B7 - Yuanjin LI - Course Reflection

In this AE 510 Intelligent Building course I get in touched with many different technologies that can be applied to buildings to make the building become intelligent. Like building information modelling, Revit, 3D printing, databases and sensors etc. Overall, I really learnt a lot new things from this course and I really think they are interesting and could help me after I graduate from Drexel.

Before this class, I barely know what Revit is and how this software work. After use it created a very simple model I realized that it is such a convenient BIM tool for architecture design. Besides, it is essential to be acquainted with how to create a Revit family since every building model has different requirements, and the objects inside the building cannot always be the same.

This is the first time that I get in touch with databases as well. Before this project I did not even know what a database is and why it is useful for human. After the assignment I cannot say that I became an expert of database, but I could say that I can explain to people what databases is and how does it work.

There is one more thing that I like about this course is Prof. Mitchell invited some guest lecturers that have different background come to talk to us. Trying to enrich what we could learn from this course. And they really did. It is really exciting to get some expert’s opinion on what we are learning and what is the real advantage and disadvantages. What aspect can be improved and what other technology that is also important beyond what we learned from school.

In addition, after this course I found that finish assignment is not the end. Intelligent building is a topic that we need to keep reading and learning and thinking about. Each of those topics included in this course is a direction that are related to building’s future and they will keep developing. Those technologies that we are familiar with like Revit modeling and 3D printing will always become more intelligent. We could never stop.

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B5 - Group A - Yuanjin LI

This blog will discuss the relational database theory. Database is well known as a collection of information this is organized so that it can be easily accessed, managed and updated. Databases are usually classified by organizational approach. Originally, databases were flat. All the information was stored in one long text file, called a delimited file. It is difficult to search for specific information and update those existed files. Then the relational database appears. It was invented by E.F.Codd who is an IBM researcher in 1970.

 

What is the difference between relational databases and normal databases? A relational database is a collection of data that can be accessed, managed and reassembled in many different ways. These data items are organized as a set of formally described table. When people access it the system do not need to reorganize these database tables. Today most of routine data transactions like accessing bank accounts, using credit cards and buying thing online are all use structures based relational database theory.

 

The structured query language (SQL) can not be ignored if we want to discuss the relational database theory. This structured query language is a kind of programming language designed for managing data in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is the standard user and application program interface of relational database. It is used for information interactive query from a relational database and for gathering data to generate reports.

 

A relational database is a set of tables including data fitted into predefined categories. Files are represented by a table that stores information about different entries. Each table (or sometimes called relation) contains one or more data entries in columns. And each row represents an instant of data that related to the entries defined by the columns. Here is a simple example of the database of books.

In this example, each row corresponds to one tuple and a column corresponds to an attribute. An attribute is different named book’s information and each attribute is associated with a domain. The advantages of the relational database are it is easy to create and access because of the predefined categories. Except that, it is easy to extend as well. A new data category can be added without requiring the existing attributes.

 

 

 

Reference

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question599.htm

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/reldb/

http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/definition/database http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/definition/relational-database

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/relational-databases-the-inspiration-behind-the-theory/

 

 

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B3 - Group A : Yuanjin LI

BIM software like Revit has shown a rapid growth in the architectural design and building construction field due to its advantages and convenience. But problems are start to appear as well. This post will discuss what the possible future problems of BIM are.

If someday BIM becomes very popular in every industry, then how to unify the database? For example, to build up a building, there are many different processes like design, construct and install, etc. The requirement of the building model of each process are different, then how to make sure they can corporate with each other? How to build a single model that can satisfy all these requirements? Therefore to build up a uniformed database is very important.

Secondly, since BIM is easy to use and quick to learn, now that almost everyone can use BIM. Thus how to ensure the quality of the building model or the entire project? I think a certificate is required. Engineers need to be acquainted with the basic construction standard to ensure that their model is reliable.

In the future, BIM will definitely become more and more “automatic”. It can help people solve most of the problems during the design or the construct process. It is too “smart” and we will not doubt about it for most of times. But computer software will not always be right, if BIM does something wrong people might not be able to realize it. The dependence on computer software will destroy our ability to think and learn. Even will influence our creativity. All the buildings might looks similar because they are all designed by computer instead of human.

Although BIM might bring us problems, it is still cannot be replaced and will always become more intelligent. The future of BIM is obviously optimistic. All these problems discussed here might not really happen in the future, but we cannot stop examine ourselves.

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B2: Group A- Yuanjin LI

Overall introduction
This Chapter provides an overview of the BIM technology include the history of how the technology developed, what is the very basic technology of solid modeling and what is the difference between today’s BIM software.
The basic concept of modeling is to build up a 3D model by 2D shapes. Boundary Representation (B-reps) and Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) are two techniques used in solid modeling. The difference between them is B-rep stored the result of the definition as a set of objectives while CGS stored an algebraic formula to define the shape. Today all the modeling tools are incorporate these two technologies to build up the 3D model.

