Course Overview

This class definitely met, and exceeded, my expectations for it.  The class was recommended to me from a classmate who told me that it would be an interesting class, and that what I put into it, I could expect to get out of it (learning and grade-wise).  Thankfully, all of that has been true and I would definitely recommend this course to other students.

What I truly appreciated about the class was the beginning of the term - AI and BIM.  The videos we watched in the first couple of weeks on artificial intelligence were extremely interesting.  Learning about what scientists and industry are developing to enhance the construction process and our daily lives is fascinating.  That humans have developed Watson - the computer that responds to its verbal environment - is more than impressive.  Watson, and the developments like it, are something that I wish more people would learn about.  Spurring innovation in this area can only benefit society - from assisting medical personnel to conducting life-saving operations in areas that are difficult/dangerous for humans to making homes and cars smarter.  Additionally, robots, like the ones that flew around the room constructing the art figure, could be used in place of laborers to do the dangerous construction jobs.  They could also stream-line construction by continuously removing waste material or bringing material to an active area.  Although this removes human laborers, these laborers could instead be assisting in other areas at the same time.  Both robots and Watson-like computers can be critical to improving intelligent buildings.  They can interact with systems to update facilities staff and owners on building performance and can use a synergistic approach with other systems to improve building efficiency.  I think that by learning about how AI, robots, and intelligent buildings can all work together, it opened our eyes to the future of buildings.  Although we may hear occasionally about these systems being developed, because it is not out in force in the industry, it would be difficult for us, as emerging entry-level engineers, to promote their implementation.

BIM was also another interesting aspect of this course that I wish we had spent more time on.  Because BIM is becoming a prominent technology in the industry, I would have preferred if we could have spent more time on it.  At the beginning of the term, Dr. Mitchell said that this class was probably termed the "BIM course" and I wish it had been more in line with its nickname.  Personally, for my career, having an in-depth class about BIM, much like many universities do for AutoCAD, would have been extremely beneficial.  I would like to have left Drexel knowing enough about BIM that I could assist in leading a team at my job that had to work with it.  Especially since many people who are currently in industry have limited exposure to the program.  With that being said, having had the exposure to BIM, and knowing the resources that I can go to in order to learn more, I think that I have a solid foundation that I can carry forward in my job.

My least favorite part about the course was the emphasis on databases.  This section seemed the least valuable to me only because it something that I will not have to encounter in my career.  As mentioned above, I would have preferred to spend this time learning more about BIM, AI, and robots.  However, I use Access daily to manage my finances so learning the other tools that the program is valuable for was good knowledge to have.  And, who knows, maybe my supervisor will ask me to construct a database while I am doing my rotation through the project management side!  Reading Kayleigh's blog made me realize that just because I may not use a technology does not mean that I should not know about it.  The biggest issue in any technology-related field is not staying current with new techniques and technology.  Therefore, although databases may not be directly relevant to where I want my career to take me, understanding how they work and their usefulness is good knowledge to have.

Group A: Teaching Hospital

The stakeholders we identified for the teaching hospital include patients, attendings/residents/nurses/PAs, facilities staff, owner/board of trustees, AEC, and the community through research.  We identified these stakeholders through the various phases they would come into contact with a teaching hospital.  The technologies that we identified for these stakeholders as being most important are: acoustic analysis, lighting/MEP systems, sensors, robots, code analysis, database, cost estimate, and models.

