Course Reflection - Andy Dinh

     Signing up for AE410, I was not really sure what to expect. Reading the course title as “Intelligent Buildings” along with the course being offered as an AE course put me in the mindset of the course having to deal with buildings. I never really thought about it in the capacity of dealing with databases and BIM software though. My first thoughts were that we would be dealing with learning about buildings that were efficient in their ways like energy efficiency. While that was true, it was only a small part of what we would learn.

     The different technologies we got to learn about through the course were very expansive. One week we would learn about AI technology, then we went to different BIM software and all their perks, and we even got to look at how databases store wide ranges of information. These of course are only a few topics in the course, but these are the ones that stuck out to me the most from what we learned.

     AI adaptation to helping with the construction process along with maintenance of a building seems to be a technology that could be more practical to have later down the line, but for now seems to be still early in the development process. The ideas that are coming out of it and those in the works are still very interesting though. With clash detection in the different software, along with being able to tell owners or users where deficiencies may be happening within the building itself, AI can have a lot of advantages we currently don’t have as of now. The different BIM software we got to learn about like Revit and Navisworks also expanded my knowledge a bit. Before this course, I only really knew of Revit through limited use of it before in other classes and projects. So, getting a refresher with Revit in our class assignment along with learning about interoperability between the programs was interesting to learn about. Database building was something I never knew about, and it seems so easy to miss since it is not laid out for users unless you specifically look into it. Being able to learn about them along with creating our own databases was very different and I enjoyed it a little, although with more time to work on it I am sure there would have been a lot more we could have covered.

     I can see all of these technologies having great effect on the industry. Being in school as a civil engineer, hopefully in either site/civil or highways/transportation, I can see the advantages of these technologies greatly shifting the landscape in alter years. These changes won’t be reflected immediately in one year, but I can see small changes building up one after the other over time that can change everything form the way we are working on things now. Technology like AI development and database building could be different required fields for people to learn about and are needed for in much larger demand as the technology improves and becomes more user friendly. I look forward to seeing how all of this develops over the next couple of years.

Comments:

Alexander Koo (link) – I agree with your thoughts on the course. Group work did seem big within this course itself. Whether it was small posts that we did together that required a little bit of critical thinking, or to our own projects and presentations we made for the class, we were tasked to work together quite a few times. This is very important for the engineering fields as we will have to work with others on most, if not all, of our future projects. Allowing us to understand the different parts that are involved within the industry does help in understanding how the different parts of a whole work together to get the best product we can have out there.

Arthur McCloskey (link) – The class was a good introduction into the future. Seeing day by day how the technology is evolving around us is great to see. I do hope all of these technologies become advantageous to everyone, not just people in specific practices or fields. Getting to learn about these forward-thinking technologies was a good experience to have as we go on to be a part of the industry.

Sarah Maminski (link) – Being a civil engineer as well, I understand where you are coming from. With what we learned throughout the term, I hope to see all the technologies we learned about to develop with great efficiency for use in the industry. The engineering field always seems to be a little bit behind, so hopefully all the fields can play a little catch with the technology and use them to their full advantages.