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.