• Patients would most benefit from sensors, lighting/MEP systems, code analysis, database, and acoustic analysis
• Doctors/nurses/PAs would benefit also benefit from the same technology that the patients would, with sensors being the most critical to their effectiveness of care.  An effective database will also aid in their research capabilities.
• Facilities staff would benefit greatly from sensors, lighting/MEP systems, models, robots, and cost estimates
• Owner/Board of Trustees would be most interested in code analysis, database, cost estimate, and models
• AEC would benefit from all technologies involved since they are involved in almost all phases of the building's life
• The community would most benefit from the database as doctors are able to pull the patient's personal information, the care the patient received, and the final outcome of the patient from this compiled database

Presentation

Pressure Sensors

Pressure sensors, as the name indicates, measure pressure.  The pressure that it is being measured is typically that of a gas or liquid although pressure applied by a human or animal is also available.  According to Omega.com, pressure transducers “converts pressure into an analog electrical signal”¹.  A strain gage is the most familiar, and common, engineering pressure sensors.  For a strain gage, an electrical signal is generated when “the physical deformation of strain gages which are bonded into the diaphragm of the pressure transducer” ¹.  The strain that is formed from deformation of the diaphragm produces “an electrical resistance change proportional to the pressure” ¹.  Other types of pressure sensors include sensors that measure fluid/gas flow, speed, water level, and altitude².  Some common examples of these are piezometers, manometers, and tire pressure gages.

There are two different categories of pressure gages: force collector types and other types².  Force collector types (e.g. pizoresistive strain gage, capacitive, electromagnetic, piezoelectric, optical, potentiometric) use an item of known area – typically a piston or diaphragm – to measure strain/deflection of the applied force over the applied area².  The other types of pressure gages use different properties (e.g. density) to determine the pressure of the medium.  Some examples of these pressure sensors include resonant, thermal, and ionization².  Wang Chunyi's post describes how resonant and thermal pressure sensors work.  According to his post, resonant pressure sensors have a wire that vibrates at its natural frequency.  As the pressure changes, the resonant frequency of the wire changes in response.  The magnets around the wire create electricity through the wire's vibration which is then transmitted to the readout.  Thermal pressure sensors determine pressure through measuring the heat of a wire.  Under high pressure and constant volume, temperature within the gas, and subsequently the wire, will increase.  This increase in temperature must be calibrated based on the type of gas that surrounds the wire.

There are three types of electrical outputs available for pressure sensors: millivolt, amplified voltage, and 4-20 mA.  Millivolt transducers are typically the most economical sensor and their output is directly proportional to the input power or excitation¹.  However, their output is typically low and so they are not recommended for noisy environments, and distance between the sensor and the readout equipment should be short.  Amplified voltage sensors include “integral signal conditioning which provides a much higher output than the millivolt sensor” ¹.  Because of the higher output level, they are able to be used in noisier environments, like industrial.  The 4-20 mA sensors are the “least affected by electrical noise and resistance in the signal wires” ¹.  This benefit allows the signal to be transmitted long distances (1000+ ft.)¹.

¹ “Pressure Transducers.” Omega.com.

http://www.omega.com/prodinfo/ pressuretransducers.html.

² “Pressure Sensor.” Wikipedia.com. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_sensor

Relational Database Theory

A relational database is “a database structured to recognize relations between stored items of information” (Oxford).  According to Microsoft’s MSDN library, a relational database theory “defines a process called normalization, which ensures that the set of tables you define will organize your data effectively”.  In a relational database, the data is collected into tables which allows it to be one of the most effective ways at organizing data.  These tables, in relational database theory, are called relations.  Each table represents a class of objects.  On Microsoft’s website, they call out the following example: “ a company may have a database with a table for employees, another table for customers, and another for stores”.  As with traditional tables, relational database tables have rows and columns, which in relational database theory are classified as tuples and attributes, respectively.  In the example that Microsoft provided above, the tuple would be an employee, customer X, or store #xxx.  The attributes in Microsoft’s example would be names, address, phone number, email address, and social security number (employee table) or credit card number (customer table).  As mentioned above, relational database theory is the most effective way that data is organized because of the normalization process.  Although there are several ways that tables can be organized, normalization optimizes the organization of the data.

Figure 1: Relational Database Table (HowStuffWorks).

