B6 Course Reflection - Alkiviadis Tsitsios

AE 410, Intelligent buildings has been a very beneficial course to me. Because of technological advances, the building industry is changing. The purpose of the course was to help us understand how these technologies affect the future of our professional career. In terms of design, construction, operation, renovation, and demolition, AE 410 has helped teach the role of information technology in these aspects. Through the review and discussion of articles, many topics have been touched on. The class has reviewed how BIM affects all parties of a project, like owners, architects, engineers, and contractors. It allows you to communicate with all parties, and eases the access of shared information. Additionally, the class discussed BIM technology’s relation to other drafting programs, like AutoCAD. Not only did the class discuss BIM technology, it also discussed database software. In particular, its relation to BIM, and in design, was emphasized.

One of the goals of the course was to become proficient in Autodesk’s Revit. I believe that after this class, I am much more seasoned in the software. There were various assignments and tutorials that forced students to become accustomed to its uses. These tutorials and assignments allowed me to become more familiar with the software. Previously, I had glanced upon the software, and was slow at navigating it. Now I can make my way around, and I am aware of the locations and functions of many of the tools. Additionally, training was instilled for the Database software. Assignments regarding this were helpful. While the training in both softwares were helpful, I believe with slightly more tutorials, as well as some more tutorials on how to correlated BIM with Database software would have been helpful. Nevertheless, the knowledge that I have gained through the assignments and the class will be carried on with me through my career. My first real exposure to BIM and Database software has been through this class. As I progress in engineering, I can always come back to the information that I have gathered in this class for reference. The course has been helpful in understanding the conceptual reasoning behind the use of the software, as well as administering the software for technical use.

ROBERT BORRELLI
I agree that the course is not what I expected. I am glad that we discussed and trained in the softwares. Initially, I thought that it would be an informative course, littered with structural calculations and a buildings relation to technology. The class did emphasize a buildings relation to smart technology, but through demonstration, rather than lecture and speeches.

HANYAN CHEN
Before the course, I already understood that there existed “smart” technology. I did not understand that an entire building could actually be intelligent. Even through the final project, there have been many instances shown where a building could indeed be intelligent. Not only is there automation in manufacturing, and advancements in robotics, there are also advancements in building, and that is intelligent building.



MAALIK KAPTUE
I agree that this course is a lot different than most. Like you said, I am also used to courses which emphasize heavy calculations. It was refreshing to take a course where guest speakers were frequent, demonstrations were helpful, and the ability to be creative was emphasized

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.

Blog 4: Project Outline

My topic is discussing the comparison between Intelligent Building and Green Building. In my point of view, the future goals of the construction field will be mainly focused on two directions. Intelligence and environmentally friendly. The explore of the similarity and differently will assistance our industry to better future development.

First and foremost, define both two concepts are important. As Dr. Mitchel stated in the first lecture, the definition of the smart building varies so is the green building. In order to develop the project, properly define both concepts will be the base stone for the project delivery.

Afterwards, the project can be divided by several prospects. For instance, the subdivides may include but not limited to the building systems, types of buildings, construction stages and more. The similarities and differences then can be discussed with more depth and focus.

Moreover, for better develop of my paper, next subject I will be focus on is the discussion about their benefits and limitations, what are the benefits in common that is the characteristics for both? What are their individual benefits? Also, the connection between them as well. Also for the contrary, the limitations will also be included.

The challenges I will be facing priority is to find the borders between intelligent building and green building. It will be challenging to clearly stated the line. Frankly, some of the border is not clear at the first place. The other challenge is avoiding staying too general for my paper. Narrower and more insight will be my goal.

In conclusion, my goal for the project is by digging in to the definition of intelligent building and green building, find their commons and similarities as well as their differences. In addition, their conjunctions and differences of the benefits and limitations.

Comments:

Laney Fries: Your outline is clear in my point of view. AI vs. Green is an interesting topic as I think they can assist one another. Your previous experience in LEEDs will certainly help you in the approach of the project, but I think it will be better if do not limited to their standards.

