Course Reflection

After 10 weeks of study, I think AE 510 is a very interesting class and I really enjoy that. This class presents an overview of application of information technology in the construction industry now and their future roles. We talked about the building information modeling, database and the role of network-linked sensors and actuators. Besides, this class gave us a look into the future about how computer tools will be used throughout the whole life circle of building. Just like my classmate M Lorena Alvarado said, we are not only focus on our own area. By investigating the topic mentioned in class, we also took a glimpse at its effect in other careers like computer science, network technology, optimal control and so on. I think this is a good opportunity to prepare for future changes in our field of study.

Another good aspect of this class is guest speaker. Mr. Travis Peyton gave us a lecture on sensors in the service of increasing building efficiency. Dr. II-Yeol Song talked about relational databases. I think he is our best guest speaker in this term. His presentation is not only informative but also thought-provoking and entertaining too. For myself, I learn the most from BIM part of class. This part is new to me and hadn’t worked with before. Although Prof. Mitchell didn’t taught deeply in the class, the tutorial video is very useful and Autodesk wiki helps me a lot. People who are expert in both CAD and BIM will become more valuable in the future. So like Gabrielle Carpenter said, I would have preferred if we could have spent more time on BIM. I think after this class I can confidently say I have a basic understanding of how BIM works.

Overall, I think this class is very forward-looking and flexible. I agree with Maria Gabriela Gonzalez that this class is structure in a way that it’s up to student’s decision how much work and time they want to put into it. But like Prof. Mitchell mentioned in the first class, the more you put into the course, the more you got out of it. I am truly happy to choose this course.

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 is defined as force per unit area that a fluid exerts on its surroundings. A pressure measurement can further be described by the type of measurement being performed. There are three types of pressure measurements: absolute, gauge, and differential. Absolute pressure measurement is measured relative to a vacuum. Gauge pressure is measured relative to ambient atmospheric pressure. Differential pressure is similar to gauge pressure, but instead of measuring relative to ambient atmospheric pressure, differential measurements are taken with respect to a specific reference pressure.

    A pressure sensor, sometimes called a pressure transmitter, is a transducer that converts pressure into an analog electrical signal. Because of the great variety of conditions, ranges, and materials for which pressure must be measured, there are many different types of pressure sensor designs. Often pressure can be converted to some intermediate form, such as displacement. The sensor then converts this displacement into an electrical output such as voltage or current. As C. Meraz introduced in her post, the three most universal types of pressure transducers of this form are the strain gage, variable capacitance, and piezoelectric. Chunyi Wang adds other two types of sensor named resonant wire pressure sensor and Pirani gauge sensor. Besides, according to G.Carpenter’s blog, there are three types of electrical outputs available for pressure sensors: millivolt, amplified voltage, and 4-20 mA. 

    Figure above provides an overall orientation to the scientist or engineer who might be faced with the task of selecting a pressure detector from among the many designs available. This table shows the ranges of pressures and vacuums that various sensor types are capable of detecting and the types of internal references (vacuum or atmospheric pressure) used, if any. 

    Common causes of pressure sensor failure include dynamic impact that results in sensor overload, spikes that cause a hole or tear in the diaphragm, moisture ingress whereby liquid seeps in through an interface and between a cable and the sensor, extreme temperature, stress when being calibrated, and wear and tear that produces drift and failure. Advances in pressure sensors should be focus on miniaturization with integration of electronics and control capabilities into the same chip as the sensor resulting from the new, smaller form factors.  By reducing the size of the sensor, pressure sensors can be used in more area.

source:

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_sensor

http://www.ni.com/white-paper/3639/en

http://www.omega.com/literature/transactions/volume3/pressure.html

Relational Database Theory

According to Wikipedia, A relational database is a collection of data items organized as a set of formally described tables from which data can be accessed easily. The software used in a relational database is called a relational database management system (RDBMS). A relational database is the predominant choice in storing data, over other models like the hierarchical database model or the network model. It consists of n number tables and each table has its own primary key. The standard user and application program interface to a relational database is the structured query language (SQL). SQL statements are used both for interactive queries for information from a relational database and for gathering data for reports.

