B5: Group D – Kate Flint

Uses of databases in design offices

Databases are useful tools to any company or organization who deals with data. But that is not exclusive to tech companies. Almost all companies have customers and the more data that can be collected about them the better. Knowing your customers allows companies to understand how to better serve them, increasing customer satisfaction and company profits. Design offices in particular work with a large amount of data about buildings and their users. As with any company it it useful to have the most efficient work flow possible. Databases can also be incredibly useful in keeping track of employee information by the human resources department. Databases can be useful for sharing large amounts of data between multiple users, but now there are so many different database options to choose from.

Databases make it easier to manipulate data but in turn make it more complex overall. This puts significantly more amounts of strain on a company's IT department. A company must decide if the pros outweigh the cons in this situation.

An Evernote article profiles an online database startup and explains where the future of the database is headed. Orchestrate.io has pieced together the most useful components from other large database stores to create the foundation for their own super program.  Overall, they have sacrificed customization for use-friendly simplicity. And the company is realistic about their industry. Technology must become more compatible and able to interface with other, similar programs. Orchestrate.io automatically backs up the data to Amazon S3 in case a user wants to later change database providers. To me this seems like a good business practice. It is important to be realistic, and your customers will recognize and appreciate that.

Resources:

https://www.evernote.com/pub/view/aengineer/ae-510/93e26d2a-0a80-455d-844f-601ee408c083?locale=en#st=p&n=93e26d2a-0a80-455d-844f-601ee408c083

Bridget,
We both wrote about databases in design offices and I really like how you started your post with a simple definition of what a database is. I also like how you connected it specifically to BIM and the Revit project from class. Something that can be especially useful that I has not considered is a physical database, such as the one created by Material ConneXion. Architects obviously have a specific appearance in mind when designing a building and it would be incredibly useful to be able to compare different materials in person. As I also stated above, one of the main purposes of a database is to streamline building practices so designer's and builder's time can be better spent elsewhere.

Gary,
You did a great job at explaining the technical definitions involved with creating databases. This knowledge will be especially helpful for our future assignment of building our own databases. I think it is especially important for new database user to understand that there is a logic model behind the physical data they are using or manipulating. 
Overall you gave a lot of great detail and information. On a way to improve, it would be helpful to the reader to add in specific examples of these topics that they may encounter in their everyday lives.

B5: Group C - Mridul Chulet

In simple definition object oriented databases are databases that stores their contents as objects. Furthermore, they support the modelling and creation of data stored as objects. As the name suggests, the fundamental feature of Object oriented databases is allowing the definition of items, which are not the same as expected database objects [1]. Objects, in an object oriented database, reference the capacity to add to an object, then characterize and name it. The object can then be referenced, or called later, as a unit without getting into its complexities [2]. The same can be noticed in objects used in object-oriented programming . 

For example, a car engineer is a perfect example for Object oriented database. An engine is made up of several components: the main cylinder block, the exhaust system, intake manifold, etc [3]. But, when all of these components are combined altogether they form an engine. Similarly, when writing a program one can characterize a several segments, for instance, a vertical line intersecting a perpendicular horizontal line while both lines have a graded measurement [3]. This object can then later transformed into a diagram or a graph. 

There are several advantages of using object oriented database. First, it assures the system will enjoy longer life with small maintenance costs. The main reason for the long longevity is its behavior can be reused and implemented into new behaviors. Second, it allows real-world modeling. Objects are organized into classes of objects and there objects are associated with behaviors. The result is a model which is based on objects, rather than on data. Lastly, it provides improved reliability and flexibility than the existing systems because new behaviors can be built from the exciting objects [1]. As far the disadvantages are concerned, there are not much. The main disadvantage of object oriented database is that it is yet to be accepted by major companies and is not a technology [1].   

In conclusion, object oriented database approach will be really helpful when programming and processing tasks for intelligent building. One of the main reasons is the seamless integration of operating systems and AI expert system shells which in turn makes is easier to share data or software components or products.

References:

1)    http://ecomputernotes.com/database-system/adv-database/object-oriented-database-oodb

2)    http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/definition/object-oriented-database-management-system

3)    https://www.techopedia.com/definition/8639/object-oriented-database

    
 Comments:
 

Hamad Al-Hajri,
I really enjoyed reading your post and how you separately wrote of brief description of uses of databases in construction firms. All the statements you wrote are correct and make sense. I really like how databases are good estimators of wealth, construction time, track materials and performance. It will not only help save time, but it will also help check for errors or avoid any mistakes. But, object oriented approach is yet to be accepted by the major firms. Overall your post was concise and provided with helpful information.

Hatim Amiji,

        Great post. I had no idea about SQL and its importance before reading your post. I completely agree with your view point towards SQL. I feel like SQL helps to define relational databases models easily and helps to explicitly define the relationships. This will make it easier for architects and engineers to extract data and use the data from AutoCad or REVIT databases. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your article and it was very informative.