AE 510 course reflection

In AE510: Intelligent Building, we get to experience many different technologies that are applied on buildings. Especially BIM is one of the leading program what has been developed for past few years. I was amazed about how the computer technology can make life much easier and simpler even in the job field. When I look back at myself for past few weeks, I did not know much about buildings other than columns and beams. Now, I talk about BIM all the time when I have a chance to have a building related conversation. Perhaps, I like BIM much more than any topics that were covered because I enjoy using Computer Aided Design programs. Database and sensors are fascinating as well, but I felt like it was too lightly to cover in class.

Another impact of this class is guest speakers. Unfortunately, I missed one class with passionate guest speaker about sensors. Besides that, all the guest speakers could make me understand well about the program, real application, and future of industry.

 This class is very creative class that let students to think and research more about up-to-date real application topic relate to near future. I hope many of the students can be influenced in a good way that helps them to lead the future of industry.

Week 10 - AE 510 Reflection

I didn’t really know what to expect going into this course, but it sounded interesting and, like all Mitchell classes, enlightening to an aspect of buildings that I wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to.  I can honestly say that I enjoyed the class and learned a great deal. 

Over my past two co-ops, I dealt a lot with sensors/monitoring equipment, building programs, and networks/databases (specifically relating to sensors).  So right away, I could see the professional applications of the information we were researching and discussing during class. I think one thing I learned that really stuck with me is the application of sensors and their dependency on databases and networks.  Knowing how a database functions and stores/relates information is very useful when deciding what sensors to install in a building, how many, and what the information those sensors are recording is going to be used for.  I have always been very interested in emerging technologies, however, this class showed me how much of that technology is being incorporated into buildings in various ways.  

My favorite portion of the class was having the employees form software companies come to speak to the class.  Working for a software company is something I would like to do at some point in my career, and it was nice to hear form various levels of employees from the top engineering software companies. 

Comments:

Andrew Paladino: This was a, unique, way of describing the class.  I'm not entirely sure if you found the course helpful, however. 

 Brian Benson: Very well written, it seems like the topics we discussed really interested you.  

Course Reflection: Final Post

In order to write this final blog post and effectively reflect on my journey in the class, I read all my previous entries. Honestly. I’m amazed by the progress I have made from my first posts. At the beginning of the term I did not know anything about “Intelligent Buildings” or databases. Even the knowledge I thought I had on BIM was very limited. As I’m writing this last post I have a better understanding of BIM processes, as well as their strengths and limitations. I also made a very basic database that helped me have a better understanding of the roles they play in our field. I made a lot of progress as an architectural engineer, and Professor Mitchel helped me look toward the future of the field.

I really enjoyed the format of the class. The fact that we had to research independently the discussion topics before class, made the lectures easier to understand. I liked the fact that we had to read our classmates posts, this promoted interaction between us and facilitated discussions. It also gave me new perspectives on the discussion topics. Everyone attacked the problem at different angles, and it is always nice to read a point of view you had not considered previously. Another aspect of the class that made it great was the guest lecturer. Like I said before, it is always nice to hear different point of view on the same topic. Professor Mitchell made sure we were exposed to the way things worked in the industry by having speakers from the construction side, the design side, and even the software development side. This kind of experience is invaluable for students about to enter the workforce. It helped me better prepare for interviews or networking events since I knew what employers were looking for.

I really enjoyed my time in class, and I would definitely recommend it to a friend. 


Comments on others posts:

Esther:  Although I did not discuss it in my post, the possibilities that BIM technologies might completely change the way we do things now is quite exciting. I don't know if all the changes will be positive, but I know that I'm definitely anxious to see what will become of our field in the years to come. Actually, I excited to have the opportunity to be part of this change.

Ivan: I also really enjoyed hearing more about the technologies available to us. I had stuck to Revit this whole time, and these presentation showed me a whole new world. I'm hoping to soon be able to use these new software we learned about to make my senior design work a little easier. 

Course Reflection - week 10

In this course we covered so many topics like BIM, sensors, and database. Before this class, my knowledge was limited in some of those topics, and I was kind of a confused about what to expect or the term intelligent building is.  I choose this course because I just needed an elective course to graduate.  After all, I found this course really interesting, and I gain so much knowledge that I did not realize it’s that important till now. 

In this course there were a weekly reading assignments that we need to write a blog about. We were divided into five groups. Each group wrote about a topic and shares them on the blog. Theses topics were wide, and related to intelligent building.  I gain a lot of knowledge from these assignments since we need to read different topics. Also, I found reading each other as required really helpful since you will have an idea about all other topics as different types of sensors or database.

