B6 Course Reflection

As a civil engineering student, this is the first AE class I took. I think this class is especially helpful as I am preparing for my professional career as an engineering in the future. The course focused on several great topics that are essential for the future of the industry.

            First and foremost, the beam technology is an essential skill set as I am preparing for being a design professional. Professor Mitchell guided us to understand the use of the beam is powerful and will be a key tool to use in the future. The Revit assignment allows us to learn the different prospects of the tool. The use of both Revit and AutoCAD in the future is a good mix and can assist must of the projects in our future career.

            Database as another critical topic for this class is also beneficial for me. As intelligent building becomes more and more usual for the industry, understand the database tools will help me in the future of the designs. MS access is a great tool I used in this class and I know there are more and more database software with special focus. The project on the database allows me to study and give me an introduction for these kinds of tools.

            The term project as the final assignment is a great way to explore more on the subjects taught from this class. It is great for us to choose the specific topic we are interested in. For me, I chose the intelligent building versus the green building. At the end of the term, we are allowed to share our own research on our subjects benefits the entire class to be more informative on different topics the class introduced.

            The guest speakers professor Mitchell invited to this class is knowledgeable and shared a lot of their knowledge and experiences. It is always good for us to get more informative not only from the class but also from the professionals.

            Overall, this is a class I was always hoping to take during my years at Drexel. It provided us with the understanding of the impact of the technologies that are likely to produce significant change during our professional career.

Comments:

Yicheng: Just like you, I also didn’t know how to build a model using Revit prior to this class. I believe AutoCAD and Revit are similar and they can assist one another in the future designs for the project.

Hailey: I agree with you that the guest speakers are helpful in this class. Most of them are just a little bit older than us and they understand our needs and questions on the industry and our future career. They provided us with lots of additional knowledge to the course materials.

Matt: You mentioned some good points on the video professor Mitchell showed during the class. I remember the Boston Dynamics the most. These robotics will leave their footprints to all of the fields in the upcoming years and I hope construction industry can also benefits from it.

B5-Reflection

AE 410/510, the Intelligent building, is one of my required class. My concentration is intelligent building for Architectural Engineering as well, so the knowledge for intelligent building helped me to get a basic idea about the technologies would be used in the future building. As a future engineer, this course gave me a primary guide for how the future building would be built, and how many other things I can do other than designing the buildings traditionally. The new BIM model programs, which were introduced in the course, such as the REVIT, Grasshopper, and other BIM programs, would be the most direct help for my future career because those programs would simplify the designing processes. Another helpful thing would be the MS Access database study. I am learning SQL by using Oracle in the information courses, and that was interesting as well, but the difference was that the MS Access was more intuitionistic and easy to be organized and edited.

I am always excited about learning new kinds of stuff. Now is the end of the term, I am still feeling interested in taking this course, but this course is not as simple as I thought. This does not mean that I do not like this course, but I do feel a little bit tired to do the projects and blogs. One thing cannot be denied is that those assignments and projects have helped me to learn more new stuff about intelligent buildings, such as the AI, the database, the BIM models and other interesting technologies. And to listen to the presentation from other professors and engineers were fun and expanded my mind. However, personally, some of the courses were too general to be followed, and there were too many pieces of information jumping up in each class, so it was hard for me to absorb those new bits of knowledge. In other words, I am not confident about this course. No detail was copied into my brain.

Besides those new technologies, I was expecting to hear something about how intelligent buildings would be improved, so that the negative effects from the building to the environment in the future would be decreased. But nothing was mentioned related to the future environment. This is a little bit different from what I thought about the intelligent building. Everything that I have learned from this course only benefits the people inside the building, but not outside of the building.

I am not a critic, and I do love this course, but, for personally, the course is a little bit hard to be patiently followed, and the project was too general to be focused. Hope these parts can be improved in future courses.

Comments:

Tsitsios: Yes, the BIM programs and the MS Access database were the most interesting and helpful things that we learned from this course. These can help us a lot for our future career.


Ren: You are right. The BIM model can simplify the engineers' lives, and there are many other BIM model programs in the business, which might be much more useful than the Revit in some specific categories. The database study will help us a lot for organizing. And, yes, to learn new knowledge from other professors is interesting and beneficial as well.

Laney Fries: Same, I am planning to study construction management in graduate school. The information from this course was a little be complex, but this should be similar to our future works, such as construction, operation, renovation, and demolition. I do agree that the BIM and the database study were the most important and interesting things we learned from this course. And, yes, to learn new knowledge from other professors is interesting and beneficial as well.

