Course Reflection

     When I first signed up for this “Intelligent Buildings” course, I was very intrigued by the name and how it would relate to the class. Throughout the term, we covered four major topics in class: BIM, sensors, databases, and robotics. I feel that Intelligent Buildings are a field I am much more aware of, thanks to the four major topics that we studied. For instance, I learned that BIM is important to intelligent buildings, because of the relationship it creates with the building and the designer. Like Natasha, one of my favorite guest lecturers was Eric of KlingStubbins, because his BIM presentation was really captivating from the beginning. Some of the features that his company are developing, I feel will be integral to the future of on-site design. He introduced a program similar to the Google glasses, which allows one to see different information about buildings. This also linked together the other topics relevant to an intelligent building. BIM is starting to rely more and more on databases that are stored wirelessly via a cloud, which shows the connection between the two.

                Aside from the general connections between certain topics, I like the way the course was ran. Dividing into different groups, like many others stated, was very helpful. Being able to hear someone else’s opinions only benefits us, because we are listening to something new, or  hearing it a different way that makes a topic easier to understand. Like Ben-David mentioned though, although the class was interesting, it would have been better if it was divided into two different sections. I felt that some of the topics would have still been discussed with as much detail, just divided up differently. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the class, and learned a lot about the future of design, BIM.

AE 510 - Course Reflection

Week 10

3/12/13

David Bregande

                Overall, I found this course to be very interesting and thought provoking in its range of topics and activities.  Each class presented a different subject as well as a different way to approach learning about it.  Between Professor Mitchell’s knowledge and that of the guest speakers, I obtained more information about engineering in the real world than in any class prior.  It was very beneficial to see how the little things we are learning about all come together in so many different fashions in the real world.  Someone I know asked about the lecture on databases and if it was interesting or not; I found it very satisfying to respond that to about 90% of the world population it would have been boring nonsense, however, I found it extremely interesting and beneficial to learn about.  It is amazing how many companies are dependent upon something that most people take for granted.  Each, more or less, seemed to invoke that same curiosity and respect for something I had previously been ignorant of.

                As asserted above, I found the most beneficial classes to be the ones with guest lectures or where Proffessor Mitchell was just speaking on his own accord.  Although group exercises are good practice, in this environment they are generally ineffective and time consuming.  I obtained the most knowledge and enjoyed my time spent the most when listening to the lecturers. The BIM and Database assignments were also very concise and beneficial.

                I felt that the blog process was very beneficial and an interesting way to communicate with the class without feeling the need to physically get everyone together and share.  Not only did I spend time each week on writing my own blog, but was also engaged in other peoples thoughts by being asked to include some reflection on them.  I wish that the grade weighted more heavily on these posts as they were a weekly requirement and continually kept the class engaged.  I felt the post themselves were actually more beneficial than the term assignment because so much more time was spent focused on them.  The term paper was sort of left hanging in the background and then at the end played a very important, and unfortunately confusing, part in the grading process.  This sentiment, along with a general feeling of difficulty with the assignment schedule, was expressed by many other people including Rita Pauliushchyk.  Either way, a very enjoyable course that was well worth the hours spent on campus late at night.  I agree with David Morrison, if the title of this course and the content presented within it does not excite an Architecural Engineer major, than the major is probably not for you.

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.

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.

Course Reflection

My expectations  for this course were to learn about the concepts behind BIM and some of the emerging technologies in the industry. Furthermore, I was hoping to gain a better understanding of how buildings are monitored over their useful life. I certainly feel that all of my expectations were met at some point in the short ten weeks we had to discuss intelligent buildings. In fact, in many ways, my expectations were exceeded in this course if only by the quality of discussion and personal interest in the subject matter. As David Morrison reflects, the topic of “Intelligent Buildings” is an exciting one, especially for architectural engineers such as myself.

What felt like the course introduction, in the first two weeks, served to whet my appetite for the lectures to follow. I found the lectures given by representatives of Revit and Bentley to be particularly interesting, and useful as an overview of what these two modeling programs are about. Learning that databases are responsible for the operation of these programs made me more willing to investigate database design as we were assigned. Not only was I willing to learn, I found our discussion of databases to be extremely intuitive and edifying, especially having no previous knowledge about databases. I agree with John Scanlon that the overall format of this course is clear and informative, even for the most basic level of understanding. I further agree with Elda Cifligu that I got out of this course what I put in.

That being said, my only difference of opinion with the format of this course is the relative time spent on databases. I felt that the initial introduction to databases and the following tutorial, in conjunction with the excellent online tutorials, was more than sufficient to develop a basic understanding of databases. I would have preferred to see the second week dedicated to databases spent on further development of our term projects, or some other aspect of intelligent building (sensor use comes to mind). Other than this, I felt the work assigned was fair in its magnitude and its timing. I appreciated the checkpoints on our term project and the fact that it was due a week before the madness of Week 10 set in.

