Course Reflection

Coming into this course, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. My intention behind taking the course was that it would fill a professional elective requirement and the class name "Intelligent Building" sounded like it could be interesting.

After taking this class, I am leaving this term with a much more realistic view on where the engineering and construction industries are going.  Going through the core architectural engineering classes, I have focused more on the academic aspect and have only been given a glimpse of the real life engineering industry through my co-op positions.  This class allowed me to explore and reflect on technologies such as robotics, sensors, BIM and databases and how those technologies can be applied in engineering and construction.

Professor Mitchell tended to focus on the possibilities of these technologies and encouraged us to discuss the most extreme developments and uses possible. The speakers we had in class were a helpful balance by providing us with a more realistic perspective on how these technologies are currently being used and developed.  I enjoyed learning about BIM from Eric of KlingStubbins because I was able to see the possibilities that BIM offers and how it can be applied when designing real life building systems.

Class Reflections

Personally, I believe that it is pretty much impossible to not gain any kind of knowledge out of the class that spans over the 10 week period and incorporates so many different assignments, speakers, blogs, class discussions, and etc. As many students in the class, I have found the overall experience of AE 510 to be very beneficial. Although the structure of the class was a bit convoluted, I thought that in the end it served its purpose to introduce us to all these concepts, all of which were ultimately related to the whole point of the class – Intelligent buildings. Yes, some of the topics were not addressed in full detail; however, I have stopped expecting a great deal of depth on a certain subject after studying at Drexel for over four years just purely due to the hectic schedule of our school. I believe this is where individual learning should come in regarding a certain topic of the class that was of especial interest.

I thought that the weekly presentations by guest speakers were one of the highlights of the class. It is always more interesting to get an insider view on the benefits and actual uses of databases or sensors, for example. Possibly two of my favorite speakers ended up being Eric Kuszewski and Travis Peyton simply because of the topics that they covered.  Mr. Kuszewki’s coverage of the benefits of Revit and BIM was very interesting since it was about something that I am bound to deal with during my professional career but unfortunately don’t know that much about. Travis Peyton covered one of my favorite topics of building retrofit with a special focus on sensors. I was sad to learn, however, that it may not be that beneficial after all to try to optimize buildings smaller in size (under 35,000 sq ft). Also I agree with Nathan that unfortunately the lecture presented by Dr. Il-Yeol Song seemed a bit redundant and possibly should have just replaced the class discussion of databases in the previous class.

The only downside of the class for me were the assignment deadlines that ended up being all piled up on the same week. The weekend prior to that Tuesday when everything was due, I would constantly find myself stuck in the lab for many hours. I can also sympathize with Maria when she mentions that she has lost a lot of points for the database assignment because of the lack of forms, the same mistake I have done. I can’t help but agree with Elda and other students in the class on the benefits of databases for an Architectural engineer that I have been clueless about prior to the beginning of the this class. 

About this Blog

This is where the students in AE-510 will post throughout the winter term on the topics assigned to the class and any others you choose to post.  We advise you to subscribe to it via an RSS reader such as Google Reader.  That way you won't have to go into BbLearn to see any changes.  There are many many blogs available on interesting topics.  A good place to search for others that may interest you is Technorati.