The BIM model assignment was using Revit to model families. I was confused at the beginning. However watching the tutorials helped me to complete the assignment. I had no idea how to create before this class. Creating family on Revit is important, and I fell that in Architectural Engineer should know how to create families as you can design whatever you need.

Last assignment was the Database assignment.  My experience to Microsoft Access is none before this class. However, after completing this I was able to crate tables, defining relationships between them, create query, form, and report using Microsoft Access. I find Microsoft Access much easier, clear, and can display the data in well-organized manner than excel.

During the course we had some guest lecture. Those lectures were really important, and to me the most valuable on this course. It’s good to listen to some experts’ experience on what are we learning. They gave us an idea on what should learn or focus more on. Also, gave us some idea on how are different BIM software works, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of these software.

Last, after looking on the amount of knowledge I gain in this class, I feel it worth the works and time you spend on doing all of these assignments and reading. It’s really interested to see how can BIM models, sensors, and database can be engaged all together to form an intelligent building, and helps to discover different new technologies that can aid on the future to use on intelligent buildings.  What makes it even interested is how professor arranging these assignments and organizing the course, and inviting the guest speakers to share their experience and knowledge.    

Comments: 

Comment’s on Audrey Ryan’s post: 

I totally agree with you and most of my classmates on how important the guests lecture were.   Also, how the assigned project has enhanced our knowledge in different topics that important in the molding and engineering filed.

Comment’s on Esther’s post: 

I agree that the skills we learned in this course were many, and really helpful in our engineering career. Some of them,  I had no clue about like the database. I’m sure as you said that we came out of this course with knowledgeable about what is being done to make the whole life cycle of buildings more intelligent.

Course Reflection

To say the least, this course was not what I was expecting. I was expecting to perform Revit projects for the whole term. But the information taught in class was a refreshing change of pace. It almost seemed as if I was stepping out into a completely new field of study. With lectures focusing on robotics and sensors, I was not sure how this was architectural engineering course. But as everything began coming together, I could see how all these pieces of technology fit into building design. Building design is not all about aesthetics and structural calculation, it a means of making the future bigger, brighter and more efficient. And this is exactly what was taught in the Intelligent Buildings course. Elements such a construction drones and robots and 3D printing all tie into how buildings will be created and maintained more efficiently as technology advances. Never before have I seen so many engineering fields being intertwined with civil and architectural engineering.

During my study here at Drexel University, I had a concern that may or not may not face many civil engineers. I was worried that my field was evolving very slowly, and that anything new or groundbreaking never really happened. A few different codes release a new edition every couple of years, but nothing really extraordinarily new comes along. In fields such as software and electrical engineering, new systems are being developed rapidly while civil engineers are moving at a moderately stagnant pace. However, through the knowledge gained from AE 510, I know this is not true. With advances in technology, the way engineers think about traditional building design and maintenance can become completely obsolete. This is an exciting concept that can possibly make the structures of tomorrow come alive today.

Directly relating to my profession as a structural engineer, I do not see many direct impacts from the class. While all of the information taught by Dr. Mitchell is valuable, it is not necessarily useful in developing a framing plan for a structure. But, like I said before, traditional structural design may be upset with heavy advancement in manufacturing and labor technologies. Only the future will tell how “intelligent” buildings can become.

Comments

Ian – I completely agree with you on the speakers that presented to us in class. They were extremely intelligent and taught me a lot about intelligent building design. I especially enjoyed the speaker from Bentley who presented very useful tools foe engineers. I also have to agree about the database assignment. While the assignment provided great insight towards the creation of databases, it does not necessarily relate to me.

Ivan- 3D printing was one of the most interesting topics from the class to me as well. The possibilities for this technology are endless and it is exciting to see what kind of object will be printed next. I hope within our lifetime that we can see printed materials used in space, but based on the budget being cut for NASA, we may never see it. However, being able to order a physical good from a website and being able to materialize it within my own home is a very exciting concept!

Course Reflection

I originally registered for this class to meet graduation requirements, but over the past ten weeks, I've learned so much about future technology. The intelligent buildings course has opened my eyes to a lot of new technology that will revolutionize the AEC industry. My most favorite part of the class was our discussion on 3-D printing. I found 3D-printing to be the most interesting topic we learned about this term. Its my favorite because of the infinite capabilities that 3D-printing possesses. What really caught my eye were the future applications of this technology like space stations and colonies. In addition to 3D-printing, the topics of sensors and databases also peaked my interest. I will be dealing with various temperature and pressure sensors in my profession, so having more in-depth background knowledge about both topics was extremely beneficial.

