Class Reflection

I want not sure what exactly to expect when I signed up for this class. I only knew BIM so far as that Revit was a part of it somehow. Even after the first day when Prof. Mitchell told us what to expect in the class, it still turned out different then what i thought. This class turned out to be one of the most interesting classes as the variety of things it covered was surprisingly vast.

The class started as one might expect, talking about buildings and what goes into making them. However the class quickly went into a more 'what if' mind set instead of talking about what is currently the standard. This aspect of the class made it much more interesting than any other class I have taken so far. Looking at what the future could hold for out profession was fascinating.

While I'm sure a couple people got a little bored by the database information, I personally really enjoyed that portion as I am always striving to increase my computer/programming knowledge. This is the portion of the class I was also least expecting, why would AE/CIVE/ENVEs be doing database stuff? However it was quickly shown through the speakers and by in class discussion how the tools we really on the most, AutoCAD and basically any computer drawing program, are all just advanced databases.

The professional speakers brought in through out the course also helped provide some real world context to what we were talking about in class. This was especially helpful in some of the topics that were unfamiliar such as the use of augmented reality programs and how involved databases are.

The new things I learned in this class were Revit families and basic database information. The Revit families will be a very useful skill through out my career so getting a start on it now was very useful. While the database exercise was interesting, I am not sure how useful it will be to be in the future.

Like many of the other students have been saying, 10 weeks is not quite enough time to cover all the information this class could present. However I believe professor Mitchell is taking this into consideration and making a whole AE concentration based on digital buildings which, from my understanding, would have whole courses based to Revit and databases, things we covered in a couple weeks in this course.

I actually completely disagree with David Morrison when he talks about the assignments piling up. Other than the project which we had more than ample warning would sneak up on us, I did not think that the workload was that bad, I actually find AE 391 to be a busier course; a blog post every week is certainly easier than a whole website every week Then again, maybe, thanks to Drexel, I have become desensitized to a heavy work load.

Temperature Sensors

There are many different types of temperature sensors, and many of them operate in completely different ways. The most basic type of temperature sensor is the classic mercury thermometer. This sensor works purely based on the expansion and contraction of mercury in a glass tube. The next step up technologically is the bimetallic strip temperature sensor. This sensor makes use of the different coefficients of expansion that different materials have. These sensors are usually composed of steel and copper, which expand and contract at different rates. This sensor takes the temperature change, and turns it into a mechanical displacement. This technique can be used in many different types of sensors.

There are also much newer sensors that instead of turning heat into mechanical energy, they read the heat change in a difference of electrical energy. The two most common sensors are a thermistor and a resistance thermal detector (RTD). These two objects work on very similar principles, they both measure the change in resistance and correlate it with the change in temperature. The main difference between the two is the materials used to make them. Thermistors use primarily ceramic, whereas RTDs use pure metals. This difference in materials usually results in thermistors having a more accurate reading in a smaller range of temperatures whereas RTD stay accurate even at extreme temperatures.

Most of the previous sensors all require contact, or to be within convection range of the heat source to get a viable reading, however there are also non-contact thermal sensors that use radiation. These sensors use Plank's Law to correlate the radiation given off by an object and its overall temperature. These sensors are really useful as you can measure the temperature of something while being far away from it, whether it be the temperature in an oven, or the temperature of the sun.

Of all these sensors, the most useful for our applications is the RTD. The sensors themselves are really just metal, so they have no moving parts, and never need to be calibrated. Because of the simplicity and cheapness of these sensors they can easily be applied almost anywhere in a building. Couple the readings of these sensors along with the HVAC system or even window/blinds control and, without any human interaction, a room could always be at an optimal temperature. This is just one example that these sensors could be used in, the fact that they are so small and cheap and easy means they could be used almost anywhere, in ovens, in fridges, in water heaters, anywhere that temperature levels are of interest, these types of sensors could be applied.

Because I was the first to post, I discussed the history of sensors and their many different types. It seems the other posters used mine as a base and talked about what the different sensors are used for now or what they could be used for in the future. David talks about thermography which, in simple terms, is seeing heat which I think is a really cool concept and, like David said, has many uses including assisting fire fighters to save lives. Nathan goes on to discuss how IR sensors are used a lot in cooking to ensure the quality of food. Not only is it being used to ensure the food is done cooking, but I just saw on the news the other day, police are pulling over food delivery trucks and using these IR sensors to ensure the truck is at correct temperature for food shipment.

Sources:
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4928076_temperature-sensor-work.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Temperature-Sensor-Tutorial/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimetallic_strip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermistor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_thermometer

SQL - The Language of Databases

SQL is a programing language that is very specialized and focused. While most programing languages can  be used to do a very complex series of different tasks, SQL is designed to do one complex task very, very well. The task that SQL is designed for is working with databases.

