Donahue - B8 - Summary Blog

Ryan Donahue

B8 – Summary Blog

            After completing a class, it is always valuable to look back and assess your personal growth, value and knowledge gained, and the positives and negatives. As AE510 draws to a close, I think it is appropriate to say that there is significant value in this class for each and every student to take away and build on. Summarizing the course, Professor Mitchell had us complete a wide range of assignments and discussions to stimulate rapid learning of intelligent buildings concepts such as BIM, databases, sensors, robotics, networks, etc.

            Like he said at the beginning of the course, this was definitely a class where “you get out of it what you put into it.” The assignments that hold to that motto truest were the blog posts. They were meant to encourage and fuel discussions amongst students to obtain and build a well-rounded knowledge base on the various topics that were explored. They were a great way to see what other people thought or found on the various topics and draw your own conclusions from this information. They were also valuable because it was a chance to explore and take note of the growth of technology and to identify trends and future aspirations of technology. These blog assignments were weekly, lengthy, and time-consuming, however, the value students were able to obtain from them is pretty clear.

            Another aspect of the class that I really enjoyed were the guest speakers from various companies coming in to discuss their real world applications and technologies. This was a great way to use our research from the blog posts as call-backs and to again increase our knowledge base by participating in first hand discussions with present day professionals who utilize IB concepts daily. I really enjoyed those lectures and I truly believe they brought immense value in the form of exposure for the students.

            Reflecting on how this course and its concepts effect my profession and future is quite simple. I think I made a point of making sure I brought in my personal experiences into almost every blog post along with performing the usual deliverable tasks and research. Being able to identify how it has already or will affect myself and my profession in the future is something that is important to identify for any class. Specific to this class, however, is being exposed and discussing the technological advancements that are presently changing the profession, most especially BIM tools. BIM software is changing the game and it is imperative for us as young engineers to graduate with a well-rounded skill set and a wealth of experience in utilizing these tools proficiently. Because clearly, after the learning curve, they make engineering design, analysis and collaboration easier and the accuracy and interfaces are improving significantly as times goes on. And again, this is something that was achieved through class lectures and discussions as well as the guest lecturers coming in and providing the real world application examples.

            Overall, I truly enjoyed the course and it was an extremely valuable experience. I look forward to building on the knowledge I have gained from this course as well as utilizing the skill set gained from the various projects. Thanks for a great term everyone!

Comments on Others:

Teddy's Post:
Great job on your post, I want to first comment by saying I'd like to echo your comments about Professor Mitchell. All of his courses are always geared to making sure students learn a wide range about the topic at hand and he achieves this by using recent, up to date technologies which add to the learning experience themselves. The way you described it in your post was very well put and absolutely true. I'd also like to say I agree with you when you said you'd rather have spent more time on certain topics instead of others. I think I feel the same way, but as you also said, that is just a personal preference thing that will vary from student to student.

Esther's Post:
I really liked your reflection post because you summarized all your goals for the course and precisely what skills you were able to acquire and/or build upon, especially BIM. I think the BIM experience is so valuable because it is the next generation design tool and we are the next generation of engineers so we definitely should have a familiarity with how it operates. Great post, Esther!