The first relational database was created in 1970 by E.F. Codd, a researcher at IBM.  When databases were first created, they were stored in one text file called a tab delimited file.  In this type of file, each entry was separated by a special character and each entry would contain multiple pieces of information about objects that were grouped together (HowStuffWorks).  The table shown above would have the following file:

Lname, FName, Age, Salary|Smith, John, 35, $280|Doe, Jane, 28, $325|Brown, Scott, 41, $265|Howard, Shemp, 48, $359|Taylor, Tom, 22, $250

Figure 2: Tab delimited file (HowStuffWorks).

Although information is able to be determined (once the user understands how to gather their information based on how the data is presented), it is much easier to use the table shown in Figure 1 rather than the text file that is shown in Figure 2.  Relational databases are more efficient than the original tab delimited file because “ it uses the relationship of similar data to increase the speed and versatility of the database” (HowStuffWorks).  Today, relational databases use structured query language (SQL), which is the computer language that is used for all databases, including Microsoft Access.  According to Wang Chunyi, the software used is called the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) which responds to user commands.  This method is beneficial to the user because it can reduce entry errors as mentioned in Wang C. and Gayaneh G.'s blogs.  Errors are reduced "because each item is stored only once, so once you can find the specific error you made, you can correct a series mistake"

"Relational Database." Definition of Relational Database. Oxford Dictionaries. <http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/relational+database>.

"Relational Database." Relational Database Components. Microsoft MSDN. <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa174501(v=sql.80).aspx>. 

"What Are Relational Databases?" HowStuffWorks. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question599.htm

Project: Intelligent and/or Green

For my term project, I will be focusing on the topic “Intelligent and/or Green”.  I really wanted to work on this topic for two reasons.  The first reason is that I have been interested in green buildings since high school.  I was in a magnet program in high school that focused on the environment.  The program not only showed us what was currently out there (we visited a landfill and an incinerator) and what was emerging technology (we visited BP’s solar cell factory and learned a little bit about alternative building materials, like hay bales), but also taught us about the pros and cons of everything (existing and emerging).  During my senior year of high school is when green buildings were just starting to make a name for themselves and people were starting to really analyze their impacts.  It was also at this time that construction of the Philip Merrill Center, headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, had been completed.  The Philip Merrill Center is the first LEED Platinum building; it was so “green” that USGBC had to create the Platinum certification for it because it exceeded the Gold certification standard by such a large amount.  Since it was the agenda of the program to turn out “save the trees (and the animals and the catfish and the spiders and the ….)” high school graduates (who would then hopefully go on and become lawyers or engineers or anyone who would be able to change policies to save the planet), we drove 2 hours to visit the CBF headquarters.  From that day on, I knew that I wanted to be a part of the green industry – whether it was design or construction.  At my alma mater, we were encouraged to always think sustainably.  When we learned new material, someone would inevitably always ask about its sustainability and life cycle.  Thankfully, I get to work at the company that constructed the Merrill Center and try to realize my dream to construct every building “green”.  Since I will be able to make green buildings a part of my career, I chose this topic to learn more about the topic I am so passionate about.

Secondly, I know very little about intelligent buildings.  When I used to hear the term “intelligent buildings”, it was usually the TV version of intelligent buildings that popped into my mind – house that talks to you, cooks food for you, etc.  From the first couple of classes, I know that this may be a future version of intelligent buildings, but right now intelligent buildings are about how they regulate themselves.  This regulation may be adjusting the temperature in a room to be a set temperature or adjusting window shades to allow more or less light inside.  From the knowledge I have of sustainability and how it pertains to green buildings, I am very interested to learn how these two combine with intelligent buildings and how it makes each of the them better.