As David said, a database is just a huge, glorified excel sheet. This may sound great, but if it is put into scope, it becomes quite daunting. Like John, I have had some basic experience with coding, mostly Javascript and python, and so far I have only dealt with arrays, which are essentially very tiny databases, and trying to use the core language to something as simple as remove an element and add another takes a surprising amount of code to do properly. I have not personal experience with SQL, but if editing a database is as easy as some of the guides I found seem to indicate, it looks like it could be a real time saver and make database use so much easier.

As both speakers who have come to our class have said, the drawing programs we use to complete our projects are really just databases with a graphical interface. If you break it down far enough, every click is really just using a giant algorithm to find what you want out of the databases and present it to you in a way that is easy for you to understand. If you connect the dots, that means that the drawing programs we use to make these incredible projects, are really just glorified excel programs. This idea may be mind blowing at first, but just remember, everything the computer does breaks down into 1s and 0s eventually.

So if databases are the source behind even complex drawing programs, I think it is very important to have a way of quickly and easily changing the information that is stored inside them. SQL is the standard for the ANSI which means interoperability may be possible if the language to talk between databases as the basic level is the same, maybe one day they will become better at communicating at higher levels too.

Sources:

http://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_intro.asp
http://www.sqlcourse.com/intro.html

Term Project - Sensors in Residential Buildings

In the class so far we have talked about a lot of different types of things that go into Intelligent building design. One that keeps being brought up is the use of sensors to do any number of different things. Rita and Dan talk about the applications of sensors in commercial building, Rita more about what sensors would be useful, and Dan about how the information sensors gather can be used in building. However, in class we have not really seen the use of sensors in residential applications. For our project, Nathan Barry, Jalpesh Patel, and myself will be exploring the use of sensors in residential homes, in both new construction and renovation.

What originally got us thinking along this path was This post by Tom, in which he talks about Nest thermostats and how they can be used in a residential home to drastically improve the quality and efficiency of the building. This is the type of sensor that we will do more research on. In David's post, in which he is working with Tom, they seem to be further investigating how to take the Nest thermostat and make it even better. This is similar to what our group will be doing, but while they are choosing to focus on the Nest, we will be taking a much more general look at all different types of sensors and what they could possibly do for a building.

Our primary objective to accomplish in this project is not to simply talk about sensors that could be used in new construction, but find sensors that could also easily be integrated into an existing home.We hope to find sensors that are easy to install and have a payback time of less than 5 years. Using this information we would like to make a theoretical 'intelligent building upgrade' package which would be a series of different sensors that could upgrade your home in many ways, and would also highlight the saving you could potentially get from have a smarter home.

Sources:
http://www.nest.com/

Interoperability in the Future

As was discussed last week, interoperability is a huge issue in the use of different BIM software. It cause numerous problems and as Elda points out, costs billions of dollars every year. Interoperability is a problem that will only persist and grow into more of a headache as new technology constantly keeps pushing what can be done in drawings. If new software with new capabilities grows faster than the capabilities of interoperability, the task of working these drawings will become almost as daunting as building the building itself.

Hopefully that will not happen. Hopefully in the future, before it gets too out of hand, the major companies in the field will take steps towards making their software play more friendly with everything else, or, similar to what Mitchell said, someone will create a software dedicated just to handling all of the different file types, a program to take in any file type and, with minimal losses, output it as any other file type. If these things come to fruition, the hassle of interoperability could quickly become a thing of the past.

Sadly, and frustratingly, this is unlikely to happen. Competition in the market will likely prevent the large companies for playing nice together, and the chance of one mega-program capable of what I described would probably not work nearly as well as it would have to to really make a difference. This is very frustrating as interoperability seems like an issue that should be able to be overcome, however, it is likely that it will never be fixed in a truly sufficient way.

Idealist me would like to believe that in five years, our technology is powerful enough that file exchange is nothing more than a few clicks. Realist me thinks this is not going to happen that soon, if ever.

Sources:
BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers, and Contractors

Interoperability

Chapter 3 of the BIM Handbook discusses the importance of Interoperability, which is the the interaction of file types with different programs. With just a quick look through the chapter you can see how many different file types there are. Considering how much information one file has with it it is very important to make sure that file in its entirety can be transferred between one program and another. This may seem like a simple task at first, but it is anything but.

One of the reasons that file conversion is not as easy as it sounds it because there are so many different standards by which different companies make their products. David Morrison talks in his blog why different companies either usually have good interoperability or poor interoperability, and it comes down to, of course, money. But I do not think this is the only reason for such diversity. As software becomes more and more powerful, the things it can do grows exponentially. When the first CAD softwares were created there were typically used just for simple drawings, however now a CAD drawing is so much more than just lines, often having data such as material properties and other information. This leads to different professions needing different standards for their CAD drawings to contain the information they need. This comic wonderfully displays why there are so many file types.

