B6 Course Reflection

AE 410 is not quite what I expected when I signed up for it, but now that I have finished the course, I can say that I am happy I decided to take it. The main surprise is that I did not think that we would get into the technology that is used to design a building. As a computer engineering student, BIM and Revit were completely new to me. I was expecting the Revit assignment to take a long time, but professor Mitchell’s instructional videos made it very easy to learn the basics of Revit so that we could complete the assignment. Another thing that I was surprised to see in this course was the inclusion of databases. I have worked with databases in the past and have never thought about their importance in the design, construction and maintenance of a building. It was interesting to use Microsoft Access for the first time and see how different relationships between tables in a database could be helpful. I thought it was interesting how we spoke about how different technologies can be used in the architectural industry. Such as how sensors can be used to automate building processes, or how virtual and augmented reality can be used in the design and construction process to give a better visual representation of what the finished product can look like. Something I really enjoyed about this class is that we were able to choose the topic for a final project. I chose the dive into the use of AI in the architectural industry which is something that we barely touched on in class. This project gave me a glimpse of what the future holds for artificial intelligent’s role in the industry within the next 10 years. I also enjoyed getting a different perspective from all the guest speakers that we had. All of them worked in the AE industry but all played a different role which gave us a wide variety of perspectives to learn from. Overall, I thought going to class was an enjoyable experience and I have learned quite a bit considering I am not an AE major.