As Matthew wrote in his blog, infrastructure improvement is a dire need for this country.  The last time this country pushed for infrastructure improvements was in the 60's.  This means that the majority of our infrastructure is over 50 years old and reaching the end of its design lifespan.  The longer we wait to improve infrastructure, the more we jeopardize the safety of the public that we are committed to protect.  In Matthew's post, he also mentioned the importance of improving water systems and conserving water.  As he says, water in this country is taken for granted as we assume that we will have clean water to drink and use when we turn on the faucet.  This assumption is quickly becoming history as the population grows and fresh water is becoming a scare resource.  Through our urban development, we have drastically reduced the pervious surfaces that allow water to infiltrate the ground and recharge our aquifers.  Instead, this water runs off into our surface waters carrying pollutants, which leads to contaminated and dirty water.  Ignoring the problem will lead to countries having to implement other, more expensive, methods at turning unusable water (e.g. saltwater) into drinking water.  Unfortunately, despite the continuing decline in water availability, it remains a minor issue with green buildings.  When I was studying for my LEED exam, I noticed that the section on water management was small compared to the other topics.  When you look at the 2009 scorecard, Water Efficiency only has 10 points compared to 26 for Sustainable Sites and 35 points for Energy and Efficiency.  Only Innovation and Design (6 points) and Regional Priority (4 points) are less than Water Efficiency.  This limitation with green buildings is something that I will be addressing in my paper.

I think the biggest challenge of this project is going to be finding material on intelligent buildings.  Green buildings will be easy to find as everyone is talking about green buildings and their impacts on the triple bottom line.  Intelligent buildings though may be referenced it various terms in research papers which may make them difficult to find.

USGBC LEED Green Associate Study Guide. Washington, DC: U.S. Green Building Council, 2009. Print.

The Future of BIM

Over the next five years, as technology improves and BIM becomes more prevalent in the building design and construction industry, I think BIM will become like the AutoCAD that we see today.  Although AutoCAD is not difficult to master once you know the basics and shortcuts, it is not like Microsoft Office where anyone can be a proficient user.  Note: as I do not know anything about BIM, my speculations about the future of its tools are based off my assumptions of its current toolbox.  I believe that AutoDesk will make the BIM interface more similar to AutoCAD.  In AutoCAD, when drawing a building frame with joists, minimal mouse movement is required; type “l” for line, move the mouse slightly to the right, type in the length of the line, click “enter”, repeat for all directions of the basic frame.  A line can be highlighted and repeated for joists or offset for a column.  I could see this becoming the norm for BIM with the ability to construct a basic "outline" of the structure and then change the "basic" objects in the outline to reflect the different sized pipes, columns, etc.  In this way, a whole building can easily be constructed from a couple of mouse movements.

I also think that BIM will have its own degree much like how people can go to school to become a CAD drafter.  Similarly, “CAD drafters” may also become just “drafters” who are proficient at both CAD and BIM.  Today, potential drafters can enroll at a technical college or community where they learn all the skills required to become an advanced user of the latest versions of AutoCAD.  Upon graduation, these drafters are highly sought after by architecture, engineering, and construction firms who appreciate that they do not need extensive, or any, training to perform their job.  However, with the introduction of BIM into the workplace, either CAD drafters are expected to learn the new technology, entry-level engineers – who specify that they know the technology – are recruited to draft, or companies have to reach outside the company to hire another firm to do their BIM work for them.  As it is expensive to hire an outside firm or use your own engineer to perform CAD and BIM work, I think that people who are expert in both will become more valuable in the short-term, until BIM and CAD proficiency are an expectation of new hires.

I completely agree with Wang Chunyi about the evolution that BIM needs to experience in order to maintain its command over the AEC world.  As I mentioned above and Chunyi mentioned in his post, the program needs to become more user-friendly.  There are programs out there that engineers use that are not user-friendly and therefore are not the dominant programs used by its respective field (e.g. there is a software program that I used when working for a geotechnical engineering group and my co-workers made me have the manual next to me while utilizing it; they then explained that the program, while useful and accurate, was not consistently used by other geotechnical firms).  Secondly, communication between programs is key.  This was an issue that our group discussed in last week's blogs as a major detractor against BIM and that Chunyi again brought back up.  If a program is not easily compatible with other programs (like Adobe or Microsoft Office), firms will be hesitant to make it a priority.  Lastly, Chunyi's discussion on life-cycle analysis is, I believe, the most crucial aspect of the future of BIM.  As firms are requiring, and being required, to construct green buildings, LCA will be a vital role of BIM.  A true LCA will incorporate materials' LCA, energy usage, water usage, and all other analyses that USGBC includes during their assessment of a green building.  I think that a superior analysis tool in BIM could help lead the way to designing and constructing greener buildings.  However, if BIM does not step up to incorporating LCA into their program, another program will come along that can do everything BIM can do plus everything that BIM cannot do.  

