us. I learned a lot about the future technologies that are being developed that will improve our way of life and simplify the design of structures.

The most important thing that I learned in this class, however, was the benefits of BIM programs and their growing importance in the buildings industry. While I do not work at an architectural engineering firm, it is clear that the industry is moving towards the integration of all relevant models into one for the construction of structures. Even this past week, one of the clients my job works for requested that the structural information be put into their Revit model. This will be useful on all sides as it will be easy to visualize the finalized building, make sure there are no clashes, and provide a quick bill of materials for the project, to say the least. I plan to continue to play with Revit in my spare time to become accustomed to these types of tools for the future.

Comments:
Mark Lodato
Adrian Kuzniarowicz

B6 - Course Reflection - Mark Lodato

AE 510 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love BIM

                This course was very interesting and one of my favorite courses that I have taken at Drexel. It provided valuable insight on technological advances in the recent past and suggested possible advances that could take place in the near future as they relate to the construction and engineering industries. Examples of these advances were increased BIM integration in the architectural and structural design and construction processes, the increased roles of robotics in manufacturing and construction, and the importance of sensors and their outputs being stored in databases. The prevalence of guest speakers providing real world examples and stories about technology also helped to cement these ideas about technology.  I also enjoyed the emphasis of working in groups with my peers during class time. The ability to collaborate and gain multiple perspectives and viewpoints on the class topics was invaluable in regards to learning and fully digesting these topics.

                The portion of the course that I enjoyed the most was the guest lecturers. It is always beneficial to learn about BIM and how other technologies impact the world during normal class time, but actually hearing it first hand from engineers in the industry working for larger companies reinforces the class topics greatly. Each of the guest lectures was beneficial, worthwhile, and distinct enough so that each lecturer was separate from one another while still providing valuable information about the same topics. I also enjoyed how each of the lecturers had different perspectives and attitudes regarding BIM and technology in general as it relates to construction. I thought it was very important to look at the same issues from all possible sides and reference points in order to critically think about each topic effectively.

                The topic that I enjoyed the least was databases. This is not to say that the material was not relevant or applicable to the course or to us as engineers, but rather it just did not have the interest and wide appeal that the BIM discussions had. I think it would be beneficial to have a guest lecture about databases for future sections of the course to get another perspective and viewpoint about databases in general and the specifics about how they are applied in the industry.

                Overall, this course was definitely my favorite of the quarter and one of my favorite courses that I have taken at Drexel. I feel that it provided valuable information on the trends that the industry is taking in the professional world as it relates to technology and intelligent building. It definitely impacted me in terms of how I feel about the role of BIM in my professional career and the impact that BIM will have on me in the future. I definitely need to take a closer look at BIM as the technology develops further and familiarize myself better with more BIM software.

**Edit**

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Comment 2: http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/02/b7-group-b-schroeder.html

Course Reflection

Laura Worley

Course Reflection

I have found the intelligent building class to be very interesting and informative. When I first signed up for the class, I was unsure of exactly the type of material that would be covered. I have always had a particular interest in intelligent buildings and innovative technology. We were taught the basis of these systems and also given a chance to explore the systems. In this class, we had a chance to work with Revit and database software. These projects helped me to learn much more about the programs and the user interface. I think that we had an ample amount of time to complete projects and were encouraged to do research through the weekly blog posts. The lectures were also coordinated well with the course material and we were able to learn much about a topic before being given an assignment. I feel as though after the given lectures, I am fully able to understand the concept of Intelligent buildings and the many up and coming technologies associated with these buildings.

Another interesting aspect of this class was the opportunities we were given to collaborate with one another in class. Throughout the term, we were given groups in which we would review material/projects and posts. During this time we would collaborate on our thoughts and the process. This helped to review material and also learn so much more. The given groups were also chosen in regards to our major and program. This was also helpful for us to see the ideas of people with similar interests.