Blog Post 6: Course Reflection

I did not have much of an idea of what the class would be like, but I am happy with what I got out of it. I enjoyed the fact that there was a wide variety of topics, especially ones that I did not know much about. I knew about Revit and Building Information Modeling, but I had not taken classes that discussed sensors, robots, or AI much at all. It was very useful to broaden my understanding of what goes into intelligent building and where future technology is headed.

I have a lot of experience with AutoCAD, but barely any experience with Revit. The Revit assignment was very helpful in getting me familiar with the program and the step-by-step instructions, as well as the video walkthrough, was very helpful. I would have liked a second part to this assignment that walked us through using Dynamo as well. The sensor database assignment was useful as well, both in creating a database in Access from scratch and from trying to find data on different sensors.

The lectures and videos on 3D printing, robotics, and AI were all very interesting to me. I had already seen some of the technology that was shown because of my personal interest, however, I had not been keeping up with the new developments. Being able to automatically 3D print buildings and other structures will cause drastic changes in our current infrastructure.

I enjoyed the guest lectures, especially Kayleigh’s because I had never heard of visual programming before. I had been thinking about looking for jobs in BIM so it definitely got me curious when she said, “BIM is dead.” However, this sent me down a path from Building Information Modeling to Visual Design and Construction to visual programming and generative design. Generative design was the topic of my project paper and I learned a lot about it.

Overall, this class was very helpful, and I will use what I’ve learned throughout my career. The discussions and blog posts taught me to research new technology and think/talk about what changes will occur. It is important to learn about future technology and stay ahead of it or else you will be left behind. 


Comments:
To Sean Reifer
I am jealous that you did your project on Dynamo. It was something that I wished the Revit assignment went into. I can learn it on my own, but as you mentioned, it is more challenging to work through it on your own. A video walkthrough detailing exactly what you are trying to accomplish is very helpful in learning quickly.

To Nick Maloney
I agree that we learned about a lot of different topics, but did not have enough time to go in depth with each of them. It was definitely useful to get some information from the various topics, but there are some topics that I wish we went into in more depth. I believe the idea of the project was to allow us to pick what topic we wanted to learn more about during the course and do our own research which worked well.

Yicheng Li
I also learnd a lot of new things about 3D printing, sensors, and databases. I agree that the blogs helped us learn about something new and write about them almost every week as well as read other people's findings. My project focused on generative design which could become a problem when it comes to reducing or eliminating certain jobs. However, I believe some jobs will remain and their tasks will be altered and some new jobs will be created due to the changes within each industry.

Course Reflection

As the term comes to a close, it is important to reflect on what was learned, what I got out of AE 510, and how I can apply the knowledge I gained to my future career. I think the experience I got from this course was through multiple avenues, but I should begin by saying that AE 510 was not exactly what I anticipated when I signed up for the course. At the beginning of the term, I assumed that with the title “Intelligent Buildings” the course would focus on what makes an intelligent building and the various components of an intelligent building that allow it to operate dynamically and intelligently, While perhaps more practical and applicable to my career, what we actually learned were various software packages and systems that are used within the AEC industry, in particular, BIM (Revit) and databases. This is not to say that I did not enjoy what was taught in the course, it just wasn’t necessarily what I anticipated based purely on the title.

With all of that being said I believe that AE 510 was extremely valuable as an aspiring structural engineer. In particular, I know for a fact that my upcoming co-op at EwingCole will require the use of Revit regularly. While not proficient by any stretch of the imagination, I certainly feel more comfortable with the software having used it a great deal throughout the term. Aside from the technical skills and experience, I feel as though the in class discussions regarding BIM, how it works, and how it can better be utilized in the future, will serve me greatly in the professional work environment, allowing me to pick up on new types of tasks and areas of Revit I would not necessarily know about if I didn’t take AE 510.

While I don’t anticipate regularly using a database in my immediate future, they are certainly a tool that is used within the AEC industry and beyond, one in which I now have a basic grasp on. Before taking this class, I believed a database to be no different than an excel spreadsheet--a place to put and organize data. I now recognize, through AE 510, that databases are powerful tools that allow the creation of extensive relationships between various types of data. And while I do not intend to focus on data manipulation in my career, I absolutely see the value in databases and can now talk about them intelligently, something I could not say before this class.

Overall, while not necessarily what I expected, I believe AE 510 is a class that introduced me to topics and provided me with exposure and practice in heavily utilized tools within the AEC industry. I hope to use the skills I learned on my upcoming co-op and beyond, as I begin my professional career path.

Comments:

Alec: I'm glad you went out on a limb and decided to take part in this course, even though it is outside your major. It seems as though you got a lot out of the class and that there may even be some layover with your interests in the automotive industry (sensors, specifically). Overall, I think it will definitely serve you well in the future, to know the basics of a fast moving industry that very well may have some overlap into your field as well.

