B5 - Yuyang Shi - Group D

Use of Databases in Design Offices
Before talking about how design offices use database, I would like to briefly talk about what Database is. According to the university systems of Georgia, a database is a collection of information organized to provide efficient retrieval. Those  information could be in a many formats, including electronic, printed, graphic, audio, and statistical. A data base could be as simple as an alphabetical arrangement of names in an address book, or as complex as a database that provides information in a combination of formats[1].
For design offices, database helps architects or engineers to keep track of everything associated with the projects. It usually includes a collection of drawings, books of specifications, handbooks of standard tables and product catalogs. Thus a well organized database can ensure the efficiency of the office. Usually, the organization of database contains three components: data definition language (DDL), which is the means to define data organization; data manipulation language(DML), which provides the procedural accesses for retrieving records from the structure defined in the DDL; and finally, a set of utilities.
Develop a multi-disciplinary design database is crucial nowadays as a project needs to be accomplished by different professions with different software. A figure below is shown as an example of the sequence of applications supporting structural design and the corresponding databases involved[2].


Today, not only it is important to maintain a useful database in practice for design firms, those database should also be able to anticipate the growth of the industry as nowadays more and more hardware and software are being updated. A database should allow upgrading as new equipment are available.


Reference:
[1]: http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit04/primer04_01.phtml
[2]: http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2609&context=compsci

Comments:
Dianna Vogel
Jon Swartz

B4 - Group D - Yuyang Shi

For my term project, I decided to work on our senior design project with BIM.

Being able to understand and use BIM is an important aspect of this class. Based on what we have learned so far, BIM has so many advantages and one of them would be its ability to work across multi platforms and disciplines. As a senior student, I am working on a senior design project with teammates that have different backgrounds and concentrations. We have two civil engineering students, one environmental engineering student, and one architectural engineering student(that is me, and I am also minoring in Architecture). So instead of continuing using Sketchup and AutoCAD for this term, I decided to switch to Revit as all of my teammates will be able to understand and even modify the model based on their expertise.

The process of working on a senior design project is similar to a real life project. As different architects and engineers will need to input their ideas on the same project and make it work. There is going to be compromise, but use Revit can minimize the compromise and maximize the efficiency in making adjustment to the model. So I have realized that putting sensors all over the building is only one understanding of what intelligent building is, the process of designing a building can also be intelligent as well by using BIM.

Certainly there would be many challenges. First of all, although I have used Revit to model before, my understanding about BIM is still limited, which was not enough if I want to develop a senior design model. So there are many tricks and methods that I need to get familiar with in order to go to next step. Another challenge is that not all my teammates know how to use this software. Some of them probably need to take a little more time on learning the software, such as the structural and mechanical aspect of Revit. I believe that as long as I am able to tackle down the fundamentals of this software and really understand the difference of Revit with traditional design software, I will able to get a much better understanding of this software and use it for our future projects.

Source:
http://au.autodesk.com/au-online/classes-on-demand/class-catalog/2014/revit-for-structural-engineers/sd6511#chapter=0

Comments:
http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/02/b4-kuzniarowicz-group-e.html?showComment=1454377137082#c5542433107591464727

http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b4-group-c-alexis.html?showComment=1454377779956#c8034422902102812576

http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b4-group-e-mohammed-alqallaf.html?showComment=1454378500094#c749143398678096598

B3- Group D - Yuyang Shi

What are the current advantages of Revit/BIM?
The application of BIM has created an evident technological and procedural shift  within the current Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry (AEC . Admittedly, BIM is still at its primitive stage as there are still many aspects of the software need to be developed, as well as the majority of the firms still prefer the conventional design process.
The first graph shown above is made National BIM Report (NBS) in 2015 to indicate the amount of BIM awareness and usage. By 2014, only 5% of the firms are not aware of the BIM, and half of the remaining 95% are still just being aware of BIM. Firms which actually use BIM for their projects takes up to 48%. This numbers are looking positive and promising, as more people have noticed the benefits of BIM and decide to switch from conventional design process to BIM.

