Week 10 Blog Post

D. Barbalace

I like to think that this course was less about what I learned, and more about how I was able to develop a new method of thinking about buildings.  I've had experience with BIM, and I was already aware of many of the ways robotics, databases, and sensors are used in engineering design.  This class allowed me to take everything I already knew on these topics, broaden my existing knowledge, and then consider ways of combining them to create intelligent designs.

I've spent a lot of my time at Drexel being impressed with building's that have one or two "main attractions," meaning that the design or operation incorporates a few intelligent systems but is otherwise an average building.  While buildings like these are important stepping stones to the end goal of creating a truly intelligent building, we won't get there until all of a building's systems are capable of interacting with both one another and the humans that inhabit it.  Utilizing green infrastructure, computerized systems, mechanized systems, building information modeling, and efficient spacial design are, in my opinion, the most important aspects of the intelligent building.

When I start my career as an assistant project manager at LF Driscoll this June, I'm certain that I'll be able to use everything I learned in this class in my work.  As a building contractor, I'll be responsible for performing work in an safe, timely, and cost-effective manner every single day.  I hope to utilize database and sensor technologies to organize my work and check site conditions on a consistent basis.  I firmly believe that artificially intelligent robots will transform the construction industry during my career, and I can only hope to be on the forefront of using these machines.  Another responsibility of mine will be to oversee construction of intelligent systems within the buildings I am working on.  Having taken this class, picking up on conversations regarding these systems will likely be significantly easier.  Furthermore, I will be sure to solidify the contractor's part in the building's lifecycle as early as possible in order to reduce the amount of conflicts later on.

I really liked this class, and I would definitely recommend it to other students in the future.  It does a fantastic job touching on a subject that is otherwise nonexistent in our curriculum, which is of extreme importance due to the ever-increasing utilization of intelligent building design in the professional world. 10/10 would take again.

Comment's on other's posts:

Audrey:  I like that you touched on the guest-speakers, as I completely forgot to mention them in my post.  They really were great.  I learned a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of all the major BIM softwares, and got a glimpse into exactly how important they are becoming in the professional world.  Great post!

Ryan:  My favorite part about the "you get out what you put in" mentality was that it gave us a lot of freedom to write the posts how we wanted to write them.  We were able to research our topics and establish our own ideas instead of everyone reading the same source and summarizing it.  That mentality, in my opinion, made the class much more fun.