BIM Tools

The development of BIM is one of our industry's greatest strengths and a tool that, when fully implemented by all firms, will more than pay for itself.  Based on my construction experience, incorporating this technology is instrumental in reducing problems that arise during construction that are easily preventable while in the design phase.  These issues, if not addressed in the design phase, can lead to costly RFIs and change orders which, ultimately, have the potential to delay a project's schedule.

Early BIM, according to Chapter 2 of BIM Handbook, had many shortcomings, notably (a) designers who were more comfortable with 2D drawings and (b) cost of each seat ("upward of $35,000 per seat").  As discussed in class, it was the manufacturing and aerospace industries that latched on to, and ultimately improved, the BIM technology.  These two industries saw what the building industry is now realizing - that BIM's benefits include "integrated analysis capabilities, reduction of errors, and the move toward factory automation."  For example, for the redesign of the Boeing 777, Boeing "pre - assembled the airplane virtually" which eliminated "more than 6,000 change requests" and achieved a "90% reduction in spatial re-work."  The savings in time and money and the final efficiency of design that Boeing was able to achieve only benefited Boeing's bottom line.  The manufacturing industry also utilizes BIM technology, most specifically for fabrication purposes.  In the fabrication sector, an object is created in BIM and then imported into the machine that will complete all or part of the fabrication.  Currently, CNC cutting and drilling machines are able "to support automatic design based on loads, connections, and members."

There are multiple tools in BIM that will aid, not only designers and construction personnel, but also the environment.  Tools that allow for detailed framing, detailed sections, and visualization of conflicts prior to start of construction will reduce the amount of waste that is generated.  For example, in traditional construction during placement of the MEP systems, conflicts with other MEP systems and structural elements are typically encountered.  Resolving these conflicts leads to contractors discarding excess material that was purchased to resolve the issue.  With construction projects that utilize BIM, there is a tool that will locate all conflicts in existing contractors' designs so that they may be resolved prior to start of construction and contractors can order the exact amount of material required for the job.

As I was reading my group members' blogs in order to incorporate them, a statement in C. Meraz's blog really struck me.  The statement was "[BIM modeling] take[s] a tremendous amount of manual editing, fine-tuning and collaboration.  This is not to say that it cannot be done or that the example given of the Boeing 777 did not ..., but the effort resulted in 1000+ planes as opposed to one, single building."  I think that this brings up a very valid point for the difficulty in incorporating BIM technology into the construction business.  When Boeing designs a plane using BIM technology, they only have to design a couple of different planes, from which thousands of planes are constructed.  When an automotive company produces a design for a model of car, thousands of cars are constructed.  The work that it is put into the design leads to thousands of work products.  When the design is updated (like when Honda updates the Civic each year), only minor changes are typically made and thousands of new work products are manufactured.  However, as C. Meraz points out, when BIM is used is the construction business, it typically only leads to one, unique structure.  When the client/architect/general contractor goes to build another structure, the entire BIM process has to be started over again.  Although many office buildings may seem cookie cutter on the outside (4 walls, multiple stories, windows for each office, etc.), the inside varies tremendously based on the client.  Even the outside will vary despite it looking the fairly similar to the casual onlooker.  Changes can include story height, wall thickness, window type, window size, number of windows, lobby design, MEP, sustainable structure, etc.  Incorporating BIM today, even though it is becoming easier and easier as the technology becomes more user-friendly, still poses a struggle, especially when only one structure is the result as opposed to thousands.

