B6 - Course Reflection

For me specifically as a structural engineering focused architectural engineer, this course won’t have much direct impact on me in the near future. There are some elements discussed which I could see on the horizon before taking the class, Dynamo and Augmented Reality (AR) particularly. Going through topics covered in class we discussed some details of BIM, but I didn’t really get much out of it. I started learning Revit and about BIM back in my senior year of high school. This class covered the most rudimentary fundamentals of BIM; I did learn how to make a family however I don’t consider this particularly special, the process is similar to other parametric modeling programs (Inventor for example), I’ve just never had any real need to until now. 3D printing will have some impact on my profession however it likely won’t be a direct impact, 3D printing has more of a place in manufacturing which is not where I see myself. Robotics is making great advances, but with today’s technology isn’t quite ready for the complex tasks involved in building construction to warrant major investment, there are definitely applications in manufacturing so again the impact won’t be direct. This could be significant in the future, but only time will tell. Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the other hand will likely see the greatest advances, and may have the greatest impact short of BIM programs such as Dynamo in the immediate future. AI is still a fair way off, but not as far as other technologies and may actually have a pivotal role in bringing some technologies forward. As far as databases are concerned, I hope never to have to deal directly with databases in any significant capacity ever again. I don’t foresee there being significant impact from database technology in my industry anytime soon or at least not in a way that I will see in my day to day career. As for sensors, these haven’t really been particularly interesting to me. There are definitely applications within my industry especially considering Dr. Bartoli’s research into the subject, but I think full implementation is still a long way off. While this course was interesting from a topic standpoint, I would’ve preferred to receive more practical skills, things that could prepare me for some of the topics we’ve discussed, for example a simple project to learn dynamo I think would’ve been more helpful than creating a family on Revit considering most everyone in the class does or should have a reasonable knowledge of what Revit is and at least know basic functions of the program.