I enjoyed the guest presentations prepared by professor Mitchell. All of the guest speakers were enlightening and a joy to listen too. My favorite guest speakers were the representatives of AutoCADD and Bentley. They gave us a lot of interesting information, which made me download the student versions of the software I did not already have installed on my Mac. The in class assignments at first seemed tedious and annoying, but I ended up enjoying working in the different groups from week to week.

In summary, I would totally recommend an underclassmen in our department to take this class. A lot can be learned in this class without even realizing it. Professor Mitchell has done an excellent job at orchestrating the class curriculum. The only thing I see that could be changed is the possibility of beginning the term project somewhat sooner.

Comments:

Ryan Taylor: I agree that professor Mitchell did an excellent job finding engineers from the industry to speak to us. I felt as though the AutoCADD, ArchiCAD and Bentley representatives were the best out of all the speakers that presented to us.

Phil Brubaker: I originally registered for Intelligent Buildings as an elective and ended up learning much more than I anticipated. I didn't know much about BIM, databases and 3D-printing, but I now feel a greater appreciation for this course. In hindsight, I wish I had registered for this class sooner rather than two weeks into the term.

AE 510 Sensor Technology Power Point

AE 510 Sensor Technology Power Point - Michael Kilgallon & Matt Morimoto

In order to save paper we have made our PowerPoint available online #green #AE510 #sorrynotsorry

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14bReKXi15KzMedQLVBXoDycDsrdWPgeTEasg6zrVIYI/edit?usp=sharing

AE 510 Course Review

AE 510 Course Review - Matthew Morimoto

When I first stepped into AE 510, I was expecting a course that was much different from the one that I have spent the last ten weeks being a part of.  I was expecting a variation of AE 391 in which we would be discussing buildings that currently exist throughout the world and how we should design similar structure.  Using projects to supplement our understanding of the material we would then use BIM and design as a class.  What we have done over the last several weeks is much different but just as beneficial to my education.  The ability to look at a multiple different aspects in the future of intelligent buildings has been something that I have never made myself available to.  I am usually the type of person that explores the different fields that I will be pursuing but there were some great topics that we went into during class that really peaked my interested.  The first being robotics in the field of engineering and how they can be used in the construction aspect of buildings.  While this technology is still a long way off it was interesting to see how robotics are currently used and where the advancements will put us in the next decade.  Furthermore I was never aware of the use of various software packages and their use in the real world.  I have been lucky to use Autodesk primarily at my coops but there are a dozen other programs that run just as well with their own unique benefits.  Presenters made this information more available to me and brought to my attention how much I have yet to learn when it comes to the field.

Overall there were some great aspects to the course however I do have some suggestions on how the class can be improved.  I think that guest speakers were good in networking and seeing what else was available in the field but I think that the scope of what their content was on was not consistent with the class at certain times.  It would have been awesome to be able to participate in the BIM discussion when ArchiCAD & Microstation I think that using those programs for design projects before that class would have been very enriching and beneficial for people looking to get experience in something they were not familiar with.  Another point that I thought would have been nice was to see the current application to a lot of these things we studied in class.  A lot of the time I felt that some of the concepts (robobtics) we were studying didn't apply to intelligent buildings but with a little re-centering on the main idea would be a great use to understanding their future uses.

To bring this post to a close, I thought that the course overall was good.  I think that I learned a lot, not exactly what I was expecting, but I learned about topics that I would have never thought of otherwise. The class gave me the ability to communicate some complex ideas with leaders in their respective field and overall it has been beneficial to my education.

Comments

Jeremy - I had the same notions coming into class.  I think that you and I were pretty much on the same page when it came to what we learned and what we thought were going to come out of the class.

Ryan - Ryan I really liked your post and what you discussed.  I wish that we had discussed softplan at some point during the class.  Im sure your insight would have been very beneficial to discussion. In the future I will make to come to you if I ever have questions in the subject.

Final Blog-Course Reflection

     This course has been covered many different topics, which I had taken a lot of advantages from these topics. Be honestly I didn't quite sure what is the intelligent building before starting this course, and I was excited what method Professor Mitchell would use to teach us.

     In the beginning of the course, the robotic technology caught my eyes and I felt this technology should be more developed in the construction area that would increase the safety factors. After that, I had a little taste about the intelligent building, which is using certain technology to create a building that is safer and more productive for its occupants. Not only the robotic technology has a big influence on the intelligent building, but also the BIM and database are both incredible systems to learn which are related to buildings.