As the second graph above indicated, more people are planning to use BIM in 5 years. This is understandable, as most of the firms still have doubts about whether it is necessary to make the switch at the current stage. But slowly and surely, firms in general have seen the benefits of BIM.

Advantages: 
Increase the quality of drawings
"2 lines doesn`t make a wall, a wall element makes a wall." Whereas the conventional design process would allocate more unnecessary time on tedious modification of a 2D drawing, with Revit, you can jump between 2D drawings and 3D drawings seamlessly. When making modifications to the Revit model, 2D drawings change simultaneously. As a result, we do not have to correct each floor plans when making changes to the model. It would save a lot of time, and minimize the errors.

Improve Collaboration. 
AEC industry works most efficiently when collaboration is optimized. However, it is barely the case for conventional design process. Many disciplines would spend so much time on checking and making sure whether what they have seen is the final version of the design. But it is not a issue for BIM. When working on a project, different disciplines can work on the same model from different aspect, which maximize the collaboration.

Visualization.
BIM includes many tools such as sunlight analysis that can be used by the architects and engineers to optimize the building energy performance while designing. Once the model is done, sheets can be created and presented to the clients almost instantly.

Revolve conflict
One of the problems many construction firms run into is that when constructing on site, ductwork or electrical conduit may run into beams and columns. This apparently would waste unnecessary time and money. With BIM, such issue would be resolved because BIM would automatically detect any of those clashes within the model.


Here are several main advantages among all the benefits of using BIM. Certainly it still has a long way to go, but it aims as a good direction that can improve our productivity and collaboration.


Link:
http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/57078/89620_1.pdf;jsessionid=A96E4261B27335543D77039D741CF8FC?sequence=1

http://lineshapespace.com/building-information-modeling-top-10-benefits-of-bim/

Comment:
http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b3-rebecca-lynch-group-a.html?showComment=1453742568340#c8270379998576757873

http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b3-group-b-alex-palma.html?showComment=1453743011344#c3608746880066657927

http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b3-group-laura-worley.html?showComment=1453743680675#c627663121733070353

B2- Group D - Yuyang Shi

BIM (building information modeling) is getting more and more popular during the past few years. Before I enter college I did not know what it is, but nowadays many companies and firms have already switch from traditional design process to BIM. There is no doubt that BIM has its clear advantages comparing to conventional design process. 

Based on my own experience, as well as what has been mentioned in the BIM handbook, when we draw plans with AutoCAD, although it is quite easy to make changes to a few lines and shapes, it is essentially not that different from drawing with a pencil. Especially when it comes to complex plans, making big change would be a nightmare. However, this is not the case for BIM. When modeling with Revit, plans can be generated based on the model. There is a direct link between the model and all elements. So when we make modifications to the model, all the plans, elevations, sections plans would change simultaneously. 

Same with modeling. When we learned to model digitally, Sketchup and Rhino are being widely accepted for their simplicity and specialty. But we are essentially just making some surfaces which only make sense to us, not to the computer. As what the Chapter has talked about, productivity is a very important element that firms need to consider about in practice, so it is important to allocate our effort on something that is more meaningful instead of tedious. As I read through the chapter, one graph caught my attention, which is shown below: 

 

In this graph, the X axis represents the design phases. From PD ( Pre- design) to OP (Operation). What can be inferred from the graph is straightforward: during the past, we spend too much effort on CD (construction documentation) instead of the design phase. And it is a shame for architects who are passionate about being creative. What BIM can do is that it potentially minimize the CD time so we would be able to focus more on the creative aspect of the project.

When I was on my first COOP back in 2013, I worked for an architecture firm in Beijing. One day, I was called to attend a meeting with my colleagues to discuss if our office should adopt BIM for our future projects. Originally I thought that it should not even be a question, because the idea of changing the model and all plans can be changed accordingly sounded like a fairy tale. But in reality it was not the case, as my boss concerned that switch to Revit would be a big risk, not only because we have to squeeze time from our already occupied schedule to learn something that was not mature yet, but also a lot of our client or contractors still had not adopt this. Eventually we did not switch to BIM because of those issues. In fact, new born technologies always have such issue. BIM has a lot of advantages but it still has a long way to go. But we cannot ignore its potentials, and I am glad that many people have started accepting it and applying it to real life projects. 

