AE510 Reflection

I expected one of two things coming into this course, that it was going to be a BIM class or that it was going to be a class similar to the 390-391 series only on steroids.  Much to my surprise it was neither of these two.  For that I am glad.  I took the course because it sounded interesting but it was also one of the few graduate level courses that were offered this term.  Therefore, for it to be similar to my other classes would have been monotonous. 

All in all I found AE 510 to be a little disappointing.  I feel that for a graduate level course I didn’t really take out as much as I would have hoped.  I feel that we, as a class, just skimmed over any topic that was covered.  I understand that the large amount of material covered and the short 10-week terms makes it next to impossible to go in depth on any one specific topic without excluding another.  It would be nice if this course could be broken up into a two course series.  This would give the class 20-weeks to cover certain topics in much greater depth.  Several topics that I would like to have gone in more depth are artificial intelligence and robots in the construction industry.   

Several projects that I liked throughout the term were creating the family in Revit, and the database project.  These two projects dealt with topics that I had never covered before and I feel that they will be beneficial in the future, especially the database knowledge.  Modern day society is so dependent on databases that even a minor understanding can be extremely beneficial.  Knowing how to create families in Revit can also be very helpful in the professional world, although, I hope to never have to make one because it was somewhat annoying setting up all the parameters and relationships.  But it’s better to know and not need than need and not know. 

Alvarado notes that the guest speakers were a great aspect of the course.  I agree with the statement, “Every single guest speaker was very well chosen because they were all able to contribute with their insight at a topic we were covering.”  However, I don’t agree that every guest speaker was worth having.  I believe that Hue Robert’s Lecture was very well done; it gave me hope for the industry and the growing figures in infrastructure.  I also very glad to have Travis Peyton come speak with us.  He’s a man with great enthusiasm that can get anybody interested in engineering.  His talk on increasing building efficiency was very informative and worthwhile.  I did not think that Dr. Il-Yeol Song’s lecture was that beneficial.  It’s nothing against Dr. Song, his lecture was informative, however, a lot of the material that was covered had already been covered the week prior.  For example, he dedicated several slides to the one to many, many to many relationships that we had already discussed.  He also discussed SQL in depth, which we never used afterwards. 

Both Jeanine and Kayleigh mention the importance to stay up to date with technology.  This class was very beneficial in that scenario.  The topics covered are the up and coming topics in our field and to have a base knowledge, as stated before, is very beneficial, especially, upon entering the workforce.  Jeanine and Maria also reiterate what Professor Mitchell said at the beginning of the term, that it is easy to get by in this course but to get anything out of it the time must be committed.  I do take responsibility for not putting in as much effort as I would have liked.  I do think I could have gotten more out of the class by working harder.  I tell myself every term that I’m going to be a good student and do everything early so I have plenty of time to study and do projects, none of which ever happens.