The relational database was first defined in June 1970 by Edgar Codd, of IBM's San Jose Research Laboratory.  Codd called his paper, “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks.”  What Codd did was open the door to a new world of data independence. Users wouldn’t have to be specialists, nor would they need to know where the information was or how the computer retrieved it. They could now concentrate more on their businesses and less on their computers.

The example posted by Gabrielle Carpenter is a good way to understand relational database. A relational database allows you to easily find specific information. It also allows you to sort based on any field and generate reports that contain only certain fields from each record. Relational databases use tables to store information. The standard fields and records are represented as columns (fields) and rows (records) in a table. I think the major reasons for the success of the relational model were the high degree of logical independence and it allows a natural and expressive representation based on tables. Today, the ease and flexibility of relational databases have made them the predominant choice for financial records, manufacturing and logistical information, and personnel data. Most routine data transactions—accessing bank accounts, using credit cards, trading stocks, making travel reservations, buying things online—all use structures based on relational database theory.

Hugh Darwen: An introduction to relational database theory

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database

Term Project Description

For projects large and small, complex and simple, architects and other building industry professionals around the world use Autodesk Revit today for building design, documentation, construction and management. So it is critical to completely master this important software. For my term project I will be use Revit to design a 2 floor house and install HAVC system in it. I wanted to do this because as we have discussed in class the industry that we all want to work in is heading in the direction of completely digital 3D BIMs in order to complete construction projects in the future. The future intelligent building will be tightly related with BIM software like Revit and it will become a basic requirement in china for next decade. As a student major in HVAC, I also interest in the energy analysis tool embed in the Revit. Because the energy consumption will be more and more important factor when evaluate a building.

With my partner Wang Chunyi, we plan to present a sheet, composed of house floor plan, elevations and HAVC system construction and its distribution in the house. We also want to generate one report recording all the technical problems we meet and how we solve them. Within the drawing process, we can share the experiences and how to make the design effective and powerful. We can summary what we have learned through the design process.

After reading other posts, I think Rita Pauliushchyk 's group topic about use of sensors in W.W. Hagerty Library is very practical. Since we spend a lot of time studying library, it is critical to analyze the library to see how people feel in its environment and related to sensors. And other people choose intelligent/green building as there topic like Gabrielle Carpenter. Because of energy limitation, the green building is the future direction of our industry. I am also interest in how to design and operate properly in order to make building friendly with environment. As she mentioned in post, I hope to know more about LEED certification and improvement suggestion for their evaluation standard. I am looking forward to hear what they find.

Future of BIM

BIM is a relatively new technology in an industry typically slow to adopt change. Yet I am confident that BIM will grow to play an even more crucial role in the future. I think BIM will have the following trends.

First, we can get data from mobile technology. With the popularity of the Internet and mobile intelligent terminal, people will be in any place and at any time to obtain information. Like Junwah Ng mentioned how we could use phones to check the BIM models. I think that this is definitely possible. You will see a lot of engineers with these mobile devices can modify the design at home. Second, cloud technology -this is one of the most important concepts.  Whether energy consumption or structural analysis, you could use unlimited computing resources with the click of a mouse and check even the most complex building analysis task with virtually no delay. This can help designers compare different design solutions as soon as possible. And third is advanced control. The traditional operation and maintenance method is found where there are problems to solve. However, with BIM technology and cooperation from manufacturers, we can do pre-control cooperation by adding user behavior information, air-conditioning, security, electrical operating data and control strategy directly into our three-dimensional model. So, maintenance will be better targeted and predictable.

After reading other posts, I agreed with Jeanine Lancellotti’s idea that BIM technology courses will become mandatory in the next 5 to 10 years. We will see all students studying engineering or related fields graduating with full proficiency in the use of BIM. People who are expert in both CAD and BIM will become more valuable in the future (see Gabrielle Carpenter).  Rita Pauliushchyk’s introductions about 5D modeling technologies also catch my eyes. 5D modeling integrates time and cost. I think future 5D technology can save construction costs, shorter project time, increase project quality, reduce the risk of decision-making and improve investment returns.