     I glad to have the creating Revit families and Database assignments from professor Mitchell. First of all, I want to give my professor a lot of credits by finding useful assignments for us to learn. He is the man who really cares about the stuff that he teaches to his students, which is useful or not. Creating the Revit family does help me to have a new understanding about the Revit, which is not only a tool to design the floor plan or 3D elevation, but also it has the strong ability to design your own components. In the other big assignment, I enjoyed learning the database because I could see how the categories connect with each other in the MS Access. It is a great tool to organize the data and very easy to learn with using the MS.

      Besides two major assignments, I absolutely like the way professor Mitchell using the blog method for us to track every week’s assignment. I realize that using the blog is better than the websites because students can much easier comment on other’s work. In the end of my reflection, I want to say I really enjoyed leaning new method and gain much useful knowledge from the guest speaker. I would suggest professor Mitchell to keep using the guest speaker for this course because I did gain a lot of useful information from the real world. Overall, I love taking this course as a professional elective and thanks professor Mitchell contributes much useful knowledge to me and leading me have a better understanding on the intelligent building.

Week 10 Course Reflection

Coming into this course I did not really know what to expect.  I hadn’t had really any experience with Intelligent Buildings before this term.  I actually have never even heard that term before.  After completing the course, I now have a great understanding of what the term “Intelligent Building” actually means and it was very interesting to learn about.  I have always wanted to take a course that would teach me more about BIM ever since I was introduced to it on one of my Co/ops.  This, along with many of the other topics covered in this course, were interesting to learn about and very applicable to the real world.

I found the guest speakers to be a nice change of pace and very useful tool.  Instead of coming to class and doing the same thing every week, it was always something new and exciting.  I also enjoyed how most of the time it was group work instead of just a 3 hour lecture.  I learn things a lot better when I am actively working with other people as opposed to just being talked at for a long period of time.  The course had a very good flow to it and it was very rarely boring.

Another thing that was good about this course was that I always knew what was expected of me.   All the assignments were explained fully and clearly and I always knew exactly when they were due.  This made it easy to plan out my work and get everything done in a timely manner.  I also liked the blog posts because it allowed me to reflect on what I learned in class, or get a preview of what was going to be talked about in class.  It also allowed me to see what some of my classmates were learning and it helped me learn even more from them.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class and I think it was very beneficial.  I learned a bunch of new things and had fun doing it.

Comments:

To Brian:  I agree, I think it was very interesting to learn more about what is going to happen in the future with Intelligent Buildings instead of only focusing on what is happening in the present.

To Jeremy:  I too did not know what to expect when first coming in to this course.  It was definitely interesting to learn what Intelligent Buildings are all about though, and to see what they could be like in the future.

Course Reflection

I have thoroughly enjoyed the AE 510, Intelligent Buildings, class this term!  Going into this class I was excited to learn more about what intelligent systems are going into our buildings today.  I thought that we would focus in on Building Automation Systems and other sensor technologies.  While we did cover these we covered so much more as well.   I also found it interesting how we weren’t necessarily covering what currently exists but  more what does the future hold for the built environment through the use of BIM, sensors, building techniques, databases, and robotics.  This goes along with the notion that the technology you buy today is already outdated tomorrow.  Some of the future technologies like 3D printing and robotics I had never really given great thought, but after this class I do see actual potential for these technologies in my lifetime.

Now with all these cool tools and future technologies we discussed what does it mean for me and my career?  Well I have always been a believer that if you aren’t learning and exploring new possibilities than you may as well be dead.  While this may sound rather harsh it is true in today’s society.  There are new technologies and new ways of using old technology coming about everyday and it is important for us as engineers to stay up on this information and pushing the bounds on the projects we are working on with these technologies.  We can never settle for the norm or standard if we wish to continue moving society forward.  Additionally if you become stagnant in your thinking and creativity as an engineer you lose value to you company and potentially jeopardize your career.  This class was perfect for those who wish to continue to learn and push the boundaries.  While on many of the topics we just covered the tip of the iceberg it has given us some information to dive into further detail on these systems.  This springboard in a sense can help spring us forward in our careers and schooling.  Especially today with the great wealth of technology on the internet it is sometimes hard to know where to start or what questions are worth asking and this class helped me at least with this problem.  I would recommend this class to any of my fellow younger classmates as I gained a lot from this class.