Comment:
http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/eastman-beginshis-chapter-on-bim-for.html?showComment=1453241457578#c3030479464369853568

Cite: 

Eastman, Charles M. BIM Handbook : A Guide To Building Information Modeling For Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers And Contractors. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 18 Jan. 2016.

B1- Yuyang Shi- Group D

Key words:

• HVAC
• sensors
• AI
• database
• future

Buildings are artificial, so we cannot talk about intelligent buildings without being aware of the existence of Artificial intelligence. Although we have seen many debates on whether we should take the risk of implement AI to our daily life, for its potential to outthink and even endanger human beings. I personally believe that AI has far more advantages than disadvantages. So whether or not it is wise to invest more on AI technology is quite difficult to find an answer. As it is such a broad topic to conclude all in few sentences. Everything are both good and evil, so why don’t we look at the bright part of this technology?

As I did some research online about AI, I noticed something interesting. When ever people think about AI, people think about robots, or super computers. But AI is much more than that. In building industry, we can also find the footprints of AI. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 20% of energy consumption are from commercial buildings, and releases 12% of U.S`s greenhouse gases. Thus,  Companies like BuildingIQ are doing a lot of investment and effort on making a more intelligent environmental controlling systems in order to reduce energy consumption, as well as make the indoor environment more desirable. How is this related to AI? Whereas the traditional HVAC system requires human inputs in order to make a desire indoor environment , HVAC system in the future would be much smarter in terms of making our life easier. Such system can study human habits and needs. It uses sensors to collect data of human activities, study from these data, and make changes to the indoor environment accordingly.

Of course the process of making this type of system would be very complex. A lot of algorithms and concepts are involved. What it does is simple and easy to be accepted by us: It saves money. With intelligent control, customer savings can be reduced up to a 25% in HVAC energy cost, said by the company BuildingIQ. Most importantly, if there is a problem happening in the system, the system would be able to know exactly what the problem is, where the problem is, and how to fix the problem . As a result the maintenance fee can also be reduced.

In sum, our future is bright. We are lucky to be born in such era with so many fascinating technologies that are waiting for being explored. So with Artificial Intelligence HVAC  system, a single click of a button to make a desirable indoor environment can not only be dream come true, but also, ironically, not necessary. 

Links:

1. http://www.planetexperts.com/buildingiqs-artificial-intelligence-delivers-next-generation-energy-efficiency/
2. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/apj.5500010105/abstract
3. http://www.simplythebestac.com/blog/top-3-hvac-technologies-coming-year/

Comments:

1. http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b1-group-b-kai-waechter.html?showComment=1452574077442#c9019580381354453328
2. http://ae-510-ay15-16.blogspot.com/2016/01/b1-group-laura-worley.html?showComment=1452575050380#c7318221102556651009

Group D Video Discussion

Comparing the two videos, the robots in the more recent video definitely showed advancements in interaction and "construction". In the older video, the robots were only picking up and dropping the materials, whereas in the newer video the robots were moving in more complex ways with the ropes. The robots in the older video did not interact as much with the other robots involved, but in the newer video the robots were interacting at many parts of the process. Another improvement of the robot technology was that they were able to move more quickly and efficiently in the more recent video. Also, the robots are constructing a more complex "structure" in the more recent video than the older one.

With these improvements in technology for construction, the applications include less room for error since the movements and placements from the robots are more exact and less manpower is required for the actual construction. However, limitations include the inability to work in various weather conditions outside and the robots would need to be stronger in order to carry and construct with heavier materials.

Yuyang Shi Intelligent Building Definition and understanding

My name is Yuyang Shi and I am a senior Architectural Engineering student.
I am both asked and willing to take this class because I am very interested in Architecture related subjects. I expect to get a firm understanding of what intelligent building really is, so that I can apply this knowledge for my further study.
My definition for intelligent building: Next generation buildings that are capable of monitoring and studying human activity in order to satisfy the needs of the user.

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