Jenny Fretta: Your project related to Revit Families design is interesting. It is a nice way to explore more of Revit. Dynamo will be challenging indeed for beginner, use some resources outside the department might be helpful to your team.

Nick Maloney: Your continuing design for your project is a good choice for this project. As we get a better understanding about the BIM technology and especially Revit, your project will be benefits from it.

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.

B1 - Databases, Network, Sociology, Future_Alkiviadis Tsitsios Week 2

As humans cross the bridge from 2018 to 2019, technological advancements are moving at an exponential pace. It is up to humans to keep up with that pace, and make sure that they are advancing as a whole, while technologies make strides [4]. While considering the future, even further than the unknown of 2019, databases, networks, and sociology must be considered. All three of these points will help shape the future [1]. 

The first impact on the future can be related to how databases are changing, with the increased popularity of ‘containers” [3]. Containers allow the user to host applications in portable environments. Containers are helpful because they make the process of using applications and scale services much easier [3]. This is because the user does not have to manage multiple servers. Amazon Web Services, or AWS offers elastic container service which automates much of the infrastructure that is required to deploy a container task [3]. 

Along with databases comes networks. That word, “networks”, can be attributed in more ways than one. In particular, it can be interpreted in terms of cellular networks. Cellular networks will be making the transition between 4G and 5G [2]. This transition will greatly increase mobile internet speeds. It will likely allow downloads to occur in a matter of seconds. This faster network will increase the technological gap, it will influence the spread of artificial intelligence. Phone carriers have already previewed 5G smartphone prototypes [2].

Finally, the last influential factor on the future is the sociological factor. While technology is booming, sights are set on large goals, and wild promises are made, one detail is being forgotten. Originally, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had visions to place a PC on every person’s desk in the world. Now, the goal seems to be to place a “computer” inside of everything [1]. The goal is to connect everything technologically. With the invention of Alexa, and other home devices that competitors are testing, the goal is to connect everyone and everything. This idea seems exciting. It would allow for a much easier user interface and it would change the way the world works. Social constructs would change, and it is important to consider that the change may not be for the better [1]. Overall, Databases, networks, and sociology will shape the future. 

1. Manjoo, Farhad. “A Future Where Everything Becomes a Computer Is as Creepy as You Feared.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/technology/future-internet-of-things.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftechnology&action=click&contentCollection=technology®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront.

2.Clark, Don. “5G Is Coming This Year. Here's What You Need to Know.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/technology/personaltech/5g-what-you-need-to-know.html?partner=rss&emc=rss.

3.Tozzi, Christopher. “Containers and the Serverless Computing Model: What AWS, Azure and Google Offer.” IT Pro, 29 Nov. 2018, www.itprotoday.com/programming-languages/containers-and-serverless-computing-model-what-aws-azure-and-google-offer.

4.Marvin, Rob. “What Tech Will Look Like in 2039.” PCMAG, PCMAG.COM, 3 Jan. 2019, www.pcmag.com/news/365676/what-tech-will-look-like-in-2039.

Comments

Tyler Madden

Our post draws many parallels, like how you talked about cloud computing, I spoke about containers. I admire your contribution relating to the Global Data Protection Regulation. This is a sociological factor that must be considered. It is important to regulate and allow regular people to have access/control to their information. Companies that can not follow GDPR are performing immoral practices. Their regulation of the data is not trustworthy. 

Yicheng Li

The way you tied in the tags, starting with BIM, to 3D Printing, into construction, it was very articulate. Bim is the design, 3D is the model, and construction is the result. It is clear how the three tie into one another, and how altogether, they will impact the future. These new technologies all go hand in hand, and will shape the way construction will undergo in the future. 

Michael Tse
BIM will greatly influence the future, I agree. And the internet of things plays a big role into the future of BIM, but you failed to relate 3D printing to BIM and the future. It is important to incorporate 3D printing because it is directly related to BIM. It allows users to mass produce models of designs that can be converted into structures, which was also failed to be mentioned. Overall, your analysis of the future of BIM was good.