Reflection on the course

When I signed up to take AE 410, I expected it to be more of a designing class that will teach more on how to work with SketchUp and AutoCAD. On the contrary, I learned very new concepts in this course which I think opened my eyes on very new topics for me in my major.

The course focused on Artificial Intelligence, BIM and Databases. Before taking this course, I had a very basic idea on how robots are constructing in big factories, but I did not realize how the robots are also being used in construction fields, and how intelligent they are programmed to overcome obstacles and receive commands for several tasks.

Another topic that I was expecting to learn about in this course and that we went through and understood very well was 3D printed buildings. Before taking this course, I really wanted to learn more about the 3D printed buildings advantages, how they are constructed and put together and whether they are used nowadays or are still being developed. We understood it very well from professor Mitchell’s explanation, and my peers’ blogs that introduced new information and have taught me a lot.

Reflection on my professional career and future:

I believe that AI plays a huge role in BIM, and have been and developing the industry in so many aspects. My plan now is to go back to Kuwait after I graduate and hopefully work in one of the Architectural firms. I am very sure that they use BIM and such developed technologies. I also know that in Dubai they are relying on 3D printed buildings, Kuwait work on many projects with Dubai as well as exchanging experiences, so hopefully after learning so much about the 3D printed buildings I can have a hand on one of the projects which I am very excited for.

Another useful tool we used was Microsoft Access creating Databases. Even though I faced few trouble and errors on the assignments, I have a clear idea on Queries and relationships which I really believe I would benefit from it in my professional career. I also learned very much about sensors which I didn’t have a clear background about before this class.

One of the most effective things in this course were the guest speakers that use what we are learning in their daily work. That showed me how important all the topics we learned are and gave me a push to read more about everything and, I was always interested in reading my classmate’s blogs to learn new aspects of the topic.

In conclusion, the class was much deeper in the topics than I anticipated it to be and very useful to me, my major and in my future career for sure. I believe that professor Mitchell’s useful presentation and videos were very helpful. The videos that were showed to us in class, especially the robots working on construction and overcoming obstacles to do specific tasks, in addition to the blogs and guest speakers were very helpful and taught us a lot. The course was very interesting, we had so much fun while learning the new topics, and hopefully we can use all that we learned in our future jobs.

Response to peers
Nick Pawlikowski : It is great that you knew about most of the topics in this course. To me even though I knew few topics, I was not familiar with the great deep information provided in the lectures and blogs by our colleagues. I as well had never worked on Databases and I enjoyed it and like working on it this course I really think it helped me a lot.

Joe Dressel : I agree with most of what you said about the course. I strongly agree that the guest speakers were very helpful, they brought us a lot of prospective as you said and shared their experience on the topics which helped us very much.

Ronald Herazo: I strongly agree that professor Mitchell did a great job teaching this course and really helped us a lot and made it so much fun for us. Most of the topics even though we had a basic idea about, deep information were shared, reading the blog posts helped introduce more information and finally the guest speakers also sharing their experience gave us the best idea possible. 

Alsaleem B5 – Object oriented databases

Object oriented databases are also known as Object Database Management Systems (ODBMS). Object databases store objects rather than data such as integers, strings or real numbers. Objects consist of Attributes or Methods.

Attributes are data which defines the characteristics of an object. This data may be as simple as integers, strings, and real numbers or it may be a reference to a more complex object. However, Methods are the behavior of an object and are what was formally called procedures or functions.

Therefore, it can be stated that object oriented databases contain both executable code and data. There are other characteristics of objects such as whether methods or data can be accessed from outside the object.

One other term used is Classes. Classes are used in object oriented programming to define the data and methods the object will contain. The class is like a template to the object. The class does not contain data or methods within itself but defines the data and methods that are contained in the object. Classes are used to represent a certain thing within the object. Classes may be used in object databases to recreate parts of the object that may not actually be stored in the database. Methods may not be stored in the database and may be recreated by using a class.

Object databases should be used when there is complex data or complex data relationships. This includes a many to many object relationships. Object databases should not be used when data is simple and relationships are simple.

Object oriented databases work well with:

• CAS Applications (CASE-computer aided software engineering, CAD-computer aided design, CAM-computer aided manufacture)
• Multimedia Applications
• Object projects that change over time.
• Trading and Commencing

Object oriented Database Advantages over RDL

• Objects don't require assembly and disassembly saving coding time and execution time to assemble or disassemble objects.
• Reduced paging
• Easier navigation
• Better concurrency control - A hierarchy of objects may be locked.
• Data model is based on the real world.
• Works well for distributed architectures.
• Less code required when applications are object oriented.