Harvin: You bring up a good point about the guest lecturers, one which I forgot to even touch on. It was really great to hear from a wide range of industry experts and professionals about how what we're learning applies to the real world; that's not something you get in a lot of classes but it certainly makes what you're doing in class feel more "real".

Tyler: Similar to you, I also only had experience with AutoCAD before this class, so at first, BIM was very intimidating to me. That being said, going into this class, I knew that my co-op would utilize Revit so I was looking for a class that would help me gain experience, which is why I was happy to take part in this course. For that reason, I agree with you when you say that your favorite part of the term was the Revit project as it was nice to gain experience in such an important and powerful program.

B5-Uses of databases in design offices

In my opinion, the most obvious character that the database is playing in office buildings is to control the energy system. The book, Energy Buildings is saying: “The resulting database and model are expected to provide the simple, direct decision-making process for helping estimate the energy-saving potential of some energy conservation measures to retrofit existing office buildings quickly.” For example, the picture below is showing a schematic outline of the research for developing an energy prediction model, which can quickly estimate the annual electricity use of office buildings. 

                                                

By the database, the energy treatment methods can be listed out. So how? The database can organize various results by a list of input variables. For example, for previously analyzing the natural light going through a glass curtain wall, the input can be the properties of the curtain wall, the building location characters and the time of the day, so the output can be the amount of energy going into the building, the serving area of the natural light and the efficiency of the wall. The engineers do not need to build the actual sample wall first and then go collecting the data for estimations. The database can serve for the building load and the HVAC system. By putting the data into the database, such as the building envelope, the building thermal mass, the system operations, the refrigeration and heat rejections and so on for the energy control, the tables can be created for each of them, and the tables can interact with each other.

For example, after input a thermal mass table, and a heat rejections table, we can do this in the database (Linux) to get what the thermal load should be in the office building A during the winter:

SQL> SELECT minimum thermal mass required in the office, the maximum heat rejections
1    FROM thermal mass, heat rejection
2    WHERE season= ‘winter’
3    AND building_name= ‘office A’;

Then the possible range for the thermal load will pump up as a result table. By the database, the using time of the energy systems can also be controlled. We can select the office closing time and the office opening time from the time table, and then the unoccupied period for every day through the week, the month, or the year will be listed out, so the heating or cooling systems can automatically switch on an off according to that unaccompanied period. From my Blog 1 (link), you can learn why the time control for the energy system is essential.

After the prediction designs based on the databases, the time and the money which will be used on estimating the energy system in the office building could be reduced, because the data will be organized and shared, so for the operation of the building or the other similar building, the same database can be referenced again for higher efficiency.

Works Cited:

Mao, Jiachen and Pan, Yiqun and Fu, Yangyang. Towards fast energy performance evaluation: A 

pilot study for office buildings; Energy Buildings. Volume 121, 2016, Pages 104-113, ISSN 0378-7788, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.03.077

Comments:
Yicheng Li
Yes, as you said, the SQL can help us to organize the large databases and it became the foundation of many nowadays' computer software. For SQL, the data input methods are various and simple enough to be understood, so it has already envolve in our daily life.

Tyler Madden
I totally agree with you that the smarter "relational" databases can improve the efficiency of production because the data tables are separated but they can interact with each other, and the users can use various data sets at the same time and come out with another table for showing the results. Besides Microsoft's SQL server, for the Mac system, the terminal is the SQL server.

Alec Silverstone
Agree. The data appear during the building design, and construction processes are very complex, and if there is not a database to organize those data, the mistakes and misunderstanding between the engineers and the constructors will occur frequently, and to find the reason of the error will be a suffer work. Therefore, the database is essential for construction.

B4:Group project_Future residential houses

Group project outline link

  The basic idea of this project is to learn about future residential buildings and to try to design a simple model. The propers of this project is to know how convenience the future residential house can be and what we as the future engineers can do to realize these ideas. In the final report, there will be two parts-90% of the research results and discussion about the future residential building and 10% of a BIM model for showing a better explanation for the future residential building. For the first part, the research results for the current buildings and future buildings will be displayed, the discussions, and the personal thinkings from the group members for the researching results. The discussion will focus on three aspects: the exterior, the house system with database controlling, and the environmentally friendly building, which specific for the energy saving and zero construction waste. For the BIM model, the 3D model, the floor plans, the elevations, and the sections will be showing in the report. This model will only be used to explain the idea, so the evaluation of the BIM model will be concise. BIM tools- Revit and Formit will be our tools to create the models. The models' properties are initially assumed: 10 years later, this four-people residential house will be located in Philadelphia, PA, USA. This house will be a 2,500 square foot two-story building with one-car parking and one storage. 