In general, the tenor of this course turned out to be far more interesting than I expected. By maintaining an overview of the topics we explored, and just enough technical detail to get our feet wet, I felt the course remained fresh and exciting for the majority of the time. I’ve always enjoyed the format of the courses conducted by Professor Mitchell, but I found the content of this one to be particularly interesting and useful. It would have been futile to attempt to teach an in depth course on all the topics covered in this class, and there are plenty of technical courses worked into my schedule already. This course was a refreshing break from the technicality of my other courses, and an eye-opening introduction to larger (arguably more important) concepts that I will be facing in my future as an engineer. In short, I felt the level of detail in this course was perfect, and the content useful for focusing my attention on relevant issues in the engineering world today.

Class Reflection

AE 510 was an illuminating class. In fact for a novice like me, in both database technology and BIM, this class opened new doors to solving engineering problems. I found that Professor Mitchell’s formatting of this class was simplistic to the point where novice users of BIM and database software could acquire basic skills in the aforesaid areas without being confused. I have tried to take database courses at a community college and found myself quite confused due to improper communication from the teacher to the student. Professors Mitchell’s tutorials were excellent in helping one learn how to use Microsoft Access. I also found that his tutorials on BIM were most beneficial. I can honestly say that, even though I had no prior experience with BIM, that I am leaving this class confident that I can use BIM’s basic functions. This is a big resume booster.

Elda Cifligu makes a valid point that it is impossible to cover the broad spectrum of “Intelligent Buildings” in one ten-week course. I agree.  However, I believe the intention of the course was not to produce experts of intelligent design, but instead to open the door to the concepts. I found that Professor Mitchell’s approach to this class was quite ingenious; covering a wide variety of topics from robotics to sensors while providing the students with basic software savvy.

I disagree with David Morrison’s idea on grading. The measure of a class’s worth should not be a degree on how easy it is to get a grade, but rather how much one learns in the class. I can say from experience that I have had classes where I have labored for hours trying to walk away with a decent grade and found that my knowledge fell short (even though I got an A). On the other hand I have had classes with minimal assignments and very easy tests and found that I have superior knowledge on the subject. This class provided me with exactly what it had promised. I left with a basic awareness of Intelligent Buildings while gaining a fundamental knowledge of BIM and Access.

Course Reflection

                         The overall experience of this class was great. When I came in to this class I expected to learn about BIM and how to utilize BIM capable programs. Even though we did learn a few things about BIM, like creating a simple building and looking at videos. It wasn’t as in-depth as I thought it would be and wished that we would have spent more time on that topic. Which is fine considering all that I have learned throughout this course as well as using different programs like Revit and Microsoft Access.  Creating the database was the most difficult assignment of the whole term, but it was the most rewarding. I didn’t expect that I would have learned so much about databases, like relational and object oriented. Even more I wouldn’t have imagined that I would be able to create one and how easy it was to do so. Furthermore the blog posts were a resourceful way to focus us to think specifically about a topic, while at the same time, broadening our minds. Allowing us to read and comment on other student’s posts giving us other facets about the topic originally not conceived. But most of all the best aspect about this course was the presentations. I learned so much from each and every one of the guest speakers. They gave a full spectrum of career paths that our majors can take us as well as giving us advance and insight to the industry. This alone was worth the taking the course. But I do agree with Cifligu’s post about 10 weeks being too short of a time to completely cover all the concepts mentioned in AE. The database topic spanned for a little too long, while other subjects were neglected like robotics which I found really interesting. Overall the course was an amazing experience, having given me a glimpse into the future of the industry, my career seems less daunting. 

Course Reflections

I can certainly say that AE 510 exceeded my expectations. When I signed up for the course I thought that we would just talk about the main concepts of intelligent buildings and BIM, but there were many more subjects covered in these 10 weeks. The interesting part was that these subjects were new to me or hadn’t worked with before. For example, the database assignments were very interesting because, not only I learnt how to develop one, but also the different applications databases can be used in - I had never thought that I would use databases to help conduct my work. I really enjoyed the fact that this course is interactive and that we each learn from each other. I learnt a lot from the guest speakers that visited throughout the term. Their presentations were enjoyable and interesting.

However, I think that 10 weeks is not enough to cover all the concepts mentioned in AE 510; sometimes I felt rushed due to the amount of material presented in this short time. I wish we had concentrated more on fewer concepts that are more relevant in my opinion, for instance BIM softwares. If I had one or two more weeks dedicated on BIM, I would probably try and develop a more complete drawing, or I would attempt to integrate families. Additionally, as Maria mentioned in her blog, it would be extremely helpful to have all the assignment descriptions and requirements in one folder/location instead of multiple ones; it got complicated sometimes for no reason.

