Databases in Design Offices

In the USA, design firms offering geotechnical services are typically given the responsibility to perform an investigation and afterward produce a report based on the findings. This single company approach is different from the way the same services are performed in the UK. The technical information gathered by firms in the USA can be contained in databases developed by each company, as the report is the only documentation that must be understood by more than one party. In the UK, the geotechnical services are often performed by multiple companies, signifying the need for a universal input format to allow information be interpreted by multiple players. This need was met with the implementation of the “AGS” format, which offers the highest level of acceptance into other programs and databases. The information can be accessed in text editors and then imported into each companies chosen form in order to produce bore logs, graphs, table and cross section figures. Design firms are known to use the information from soil borings early in the process to establish the extent and schedule of the tests that must be performed by themselves or an investigative contractor.

In the office, architects and engineers use databases that contain discrete information of objects in the BIM process. Software systems such as Bently’s Microstation and Autodesk’s Revit allow the user to create tags and assign them to elements different elements in the modeling environment. This feature allows the designers to export the information to useful platforms such as Excel or a database program to sort and record in relation to other parameters. Designers at manufacturing companies are using databases to store information of each of the products that they carry. Portions of these databases are then shared with designers to allow the smooth exchange of specifications and other project specific details. An example of this is in Brian's post, where he described creating families using objects to organize information of each component in the building. These objects contain information that is taken, sometimes from other sources and linked to the BIM. This allows designers to pull information about the object to include in schedules, charts and other analysis procedures.

I have experiences with databases as a user and developer were those that included cost information of each construction trade for completed projects. Project information was accessed using a search query that included the type of building, number of levels, construction materials and function. Once the reference building was selected, the user could duplicate the project and then change various parameters, such as the current year, location and indexes of material costs. Jalpesh's post mentions that design firms can archive the information used for a design so that the firm can access the information for future projects. This archiving process is valuable because designers can re-use portions of the design that they know already work. This has been happening in design long before databases but was known as "rules of thumb". Similar to design, after the project is selected it could then be modified by omitting certain trades based off of the building the user was attempting to model. The database contained information for adjustments due to location and time and would output a project file that included costs for each trade involved. The information was utilized in a design-build project team to deliver accurate costs at the conceptual level of design. I believe that at a point in the future, with the progression towards integrated design with multidisciplinary teams, specialty contractors will begin to share more database information with the designers in order to expedite project completion and minimize errors.

Companies can utilize databases for estimating material and labor costs for structural steel. The database of each type and size of steel members were linked to respective information such as weight, area, required bolts, crane lifts and various other metrics for the piece. Information could then be derived from the job summary such as labor hours for painting and assembly, crew productivity rates as well as weight for the galvanization process.

1.      Chadwick, Neil C. "Data Transfer and the Practical Application of Geotechnical Databases." Data Interchange for Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013.

SQL - overview

Just like Elda and john said, SQL is a programming language used to sort through relational databases. It is commonly regarded as “the standard computer database language”[1]. It is used in personal computers, cell phones, entertainment systems, and many other devices. What is very useful about it is that it is very standardized and thus able to communicate with just about any computer database. SQL is used to organize and retrieve information stored in computer databases. SQL logic is pretty intuitive, and is represented by the figure below:

When information from the database needs to be retrieved, SQL makes a request to the database management system (DBMS), which returns the requested information.  SQL is not the DBMS itself, though; it is simply a language used to communicate with it. In practice, SQL is much more involved than that. Its functions include data definition, data retrieval, data manipulation, access control, data sharing, and data integrity.

I would like to elaborate on John Scanlon’s comparison of SQL to other computer language: SQL can be used for databases only. It has only about 40 statements to control and manage the database and it is not a complete language like C++ or Java. This is why it can be embedded in other language but the opposite scenario is impossible.

Because it is short, it is very easy to learn and use and has a very steep learning curve. As John mentioned, it is rather primitive, which makes for a great advantage for amateur users who need to manage databases.

Source:

[1] Weiberg, Groff, Oppel, Davenport, SQL: The complete Reference, 2010, 3rd Ed. 

BIM for Architects and Engineers

The process of using BIM in building design and construction will change the type of product and level of building performance that is realized in the early stages of design. In the past, decisions made at the conceptual design stage included the site use, building function, space allocation and general systems awareness. Project designers were able to take the information from the owner and begin to produce building solutions that coincided with past examples of similar functioning buildings as well as accepted practices. With the current green direction that the construction and similar industries are heading towards, a lot of buildings are becoming the first of their kind, with respect to building materials, functions and energy efficient operations. Designers have the opportunity with this new technology to use analysis methods and the results to see how changes to the conceptual design of the building effects design elements such as solar shading, site orientation, space allocations and other building characteristics as well as the overall performance of the building. In reviewing my peers blog posts, I saw that Rita documented that the information gathering at the time of conceptual design includes a few more components, such as "building program, layouts of floor plans, the massing and general appearance of the building".