Object oriented Database Disadvantages compared to RDL

• Lower efficiency when data is simple and relationships are simple.
• Relational tables are simpler.
• Late binding may slow access speed.
• More user tools exist for RDL.
• Standards for RDL are more stable.
• Support for RDBMS is more certain and change is less likely to be required.

Sources:

http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/definition/object-oriented-database-management-system

http://www.comptechdoc.org/independent/database/basicdb/dataobject.html

Responding to peers

Egla Qori – Your explanation for the SQL language was very clear and helpful. The operations are mostly very common, I am not very sure but I believe I have used a SQL language for a previous class therefore I agree how important it is learning SQL to enable a user to interpret data.

Ronald Herazo -  You did a great job explaining what a relational database is and introducing the background knowledge needed to understand it helped a lot. My only point that I wish you explained better was the comparison at the end, I believe if you stated some examples it would have been clearer and more interesting.

Prahlad – I enjoyed your blog about databases. Introducing the concept then giving examples, furthermore introducing where and how it is used in firms and hot people work with databases really gives the reader a great idea. Very clear post, great examples and very straight forward.

Week 5 Group C Discussion

BIM Challenges for the Future

Some of the challenges BIM will face in the future include unsustainable file size, lack of backwards compatibility, accessibility for new users, difficulty in learning more complex software, more complicated building design that the software may not be able to handle, usage of different software and inability to compile their plans, the software may become too expensive for the average user, and it may put people out of work due to not needing technical knowledge to use the software.

Alsaleem B4 - GroupC Final Project

AI and the Future of Construction

For our term project, David and I will be writing about AI and its present and future integration into the construction industry. We will be doing this by looking at different facets of within the industry such a BIM, physical manpower, and other areas in the field.

Why was it chosen

In the construction industry, AI has the potential to help reimagine how processes are done such as BIM. AI will identify true collisions versus false ones in BIM, for new building design as an example, AI will identify missing elements like waterproofing for specs for stadiums and help improve the design to a more comprehensive one.

AI knowledge can update itself whenever new data is introduced, creating a full daily report, schedule, project progresses and more to help engineers and designers. As many predict that this AI knowledge will be proactive and will be able to interact with both voice and visuals. Furthermore, a bigger step will enable robots using this knowledge to fetch tools and know where they are and how assemble them in the task given.

Relation to Intelligent Buildings

Artificial Intelligence will create the next industrial revolution as many experts are predicting. As AI architect and author George Zarkadakis once said "It's really important that we take AI seriously. It will lead to the fourth industrial revolution and will change the world in ways we cannot predict now". His mention of the "fourth industrial revolution" refers to the computerization of the manufacturing industry. The fourth industrial revolution is the vision of smart factories, where cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, thus creating a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions.

Challenges

Our greatest challenge will be finding factual information from reliable sources. Artificial intelligence in relatively new to the construction industry and because of this there isn’t a great wealth of information out there on everything we want to write about. A lot of information and websites I saw about information we need were written by independent bloggers so verifying this information credibility will be tough.

Additionally, a big challenge in the AI knowledge will be creating and obtaining the data of every detail in small or even mid-sized firms, it will cost tons of money and effort, I can easily be done by very big and recognizable companies now until the technology becomes easier to use by smaller companies in the industry.

Sources:

1-    http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2408538/artificial-intelligence-will-create-the-next-industrial-revolution-experts-claim

2-    https://www.aem.org/news/october-2016/how-artificial-intelligence-could-revolutionize-construction/

Responses:

Egla Qori: It is very nice to use what you are learning in this class and have it in your senior design project. I also agree with the importance of Revit in our industry especially in big firms now. I too saw how important Revit is while applying to jobs in Co-op and also now after graduating. I enjoyed your post and plans for the final project, best of luck!

Vogler: The analysis of the life cycle of a building sounds very interesting, I look forward to learn how it will reduce cost for learning every detail throughout the cycle. I agree it will be challenging going through every detail especially with the lack of accurate information online, however it will be a major key to go through the details of the topics you specified. 

Joseph Chaudhari: Your final project topic is pretty interesting. I liked how you described the example of the 3D model and how a party of many can update the model. At first I did not understand your project well, until I read into it with your examples in became clearer. I am looking forward for your ideas and final project to learn more too.