Overall, I believe that this course was very beneficial.

AE510 Reflection

I expected one of two things coming into this course, that it was going to be a BIM class or that it was going to be a class similar to the 390-391 series only on steroids.  Much to my surprise it was neither of these two.  For that I am glad.  I took the course because it sounded interesting but it was also one of the few graduate level courses that were offered this term.  Therefore, for it to be similar to my other classes would have been monotonous. 

All in all I found AE 510 to be a little disappointing.  I feel that for a graduate level course I didn’t really take out as much as I would have hoped.  I feel that we, as a class, just skimmed over any topic that was covered.  I understand that the large amount of material covered and the short 10-week terms makes it next to impossible to go in depth on any one specific topic without excluding another.  It would be nice if this course could be broken up into a two course series.  This would give the class 20-weeks to cover certain topics in much greater depth.  Several topics that I would like to have gone in more depth are artificial intelligence and robots in the construction industry.   

Several projects that I liked throughout the term were creating the family in Revit, and the database project.  These two projects dealt with topics that I had never covered before and I feel that they will be beneficial in the future, especially the database knowledge.  Modern day society is so dependent on databases that even a minor understanding can be extremely beneficial.  Knowing how to create families in Revit can also be very helpful in the professional world, although, I hope to never have to make one because it was somewhat annoying setting up all the parameters and relationships.  But it’s better to know and not need than need and not know. 

Alvarado notes that the guest speakers were a great aspect of the course.  I agree with the statement, “Every single guest speaker was very well chosen because they were all able to contribute with their insight at a topic we were covering.”  However, I don’t agree that every guest speaker was worth having.  I believe that Hue Robert’s Lecture was very well done; it gave me hope for the industry and the growing figures in infrastructure.  I also very glad to have Travis Peyton come speak with us.  He’s a man with great enthusiasm that can get anybody interested in engineering.  His talk on increasing building efficiency was very informative and worthwhile.  I did not think that Dr. Il-Yeol Song’s lecture was that beneficial.  It’s nothing against Dr. Song, his lecture was informative, however, a lot of the material that was covered had already been covered the week prior.  For example, he dedicated several slides to the one to many, many to many relationships that we had already discussed.  He also discussed SQL in depth, which we never used afterwards. 

Both Jeanine and Kayleigh mention the importance to stay up to date with technology.  This class was very beneficial in that scenario.  The topics covered are the up and coming topics in our field and to have a base knowledge, as stated before, is very beneficial, especially, upon entering the workforce.  Jeanine and Maria also reiterate what Professor Mitchell said at the beginning of the term, that it is easy to get by in this course but to get anything out of it the time must be committed.  I do take responsibility for not putting in as much effort as I would have liked.  I do think I could have gotten more out of the class by working harder.  I tell myself every term that I’m going to be a good student and do everything early so I have plenty of time to study and do projects, none of which ever happens.  

Reflections on Intelligent Buildings

Overall, I really enjoyed this course, if you are an Architectural Engineer and the course title "Intelligent Buildings" doesn't excite you, than you might be in the wrong major (I know this course had to serve other majors as well). I think this course did a good job of living up to its exciting title.

I think Maria and Jeanine pointed out the biggest issue students (including myself) had with the class, which was that the assignments sometimes piled up very high on each other. This was sometimes a pain to deal with (I can imagine that is was just as a pain to grade in a timely manner). However, this class IS a masters level class for many students, and should be more rigorous than an average undergraduate class. I did not find the work in class to be super challenging, however the class still turned out to be a handful with the amount of work that needed to be successfully juggled, which provided the master's level rigor which requires students to have discipline to successfully complete. Everyone likes an "Easy A" class, however in a 10 week term, it is sometimes very hard to successfully learn a large amount of material without it being speedily thrown at you (just like in the real world).

I also agree with many of the other students that suggest that this course is one that you really get out what you put in. For my project, my partner Tom Ben-David and I decided to build a sensor network from scratch and then wrote a paper on the use of the sensors in a multi-sensor room. This was admittedly biting off a little more than we could chew, and we got the paper written very close to the deadline due to the time it took to actually build the sensor network (even missing some features we wanted). However, the process was very rewarding, and I feel like I got a lot more out of the project than writing a strictly research based paper.  I felt the same way about many of the other assignments in the class such as creating a report for my database that included graphs really pushed the envelope on the scope of the project and added tangible skills to my resume and skill base.