The guest speakers that were brought into our class made it so that the things we were learning in class were more relatable. Many of the guest speakers were very informative and also helped us to gain a better idea of potential career opportunities. I also thought that it was very nice that they spent the time to come speak to us. Many of the employers gave out business cards which could be helpful for networking in the future. The speakers were all in different fields. Some of the speakers were new out of college and have just begun on their career paths whereas others were established in the companies and had many other stories of previous experience as well.

The blog posts were very interesting and it was great to see other people’s perspectives on certain topics. I found them also to be very informative and I have learned a lot about BIM technology that I did not quite understand before. The weekly comments on the blog posts kept us attentive to other ideas and perspectives.

Overall, I found this class to be very helpful in understanding the topics at hand, giving the class new perspectives, and teaching us new material. Even though the Drexel quarters are very short, I felt as though this class relayed a lot of information to the class.

Comments:

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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.

Course Reflection - Samuel Boyce

I think this course achieved what it set out to do, which is commendable as with the tight schedule that Drexel has it does not take much to throw a course off and cause topics to be dropped. I feel confident now that I would be able to partake in a discussion about Intelligent Buildings (IB), and even bring some of the technologies into the conversation at work. Although it was a broad course, the assignments, blog posts and final paper have helped me drill down into particular areas that I wanted. I think the course is set up well to achieve this.

Assignments

These two assignments were well utilised in order to demonstrate the power of the programs used, as well as how they interplay with IB. The Revit exercise actually inspired me to take a run at modelling my senior design project, and although I did not use it for the final project in this class, it has come out quite well. By demonstrating the principles of Revit, a good basis of knowledge was formed, where I can now watch YouTube videos of Revit tutorials and make use of them.

In terms of the database assignment, although I had created one before using Access, I was not aware of their wide ranging uses. Although some of the definitions and terminology held me up, I was able to create the database with ease once I had leaned the basic components.

Lectures

The lectures were all very useful, and I think the usage of class time to  collaborate amongst group members was well placed. The outside lecturers were great and even better was the one by someone who does not have the same pro-view of Intelligent Buildings. I was not too familiar with BIM before this course, and therefore by having industry professionals come in to discuss their usage of it was a great opportunity to see the benefits. The other lectures given were well organised, and I think the organisation of them was well set.

I have definitely learned a lot on this class, and I feel it will serve me well in the upcoming years as this technology becomes more prevalent. Although I will be working for a geotechnical contractor, I still believe there will be ample chances for the involvement of technology described in this class, especially after researching my final paper topic, wearable technology.


Comments

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Course Reflection - Yuyang Shi

Intelligent building has always been a very interesting topic. I was very impressed and instantly loved the course when Dr. Mitchell showed us all kinds of the robots. The topics mentioned later on was very insightful as well. I would like to talk about what I have learned or thought in the following aspects:

Software:
This term we learned Revit and Microsoft Access in terms of software. Both of them are related to database management. I specifically liked Revit, as many people and I would agree that Revit or BIM in general will be the future for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries. This course not only let us explored the techniques of Revit, but also it taught us the concept of Revit, and it was quite fascinating to understand and use Revit in such a short span of time.

Lectures:
Professor Mitchell is terrific at explaining the content thoroughly and logically. I had no problem understanding him and I was interested in the material as well. Like I have mentioned before, the robotic videos definitely caught my attention. As a result I searched a lot related videos. Recently I have found out that MIT is making a new robot named Atlas. This robot is more scifi looking, which really made me dream about what the future is going to look like.

Assignments:
Each assignment is a little challenging but definitely manageable. Through out the process, I am more familiar with all the terminology that is used. Most importantly, those assignments really made me thinking in depth, forced me to do more research and understand more about the topic.

Final projects:
For the final project, I picked the topic "Senior design with Revit". I am senior this year, so it would be a great opportunity to use what I have learned in this class on senior design. Thanks to what I have learned in this class, although I was not able to let our structural guys using Revit to build the structural model (he used RAM and he believed it was easier), but our MEP guy was able to design the electrical and lighting in our model. Later on he is going to model the HVAC and Plumbing systems in Revit.

This term has been an eye opening for me, and it definitely made me understand intelligent building better.

Comments:
Dianna Vogel
Cathlene Farnelli