  Since there are three members in this group, labor separation is necessary for this relatively large project. Generally, every member should write about the personal thinking of the researching results. I will in charge of the current residential houses, and the model designing on the Revit and Formit. Chun Ming Tse will research the future residential buildings, and assist to draw the Revit model. Lin Qiaodanthe will be responsible for the discussion and conclusion. The research will be taking place on the Drexel online library, Prof. Mitchell's shared Evernote, and the Google search. As an example, here is the first piece of information for this project: link.

Comments:

Alec Silverstone: 

Your idea is very interesting. The robots will definitely play an essential role in the future intelligent building. Actually, some of the robots have already started to show their abilities for current buildings. The only thing I am worried about is your 3rd part of the report-the intelligent building design. Are you only going to talk about only the intelligent building? Or are you going to focus on the robotic technology-related story with the intelligent building? If you are doing the first one, won't that be abrupt? If you are doing the second one, I think you can combine this to the 2nd part of the report.

Christain Tait:

I am also interesting about the AR. I think AR is much more efficient than the 3D printed models because the size of the printed model is fixed, the editing of the model is tough and for some aspects, it is not accurate. And the 2D printed BIM models, those are showing the limit faces of the building and they are not intuitionistic. The AR can solve all these problems and even do better. However, currently, the AR model is only an idea so it may take a long time to come to be the truth.

Wenhan Fu:

Yes, you are right, future buildings will develop to be the intelligent building and the environmentally friendly building. I think these two parts cannot be separated, because saving the energy and environment is being the main part for a lot of other categories, for example, the vehicles-Tesla. You can start your research from the existing environmental friendly buildings, the environmental friendly certifications, such as BEAM Plus in Hongkong, LEED, BREEAM, and WELL.

B3 Revit's Relation to Drafting Programs - Alkiviadis Tsitsios

Revit and AutoCAD are both Autodesk design softwares which are used to design a variety of components to a construction project. The main difference between the two is that AutoCAD is a computer-aided design drafting program. It is used for accurate drawings, both 2D and 3D. It has access to many industry toolsets. It is a more general drawing tool that can be applied to a large amount of projects with a broad application. Revit, on the other hand, is a building-specific design software. It offers documentation solution, and is used throughout all of the phases of a construction project. It can be used to plan, model, design, construct, and even manage infrastructure with the many tools that it contains. While the two softwares have different functions, their core purpose is the same. To help model and visualize the design of a certain project.
AutoCAD and Revit coincide and can be used together. 2D designs compiled in AutoCAD can be exported into Revit, to incorporate building designs and functions. Revit can then use its BIM capabilities, and create intelligent components of designs. AutoCAD is often the first step, while Revit steps in to provide BIM deliverables, enabling collaboration with other factions who may be using the design at hand. For example, in AutoCAD, ducts are often represented just as lines. The lines are indicators of the ducts with no additional information, unless it was labeled and detailed in a table elsewhere. With Revit, the AutoCAD data can be turned into components of a system. Not only that, the components can even have technical specifications, and proper materials can be assigned. AutoCAD has the capability of creating 3D models as well, but they are solely geometric with no component information. Revit models contain component information.
AutoCAD is the predecessor to Revit, launched in 1982. As it has been updating regularly, Revit launched in 2000. When Autodesk purchased Revit, the potential was very clear. Revit can be used to further develop AutoCAD drawings. As technology is improving and new buildings are erecting, building systems are improving as well. Revit fills that gap as AutoCAD is used for existing buildings and renovations projects regularly. Overall, the two go hand in hand as leading design softwares in the industry. CITATIONS Tobias, Michael. “How Do AutoCad and Revit Compare?” MEP Engineering & Design Consulting Firm, New York Engineers, 15 May 2018, www.ny-engineers.com/blog/how-do-autocad-and-revit-compare. YIDI LI Great way to correlate BIM with the future of AI development. As AI technology improves, the importance for BIM becomes more relevant. Automation will increase. While AutoCAD is still primary as you said, BIM will become an important component of an engineer’s skill set regardless. As the technology improves, it is important to adapt with the times. WEIYI TANG Data optimization is in AEC’s future as you mentioned, I do not agree that it will take as long as you say though. It is true that Haste makes waste, but as the intelligent technology industry is growing exponentially, industries which are correlated must follow. Yes, it will not become true instantaneously, but I believe the transition will be more swift than you think. It is so easy to share information between programs in modern times, which will speed the transition. It is not like decades ago, where computer aided implementation was a groundbreaking difference. YICHENG LI I was intrigued by your problem 2, where IT departments will need to improve just as the technology does. The requirements rise, and departments will have to re educate themselves on the industry. Also, they will need to hire qualified personnel.