One of the most significant impacts that BIM has on the building process of design and construction is the ability to perform cost estimation of the project at nearly every staged of design. The cost of construction projects at all design levels in years past were estimated by counting and applying unit costs to each object. This process has worked well but being performed by humans, was susceptible to human error of the correct count of objects and took a considerable amount of time. Using BIM to perform the cost analysis, the resources needed for the project are realized as early as the conceptual design stage. The power of BIM can be used to fill in the missing details at the early stages of design and yet still produce a fairly accurate cost estimation. While the architects and engineers review the design with all involved parties, the cost implications of changing the design across multiple systems can be recalculated and can allow the process of value engineering to take place throughout the design process. Before the abilities of BIM, these changes most likely took place towards the end of the design stage, effectivly the most expensive and troublesome time to make such changes.

Another way the BIM technology will change the way construction industry is the formulation of design teams and the labor resources that must be allocated to each design undertaking. Under traditional design practices, teams would consist of a few senior designers, junior designers and administration help. Projects demanded that the design effort include a large amount of the cost to be dedicated to labor and administration. In the past, design teams spent a considerable amount of time on building the construction document set of 2D drawings. This process required junior engineers to draft drawings and check to make sure that all the details were married to the appropriate sections and plans of the rest of the documents. The BIM design process significantly reduces the amount of time that a construction document set can be compiled by aid of the 3D model and the details that are assignable to each object. Another reduction in labor costs can be seen from the reduction in the number of RFI's and CO's that the team has to process. With BIM, the entire design team, construction managers, subcontractors and vendors are involved with the design process, therefor reducing the likelihood of such errors and omissions. In the future, design teams will be formed taking advantage of the junior professionals that have been exposed to BIM and similar technologies along with fewer senior designers and even less resources allocated to administration. An example of the reduction in the amount of labor hours per project taken from the BIM handbook can be seen in a table located in the post by Jalpesh. It is seen in the table that the intern architect's hours have been drastically reduced from 320 to 96 hours for the particular project. The 233% reduction in labor is due to the use of BIM processes. It should be noted that the amount of hours for the project manager did increase with using BIM. I shared my comment on this blog post. 

In relation to the way that the design teams will be changed, the majority of the personnel will need to be well trained in each BIM feature that is inherent to their particular task. Maria expands on this topic and adds that the initiation of the project as well scheduling will be affected from adopting this new technology and that design firms can use this change in the industry to increase the amount and quality of their work.

SOURCES:
Eastman, Chuck et al. BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers, and Contractors. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, n.d. 15 Apr. 2008. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. 

Computer Hardware Technology in the Future

Computer history and development has continued to change significantly since the 1930s when the first programmable computer was first invented.  From that point on, computer technology has increased in advancements.  This includes improvements in programming, software and hardware.  Considering how fast new technology is surfacing, and how we constantly require updating our computers to be leveled with the latest developments, we can only expect greater and better technology to surface in the next 10 years.

For certain types of market, people associate the word “better” or “improved” with bigger products, but in the computer market, “better” and “improved” usually relates to technology that is smaller, more compact, lighter, and yet more efficient.  In the past couple of years, the tablet world has exploded and the world seems to be replacing computers with tablets, as these serve as a slimmer and more practical replacement.  And now with the smartphone surge, advertisements are convincing the audience that smartphones are all you need as it can basically do everything and anything that a computer can.  Smaller products that have the same functions of a computer are in high demand now.  In the article “Future shock: The PC of 2019”, Mary K. Pratt talks about the dramatic changes that will come in the next decade by saying “the PC [will] evolve past the standard desktop and laptop units to amalgamations of computer devices and their peripherals.”  It seems as this has slowly but surely started happening and looking into the future we can be certain this influence will be stronger.

Technology that is more compact and that serves as a greater commodity to the user are in high demand and we can expect that in the future we will see greater things.  The development of the SixthSense wearable gestural interface by Pranav Mistry in the MIT Media Lab has been a great sensation since it first surfaced in 2009.  With the technological advancements happening now and that we anticipate in the future, I believe it is safe to say that we can expect this type of technology will be available to the public in the next five to ten years future and will replace the computer hardware technology that we use now.

