B7 - Connolly - Course Reflection

When signing up for Intelligent Buildings, my first thought was that I would learn more about BIM and sensors and how they interact. I thought we would talk about databases and how they can vastly improve how a business stores their data. As a Digital Building major I had hoped that this course was one in which I would learn a lot more about how to use each of them effectively in the real world. At that point in time, I had taken 2 database courses and hardly worked with actual database software, I had taken a few courses that touch on BIM but they were mostly the other courses in the AE department that just have one assignment in Revit. I had learned how to use BIM and setup databases mostly in my co-ops and not in classes.

After taking the course, I feel a bit let down by the lack of meaningful use of BIM and databases. I learned a lot about how they are used and the potential uses of them in the future. I learned a lot from the guest speakers who taught about the real world and how systems are used today. I also learned a good amount of the futurology of the construction industry and it could become much more efficient if basic AI or robotics were incorporated. However, I feel like the blog posts were somewhat tedious and the term project was essentially a longer blog post. I did like the two assignments that dealt with BIM and databases, if the term were split between learning more about those two subjects I feel that it would have been more effective. Professor Mitchell often wondered why the class seemed less than interested in the subject that he was teaching. An honest answer to that would probably be that it was due to a mix of the class being 3 hours at dinner time and also that a lot of the subjects were not directly relevant to what we will be working on in our careers. In my opinion, this course would be best taken either earlier in an AE major’s curriculum so that databases and BIM can be introduced from the start, or if the course curriculum focuses more on BIM and databases in the workplace.

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.

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.