As computers and software become more capable of handling more building information, BIM will become even more pronounced than it is in current design and construction projects. 

Source: http://www.buid.ac.ae/cms-websiteresearch/BIM%20Lecture.pdf

BIM Handbook Chapter 2

The first time that I heard BIM is on my second year of college. At that time, I just know this is a tool that can be applied on building industry in the future. This week, I read the Chapter 2 of BIM handbook and understand more about BIM.

According to the United States National Building Information Modeling Standard (NBIMS V1-P1), A BIM is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. As such it serves as a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its lifecycle from inception onward. . At early time, there are two forms of solid modeling, one is boundary representation approach (B - rep) and the other is constructive solid geometry (CSG).Then this two method merged to one that become the precursor of modern parametric modeling. The current generation of BIM tools all grew out of the object - based parametric modeling capabilities developed for mechanical systems design. You can define a model family or element class and the shape and assembly geometry in a parametric modeler automatically adjusts to changes in context. Like the example of wall quote in the handbook (page 30-32).So, BIM tools are object – based parametric models with a predefined set of object families and a number of Web sites make additional object families available for downloading and use. Besides, user can define custom parametric object families by using a sketch tool module.

There are lots of differences between the specially - developed parametric modeling tools used in BIM and those used in other industries. First, buildings are composed of a very large number of simple parts. Second, there is a broad set of standard practices and codes that can be readily adapted and embedded to define object behaviors. Third, BIM needs to explicitly represent the space enclosed by building elements. In the second part of this chapter, author mainly discussed the versatility of different BIM software and compared their advantages and disadvantages (Revit and Bentley).You can see it in Wang Chunyi’s post.

In order to evaluate whether a project is a BIM, you can use a BIM Capability Maturity Model (CMM) provided by NBIMS. This method analyzes the completeness of 11 key targets to get the maturity of BIM application. These targets include Data Richness, Lifecycle Views, Change Management or ITIL Maturity Assessment, Roles or Disciplines, Business Process, Timeliness/ Response, Delivery Method, Graphical Information, Spatial Capability, Information Accuracy and Interoperability/IFC Support. For further information you can see NBIMS V1-P1 chapter 4.1-4.2.

Source:United States National Building Information Modeling Standard

Future of analysis techniques

Ecological and environmental problems sweeping the globe provide the background for the rise of the concept of green building. In the future, about 3-10 years, I think the ability to interacting with information and low energy consumption will become an important standard to assess the building. The analysis techniques for the building also are going to be more and more green-oriented.

The engineers realized that analysis techniques must improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. For example, the occupant number and position in a room can be detected and analyzed by camera with intelligent function. Then it sends the information to the air conditioning system, so as to automatically adjust the air flow and temperature of the room. Also, lighting level can also be adjusted on the basis of feedback by camera. Moreover, air conditioning and lighting system can do further fine-tuning settings according to the resident's requirement.

To achieve this goal, as other students of our group mentioned, we need to cooperate more tightly in both software levels and working organization levels.(See Gabrielle Carpenter) Besides, some more powerful and less expensive computer hardware should be used in future building in order to facing huge amount of information. And new generation of sensor can measure more accurate data like temperate, humidity, contaminant concentration and occupant behavior. 

Predicting the future is difficult, and the building is getting more complex and more sophisticated – which also means that in our understanding and management of that building we need to be more sophisticated. It is important for the industry to keep work on many areas and ensure buildings are hitting multiple values and I am confident that a truly sustainable building could exist in the future.

Below are some of tools used now to analysis building energy consumption and their brief evaluation.

http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/greenbuilding/basics.htm

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

http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/tools_directory

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.

Hello,everyone~

My name is Xiang Li and I am a master student of Civil Engineering. I come from China and I choose this class because I am curious about it.I want to learn BIM and else tools that will be used in my future career.I think intelligent building is a kind of building that is smart and easy to administrate by human. It must be environmental friendly and energy saving.

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