Final Blog Post

In Kayleigh's post she discusses how important it is to stay up to date with current technology to prepare for changes in your field. Rapidly growing technology is a huge part of the engineering field, and therefore it is very important to stay on top of it. I felt that this class gave us a basic knowledge of a handful of important technologies in the engineering field today. The two topics that we covered in this course that I feel will be most beneficial for me in my future career are BIM and databases.

While I know that the term is only 10 weeks long and it is hard to fit everything in, I agree with Gabrielle that I would have preferred if we could have spent more time on BIM. On almost every co-op interview I have been to, the first question they ask is if you have any experience with BIM. While I am no expert in BIM, I do feel that after this class I can confidently say I have a basic understanding of how BIM works. I felt that the project we did with creating a bookshelf and placing it in a small building was a great project to help students learn the basics. It not only showed us how to create a basic building but also gave students exposure to working with families.

For me, the most challenging part of this course was the creation of a database. Prior to this course, I knew very little about databases and how they were created. While doing the assignment, I constantly questioned myself on whether or not I was creating the database correctly. I think that more strict guidelines on what was expected may have been helpful for a technology that such a large portion of students are unfamiliar with. Overall, I found the experience to be very helpful because I felt that I gained a basic knowledge of how to work a program that I had never used before. I also feel that even if I am not able to create a detailed database, I at least understand the basic concept and would be able to further my knowledge, if needed, for my future career.

In summary, I truly thought this class was well structured and thought provoking. I agree with Maria that the class was setup in a way that allowed students to put as much work and time as they chose into it. I felt that the more you put into the course, the more you got out of it. I appreciated that the due dates for all assignments were given at the very beginning of the term, allowing you to work on things at your own pace, but I wish the due dates had been a bit more spread out. I would absolutely recommend this class as a professional engineering elective, as I gained a great deal form the course.

Course Reflection

The title of this class is “Intelligent Buildings” and that is exactly what we focused in throughout the term.  From the beginning of the term, we explored what Intelligent Buildings entails and how they are becoming popular in the construction world.  We looked into what components make up an Intelligent Building, the technological capabilities that are now available to us, how Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an up and coming process and its performance in the building industry, how databases serve as a great advantage to companies for providing accurate representations of systems, and finally we observed the capabilities of sensors and their role in Intelligent Buildings.  By going through tutorials in Revit and Microsoft Access, we were introduced to the concept of BIM and databases.  Even though we did a short introduction of these, I believe it was enough to grasp the main concepts.  Overall, this class gave us a look into the future and how our careers in the construction world will use and incorporate these technologies.  In addition, as we investigated and learned about these technologies in class, we also took a glimpse at its effect in other careers, such as computer science, programming, architecture, electrical engineering, and more. Like my classmate Kayleigh said, this was a great way to prepare for future changes in our field of study and also be knowledgeable with the current and future methods utilized. 

Considering that the company that I will be working for after I graduate is very involved in green construction and Intelligent Buildings, I found this class to be very helpful.  It gave me a good background to the new technologies that are emerging and now I feel more knowledgeable and informed to go into a company that works closely with sensors, robotics and databases.

One of the best aspects about this class was the guest speakers.  I was always so interested to hear what they had to say about their experience in their field and then relate it back to Intelligent Buildings and how they use technological advances in their profession.  Every single guest speaker was very well chosen because they were all able contribute with their insight at a topic we were covering.  This class was very insightful and a great choice as a professional elective.

Course Reflection:

The class purpose is to give students the tools to learn as much as they want about databases, sensors and intelligent/green buildings. The basic of this class is focus on student doing research for these main topics, learning and discussing the different aspects of each.

At the start of the class I believe the topic I knew most about was green and intelligent buildings, because it has become very popular in the past years.

To myself I believe I got most from the sensors, robotics and database topics because I wasn’t aware about the variety and influence they have or will have in our life and profession.

Dr. Il-Yeol Song was the guest speaker I learn the most from. His presentation was enjoyable and easy to follow with tons of new information that I had little to no knowledge about. I feel all guest speakers should do their presentations on a classroom. Being in the computer lab makes people loose focus easily from having a computer in front of them.

I would recommend Prof. Mitchell in the future to make requirements for the database project clearer. I personally feel that on my final database project I got points out for not doing forms, but when I check the assignment details I believe forms where not required. I might have missed this due to the different places where information is put at. For future, maybe only have one page people can refer to.

For the homework deadlines I feel there were weeks in which there was only a blog due and then next week there was database, blog and draft. I would personally prefer that the amount of work is spread out evenly among the weeks. 

Overall, I feel the class is structure in a way that it’s up to students decision how much work and time they want to put into it. The requirements (homework’s, projects, blogs) are definitely enough to keep people interacting and continuously researching on the different topics. I would definitely recommend this class as a professional elective.