B7 - Group C - Peter Dannemann

Intelligent Buildings Reflection 

I thoroughly enjoyed taking Intelligent Buildings with Professor James Mitchell. Professor James Mitchell put a lot of effort into this class and came up with a myriad of activities and lectures from his own sources and research. Prof. Mitchell came up with an engaging class full of projects with real world applications and even job opportunities due to the guest speakers coming in as recruiters. As for the course content itself, I learned quite a lot about what makes a building intelligent, what the capabilities and current status of artificial intelligence are, how databases work and what the various types of databases are, and a further understanding of BIM. As an environmental engineer, I had not been exposed to these topics much at all in my courses and was able to learn a lot, even without the background knowledge many of the architectural engineering students in our class had. I commend Prof. Mitchell for making these classes so easy for someone outside of the major to understand. I was able to take away a lot of knowledge from this class even without much education in architectural engineering

While it is unlikely I will use BIM or AI in my profession, I could see myself creating a simple database in my career and the knowledge I gained from this class would definitely serve as a great starting point for taking up a project such as this. It is unlikely I would ever design a building being an environmental engineer, but understanding what intelligent buildings are helped me become more aware of the green potential buildings have and how much we can improve our energy efficient and reduce our resource use through more advanced technologies in the future. While unlikely, the knowledge I gained through taking this class may allow me to make more educated suggestions as to building design for the building I work in in the future, and this could result in a better, more effective and efficient building coming into the world. I took away a lot from my experiences in AE 410 and would highly recommend this class to anyone with an interest in architecture or technology.

Comments

Abdullatif Alkandari - I felt the same way about what I learned about databases from taking this course. If I am ever in a management position I could see myself designing a database for the workplace, and what we learned in this class served as a great starting point for such a project. Obviously a lot more resource and effort would be required to put together something such as this, but the fundamental knowledge taken away from this course would certainly allow me to know how to approach such a task and makes me feel confident that with enough time and effort it would indeed be possible

Aziz AlSaleem  - I agreed with your statement about your impression of artificial intelligence prior to taking this class. I thought artificial intelligence was mainly implemented in manufacturing, but after some research done in this class I realize that it's applications are limitless and it would be implemented anywhere. I definitely did not fully understand what AI actually is before taking this class and now feel much more educated on this subject. I expect AI to take off in the near future and hope to invest in it at some point.

Rachel Frank - I also appreciated how Prof. Mitchell adjusted the course based on the student's experience levels. I had never seen so much foresight from a professor before and Prof. Mitchell clearly cares about his students to an extent that is rare in education. I agree it was difficult to really figure out what this class was about prior to taking it, but am also glad I took it now that the class is coming to an end.