The idea of "wearable computers" that Ryan Krall discussed in his post is something that I can also see in the future.  Nowadays people like products that can be easily implemented in their life and having a computer that is "wearable", handy, and on-the-go is going to in high demand in the future and it might only take about five years to get there.  Also, hologram displays, like the ones that we have seen in futuristic movies, will definitely take a part in the future.  Like Ryan Krall and Evan Rosario discussed in their posts, things that we all saw in the science fiction movies will be the next thing and replace the products we have now.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/334799/Future_shock_The_PC_of_2019

http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/

http://www.infoworld.com/t/computer-hardware/the-future-computer-user-interfaces-178762

Computer Hardware

I think the definition of future is relative to what you are talking about. Such as if a new operating system is going to be released in the future you are probably going to be talking about three years, or if you are talking about prosthetic arms being controlled by a human's brain you could be talking about a decade, or if you talking about intergalactic space travel then you are probably talking about hundreds of years.
As for my topic of computer hardware technology future pretty much means every year since hardware companies are finding ways of making their products more powerful.
According to CNET which covered the CES 2013 computer hardware is "rarely the top category". If this is the case I would find it hard to believe that hardware has any significant impact on the building industry. It would seem that companies such as Intel are working to make their processors more powerful by the year but only to improve personal computer such as through tablets. We are pretty much taking our old technology and making it better to suit our needs as users. Intel for example is working on a technology in which can tract eye movement and motion in order to play an interactive game.  Intel is also working improving battery life and table top computers. The interactive gaming could probably have an impact on the building industry. If the motion control technology from Intel is any good you could probably see them develop a system where they could incorporate a whole room and the person can use the room as a field that is projected on the screen. Of course if Intel can master motion control then it could probably make the video of the automated construction more viable. A person from a room with motion control technology can control the robots with his hands or his eyes. After reading the posts from my group members we all pretty much came up with the same conclusion. I did like one specific thing from what Evan said in which he said that "The future of computer hardware is looking to create a more intuitive experience for the user". van I think this is definitely true. Aside from young children picking up an iphone and knowing how to use it very easily a lot of elderly people can start easily using these devices even though they never grew up having to be around them or use.


http://ces.cnet.com/8301-34439_1-57563543/wrapping-up-computers-tablets-and-hardware-at-ces-2013/
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-34435_1-57562560/pcs-of-the-near-future-intel-lays-out-next-gen-plans/

The Future of Computer Technology

The future of computers may not be coming soon, but rather alternatives and fancy new appearances and tricks according to Louis Bedigian. Bedigian published "The Future of Computers: Voice Recognition" on Forbes' website in the Personal Finance section. Computers have been changing so rapidly and improving nearly too quickly to follow so it seems natural that the next enormous thing coming to computer technology that will revolutionize how we think of computers is coming soon, but what if it is all an illusion? Bedigian points out one important thing in the apparent evolution of computers, we are not innovating we are altering and replacing.

"True innovation comes from things that users did not know they needed, thus the birth of the mouse and keyboard." This is the issue with computer evolution today. We are getting almost too good at improving and losing all sense of true innovation. We have speech recognition, touch screens (both of which replace keyboards), touch pads, shortcuts, mouse wheels and a whole slew of other devices which replace the computer mouse. But when was the last time that a truly innovative computer technology emerged? None that I can remember, sure there have been incredibly remarkable leaps that have been made in speed, simplicity, size, appearance, and much else but we still typically use the same things we have been for decades. 

We all see things in movies that seem like the next big thing that make us say things like, "that's it, if they were to ACTUALLY produce that it would make millions!" Things like Iron Man's hollographic computer, the Smithsonian's hollographic animator (as seen in Bones), or even things like Ghostrider (the robot car). But they are still all replacements. I am personally not even innovative enough to think about how any of these possibilities or concepts could make way for a truly innovative technology, but I hope that I will be able to see that next, truly innovative, big thing come along in my life time. But it could truly be decades still till that actually happens. 

Some of the true new tools that will most likely replace typical items we use daily in the near future (3-10 years) are things like true speech recognition that will never stumble over our words, perfectly "thinking" computers to respond and answer our questions, wearable computers that make our daily life even more technologically filled with computers we can wear as glasses that will remember people for us, watches that will remind us of every meeting right when we need to remember or refrigerators that text us the list of everything we need to get when we arrive at the store. All of these ideas, and I am sure many more, are real technologies that we will see before we see our children go to college. 

I think that the other posts, within Group-E, showed other great expectations that are very realistic for the future of computer hardware. I personally think that the ability for us to have 3D displays that do not need special glasses or anything like that is going to be the biggest jump that we will see in the next, maybe, 15-20 years. To be able to have 3D displays that are intuitive and not complicated will take a while to develop, but the other crucial challenge will be to make it affordable for everyday purchases. 

Common Topic Labels for the Course

Below are topics that we'll address in the course.  This post also creates those topics as Labels for use when you're putting in your own blog posts.

TOPIC

AI

BIM

Building

Civil

Computer

Database

Design

Electrical

Environmental

Future

Hardware

HVAC

Manufacturing

Robotics

Sensor

Software

Structures

System

Term Project