BIM platforms
Scalability is the ability to handle large project scale which contains a high level of detail. It requires the platform can always response no matter how much 3D model the project includes. This ability is critical when the platform need to manage hierarchical parameters. Normally scalability is limited by the operating system. BIM element library has various objects that can be imported for use. These can be very convenient and helpful. Extensibility capabilities are assessed based on weather this platform has scripting languages for user who need specialized functions.

This chapter also listed some different BIM platforms to compare in three aspects, as a tool, as a platform and as an environment. I will mainly compare Revit and Bentley in this post. Revit Architecture is the best known and the current leader software in Architecture BIM modeling field. It is easy to use with many hints and menus are perfectly organized. The generation support makes the drawing easy to manage and edit. Revit has a very large set of object library which can directly import into the drawing. It also has the larges set of associated applications. But the weakness is obvious which is Revit is an in-memory system, it will slow down dramatically when the file exceeds 300MB.
Next software is Bentley Systems. It provides a wide range of products for Architecture, Construction and Engineering etc. As a BIM tool, Bentley has a standard set of parametric objects. It also support user to create their own parametric objects. As a platform, all actions of Bentley are written to a file immediately, which means it occupies lower computer memory. The strength of Bentley is it can deal with almost all aspects of the AEC industry and very complex models like with curved surfaces. While the weakness is it takes more time to navigate.



Reference
Eastman, C. M. (2011). BIM Handbook : A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers and Contractors. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.


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B1 - Group A - Yuanjin LI

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? How it is related to computer and software? What will the future be if the AI technology is matured? This post will discuss all these questions. Let’s start from the very beginning: the definition of AI. It seems there is some confusion around the concept of Artificial Intelligence nowadays. AI is not equivalent to those robots that can think and learn like a human. It can be divided into two different categories which are narrow AI and general AI. Narrow AI is designed for a specific task like playing chess. General AI is what we normally think it is, for all the general requirements.

To complete the design of general AI is still a huge challenge for human beings however narrow AI is already a part of people’s daily life. Computer is the major carrier of AI system and software programing is the tool to make the AI system work. For example, a mobile phone is a narrow AI system. The software is carried by the machine and work together as a small narrow AI factory. Nevertheless, general AI is still very difficult to create because human brain is the most complicated system in the universe. Those things are very easy to human like vision, movement and consciousness are extremely hard for computer to imitate.

An article called “The AI Revolution” pointed out some predictions that definitely will happen before general AI. The first key is increasing the computer hardware power. The computing capacity should at least equal to the brain. One way to measure the capacity is by calculations per second (cps) of the brain can manage. This number can be figured out by test the maximum cps of each structure in the brain and add them all together. Ray Kurzweil came up to an answer by some professional estimates of brain’s total cps, about 10¹⁶ cps. Actually this cps has been achieved by China’s supercomputer Tianhe-2, but it takes about 720 square meter of space and using 24 megawatts of power. Second is making the computer smarter. This means the computer should plagiarize the brain by software programing. Make it can “learn and improve itself” as humans do.

"Right now we're in a phase of very fast advances, and that may well continue for a small number of years," said Christopher Bishop, a distinguished scientist with Microsoft Research Cambridge. Once the AI technology is developed, the advantages are obvious. It can cure disease, replace human to do dangerous work and protect endangered species on the world. However, some problems might come accompanying. Will the automatization lead to unemployment? Will the new technology change the economic structure? Will the general AI system take over the society? Therefore, people have to thinking ahead to prevent unexpected consequences.

Reference

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2906336/emerging-technology/what-is-artificial-intelligence.html

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-future-artificial-intelligence.html

http://www.wired.com/2014/12/armageddon-is-not-the-ai-problem/

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Week 1 videos

What changed between the first and second?

There seemed to be a large difference between the first and second in terms of the fluidity of the motion. The first structure relied on precise movements, whereas the second flowed in relation to both the ropes and the other drones. The second structure also showed greater promise for teamwork, with both drones working in close proximity of each other. These three improvements combine to create a more feasible building process, however it did lean heavily on human constructed elements.

What implications does this have for the future of our industry?

• Speed up time 
• React to environment
• More feasible structure
• Safer, possibility of creating tethers for harnesses
• Can work at great heights 
• Inspection work, not necessarily construction

510 Intoduction

I’m Yuanjin LI and I’m a graduate student of Architectural Engineering. I take this class is because I think the topic of intelligent building is very attractive. I’d like to understand what this topic exactly means after this course and be able to use some of the concepts during my future work.

Intelligent building to me is like a building which is very convenient to people. It can satisfy almost all the requirement automatically.  

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