Despite the shear number of file types and the problems that can arise from trying to make them accessible, there are several foundations and committees that have worked and are still working on trying to make the industry completely interoperable. This is a task worth working towards. I was in Nathan's group on the GIS project he talks about and the different file transfers required were ridiculous. For one file of about 700kb, it needed to be converted in one program so that it could be imported into another program. This process would take the 700kb file and make it into about seven 1mb files that when more than 1 was opened at a time would crash the program. Its problems like this that make interoperability a dream of every engineer and architect and any one else who uses these types of files across different software.

I think Autodesk has a good approach with its Revit line of products because it has a separate program for architectural design, structural design, and mechanical design, however all of these programs work off the same base so that they can all be combined easily. This is the kind of interoperability that the industry as a whole needs to achieve.

Sleep Sensors

Sleep is something we all do every day (unless its finals week.) However, its something that not everyone is 'good' at. 1 out of 3 adults suffer from insomnia at least once in their life. Insomnia, while not exactly an illness, can easily lead to other illnesses, irritability, and if continued long enough, even depression. One of the bet ways to treat insomnia or other poor sleeping habits is to have them monitored, however sleep studies are not common and forces a person to sleep in an unfamiliar situation for several days. In the past couple of years sensors, usually in the form or a wrist band or headband, have been released that are capable of tracking a person's sleep patterns. Theses sensors can track things such as heart beat, breathing rate, how many times a person wakes during the night, how much the toss and turn, some can even determine how deep of a sleep you are in at any give point.

Most of these sensors are reasonably affordable to the average person if they would like to track their sleep cycle, however many people may find it difficult to sleep with a wristband or headband. In the article I read there is a new form of sensor that works as a sensor that lies under the mattress and can still read, through the tremors the person makes, heart rate, breathing rate, and any times the person would turn over or get up. This sensor has the great advantage of allowing the person to sleep completely unobstructed. One of the best uses of this type of sensor is in the medical field and at places like retirement homes. The under the mattress sensor allows the medical professionals to accurately monitor patients and the people in their care while still providing them with comfortable sleep and privacy.

Using these sensor can teach a person how they sleep and help them achieve a better sleep. These sensors could easily be integrated with a household system and the house could learn how the occupants best sleep, such as what temperature and what level of white noise. These simple sensors, as they work there way to the mainstream and start getting into housing and other building can very simply, and very non-invasive create a better living environment for the people who occupy the building. The simple life tweaks would probably not even go noticed by the person, but could potential drastically increase their quality of life over all.

Imagine if the type of sensor i talk about, combined with the thermostat sensors that Tom and David talk about, and the type of control sensors the Elda talks about, a house would not only become drastically more efficient, but it would also become drastically more comfortable. Nathan states a fear of sensors in his post. I would have to disagree as I think the use of sensors will drastically increase the quality of life for everyone.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/426073/sleep-sensor-hides-beneath-the-mattress/
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/insomnia-symptoms-and-causes

Mike Sawin Introduction

My name is Mike Sawin; I am a junior at Drexel doing the BS/MS program. I have a decent amount of experience using Revit; however I have only used it for basic design so I’m sure there are many things to still learn. In this class I expect to learn not just BIM but how the whole process of making a building intelligently works. My definition of intelligent building design is a design that uses integrated building design techniques. This approach leads to a building that feels much more whole instead of a building that feels like a shell designed by an architect, with a structure designed by an engineering, and HVAC trying to squeeze in between the beam where it can.

Architectural Engineering & BS/MS Students

Here is the list of Architectural Engineering 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. – Updated 1/14/2013

Group	Last Name	First Name	Major
B	Barry	Nathan	Architectural Engineering
B	Ben-David	Tom	Architectural Engineering
B	Butler	Mitchell	Architectural Engineering
B	Cifligu	Elda	Architectural Engineering
B	Morrison	David	Architectural Engineering
B	Sawin	Michael	Architectural Engineering
B	Scanlon	John	Civil Engineering
C	Bregande	David	Architectural Engineering
C	Hindes	Brian	Architectural Engineering
C	Houde	Kayleigh	Architectural Engineering
C	James	Daniel	Architectural Engineering
C	Lancellotti	Jeanine	Architectural Engineering
C	Martines	Natasha	Architectural Engineering
D	Gonzalez	Maria	Architectural Engineering
D	Ng	Junwah	Architectural Engineering
D	Patel	Jalpesh	Architectural Engineering
D	Pauliushchyk	Margarita	Architectural Engineering
D	Tedesco	Matthew	Architectural Engineering