Comments:

http://ae-510-ay13-14.blogspot.com/2014/03/final-blog-post-andrew-paladino.html

HAHA.  Andrew it was fun reading your blog post as you are quite the poet.  I would have liked to hear how you thought this class pertained to your future career, but I am glad to hear you liked the class, or at least that’s what I think I got from it.

http://ae-510-ay13-14.blogspot.com/2014/03/week-10-couse-reflection.html

Ian I shared the initial perspective on the class with you.  I am glad though how we learned so much more and I agree the speakers were a great addition to the class.  It will be interesting to see how this impacts us in our careers and in the future.

http://ae-510-ay13-14.blogspot.com/2014/03/course-reflection_914.html

Weiyang I agree pretty much with everything you said.  I think this class was a great overview of the technologies out there and has added to my knowledge of software like access and Revit.  I too did not like the blog post at first but after doing them I did realize just how much I was learning from them.

Final Blog Post - Andrew Paladino

For this week in AE-510, the final week of all of the weeks of the winter term, the week of weeks, the post of posts, on the day of days, the night of nights, the afternoon of afternoons, in the most dire hour of dire hours, in the fleeting minutes of every minute to ever fleet, in this armada of seconds in the fleets of minutes, in this very moment, the final moment in which I will be assigned a blog post in this final week of AE-510, students were asked to reflect on the class and what they learned, and in the moment of moments in which I read this assignment, during the most pressing of times, I seriously considered whether or not my brief, short, transient presence in the class so called AE-510: Intelligent buildings, was worthwhile or not, valuable or not, invaluable or not, during which time I stopped to think about what worthwhileness, valueness, and invaluableness really was, and wherein if by knowing these deep, philosophical, physical, metaphysical, ethical subject matters or not qualified me to comment intelligently on this intelligent class of intelligent buildings, after all, a leopard cannot change its stripes, and who can intelligently comment on how the cow ate the cabbage; thereby, in such aforementioned instances when asked to reflect, consider, contemplate,  meditate, ponder, I must not let myself be thrown for a loop, and realize what this course pounded into my brain, what this whole ball of wax really meant, and how if a bird in the hand is a man in the sand, what does intelligent buildings entail in retrospect and remembrance in the grand scheme of my life beyond the week of weeks, the post of posts, on the day of days, the night of nights, the afternoon of afternoons, in the most dire hour of dire hours, in the fleeting minutes of every minute to ever fleet, in this armada of seconds in the fleets of minutes, in this very moment, the final moment in which I will be assigned a blog post in this final week of AE-510, in my honest opinion, think, with all intended usage of assonance and alliteration, that the class was sincerely all of the positive aforementioned adjectives that project positivity and in one final colloquial statement I’d like to say


Comments:

Steve - How does one even begin to consider the amount of pancakes it takes to shingle a roof? You didn't keep in mind that if a canoe is going upstream it has no wheels. Great post, keep up the good work. Maybe next time don't be such a jerk. 


Phil - In this course, in this course, in this course, in this course, in this course, in this course, well done, and by the way, don't forget to always, under any circumstances, 

Week 10 – Couse Reflection

When I signed up for this course, I had imagined that we would be covering topics which would allow for the creation of buildings that are “better” or substantially “different” than existing buildings. In a way, we covered some topics which fit my initial framing of the class such as 3D additive manufacturing of cement and plastics and BIM but I was somewhat surprised by the discussions of sensors and database.

I’m usually not very fond of in-class speakers for the primary reason that the majority of the time the discussion ends up being very one sided (it’s all on the speaker) and somewhat boring, especially if you just ate a heavy dinner and run the risk of falling asleep. In Intelligent Buildings, however, the speakers were on average much more interesting and engaging. I was very intrigued by the variety and scope of BIM and how it is used/viewed in the industry nowadays and how this technology takes time to reach contractors in the construction world. Some speakers made me appreciate the work they do in the database or sensors realm, which were some of the topics I found least interesting in this course.

Even if I didn’t particularly enjoy the database assignment, it was still worthwhile to experiment with it since I had no prior experience of using MS Access. Learning how to create families in Revit was very worthwhile and made me appreciate the program and discover more of its capabilities. As for the paper we had to write on a specific IB topic, I chose to investigate the potential for using additive manufacturing in construction to create objects with multiple material types in one “print”. I could not find any one example since nobody has developed the technology or the method but I researched current examples of simple additive manufacturing and used my knowledge of the class so far to outline what needed to be done for this particular process to exist.

The blog posts were an intelligent way to get all of the student discussion out in a single, easy to read forum. I suspect this class format would not be this way a few years ago when not everyone had a gmail account, and I suspect this class will continue to evolve as new technologies in the building world continue to surge. Overall, I thought this class was very well worth my time.