Future - Analysis Techniques

As someone who has been extremely fascinated with green structures since high school, I wanted to research how current and future analysis techniques would be beneficial to improving green buildings.  In order for a new construction building to earn LEED certification, the building's energy use must be monitored after occupancy and documentation must be submitted to prove that the building is performing as designed.  These expected performance values are based on baseline calculations.  This week I investigated how current technology can analyze conventional and proposed structures to determine more accurate values and where the technology still needs to be improved.

According to Kanal and Flores, there are currently six commercial software programs in use.  Three are best for architects (EcoDesigner, Ecotect, and Green Building Studio) while the others (eQuest, Energy Plus, and IES) are recommended for engineers as they require extensive training.  While architects typically utilize the software for determining building dimensions (massing) and facing direction (to optimize passive lighting), engineers use the software to evaluate energy  use and building systems.

Although Kanal and Flores state that these software programs are an effective tool for basic energy calculations, there are two major drawbacks of these programs.  The first drawback is file conversion.  Currently, the file formats between these analysis programs and other design programs are not compatible.  Kanal and Flores cite a BIM specialist who points out that it is easier for him to start from scratch than to fix the imported file.  Although some improvements have been made in this area – AutoDesk purchased two of the programs so it could incorporate it into its programs – improvement is still needed to better aid engineers.  According to Stadel et. al., the "challenges of combining software tools include data aggregation, error transfer, and propagation when moving data from one model to another".  In this paper, BIM and SimaPro were utilized to determine the carbon footprint a model office building using LCA.  According to Stadel et. al., while SimaPro provides a more comprehensive range of environmental impacts, it is also time consuming; however, while BIM is quicker, it provides inconsistent results.  Improvement and integration of these energy calculation software tools with current design programs (e.g. AutoCad, BIM) will decrease the complexity of the program and provide more accurate results.

Another major drawback for improvement of these programs is the late incorporation of engineers in the design process.  Kanal and Flores state that the manhours it requires for an engineer to be at the same point in the design process as the architect (e.g. 30% design completion) exceeds the architect's manhours.  Parallel design of the engineer and architect can slow the design process down, but will result in a more incorporated systems design and less conflicts down the road (e.g. change orders, RFIs).  If the AEC community moved from the traditional design-bid-build process to design-build, analysis of green and traditional structures will vastly improve.  Having building systems that work together and respond to each other's changes will provide a more efficient total-building system and, therefore, will lead to better analysis of the effectiveness of green buildings.  As Xiang Li’s blog points out, utilizing sensors in a building can increase the sustainability of the building.  Energy consumption can be saved by utilizing sensors that detect light levels so indoor lighting is only turned on when the room gets too dark and air conditioning can be adjusted based on room temperature.

Kanal, Vijay, and Kelly Flores. "Greener Buildings Through Energy Analysis Tools." Green Buildings Through Energy Analysis Tools. AECbytes: Building the Future, 2 Dec. 2010.

      <http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2010/EnergyAnalysisTools.html>.

Stadel, A., Eboli, J., Ryberg, A., Mitchell, J., and Spatari, S. (2011). ”Intelligent Sustainable Design: Integration of Carbon Accounting and Building Information Modeling.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract. 137, SPECIAL ISSUE: Sustainability in Civil and Environmental Engineering Education, 51–54.

Flight Assembled Architecture Response

We believe that aspects of the video will be a part of the future.  However, to be a complete reality, advances in the technology will need to be accomplished.  Places where this would be useful would be in the micro-level where a designer could input a design into a computer program and the robots could construct it.  We agree that the human element in construction can never fully disappear though.

Graduate Students

Here is the list of Graduate students in the course.  This post is also used to create a "label" for each student so it's easy to label your posts later.

 

Group	Last Name	First Name	Major
A	Carpenter	Gabrielle	Civil Engineering
A	Gulbenkian	Gayaneh	Civil Engineering
A	Li	Xiang	Civil Engineering
A	Meraz	Cleonie	Civil Engineering
A	Wang	Chunyi	Environmental Engineering