B7 – Course Reflection Samuel Kim

B7 – Course Reflection Samuel Kim

This Intelligent Building course was useful in various ways for me to further explorer different aspects of BIM applications, artificial intelligence and databases. As a senior civil engineering student at Drexel University, I had worked on BIM applications such as AutoCad 3D and SketchUp. By taking this course I was able to use Autodesk’s Revit to build a BIM model which I would not have a chance to practice if I didn’t take this course. Revit is more widely used as BIM applications than AutoCad 3D or SketchUp in the industry and this course had prepared me to further explore and develop my skills of Revit.  

Artificial intelligence is vastly growing in the industry right now. AI reduces physical labors, replicates necessary decisions and it allows virtual connectivity. AI serves for many purposes in like medical applications, digital assistants, Error reduction, daily application, and more. Learning about AI in this course was a huge improvement in my understanding of AI and prediction of how AI will affect the world in the future. Digital assistants like Siri from Apple and Alexa from Amazon are already being used widely by consumers. This type of AI helps from reminding day to day tasks to ordering office supplies by just talking. AI also had its disadvantages. It can lead to more unemployment, it has no improvement with experience, and there is less original creativity. The world will soon rely more on AI and I feel that we need to balance the advantages and disadvantages of AI to guide the AI development into a right direction.

Before taking this course, I had no idea how MS Access is used and what it was for. Learning about databases and doing practices using MS Access was an eye-opening experience for me because databases do so much for us. They allow to reduce overall time using vast amount of information, allows to link data, lets search specific past information quickly, improves data security and more. A Database is used in all most every company to enhance their work optimization. Having a guest to explain us about databases was a enjoyable and informative experience for me as well.

In overall, I learned about BIM, AI, and databases, sensors and other important contents in this course. These topics better prepared me to be ready for my future experiences working as a civil engineer. The contents explored in this course had guided me to find the areas I should focus to learn for my future career as a civil engineer.  

 

SOURCES:

Weil, Michael. "Are Smart Homes Ready For Prime Time In The HVAC Industry?". Contractingbusiness.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

"Benefits And Risks Of Artificial Intelligence". Medium. N.p., 2017. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Reddy, Krishna. "Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence." WiseStep. N.p., 10 Aug. 2016. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

 

COMMENTS:

Yosep Bak: I also enjoyed having experienced guest speakers to learn about their areas of work. It was interesting and inspiring to hear about the information with real world examples.

Egla Qori: I agree with you that instead of learning one topic in-depth in a course, I liked how this course covered a wide range of topics. This helps me to understand the important concepts in the industry that I was not fully aware of.

Joe Dressel: I also had some difficult time learning the database in this class. I had not prior knowledge about this topic at all in the beginning and I taught myself from the scratch. However, I will keep improving my database skills because I see that I may have to work with it in the future.

Abdullatif Alkandari - B2

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an integral part in any project and holds great significance for many reasons. It benefits many aspects of the project, but I am going to focus the specific impact it has on the owners and facility managers. Using BIM can help with obtaining accurate cost estimates and optimizing facility management as well as maintenance hence improving the overall quality of the building. Due to the constant development that BIM, it is able to help buildings preform better and gives the work team better control of the project. Because it is capable of having multiple users working on it at the same time, collaboration among the team and their communication is very effective in turn saving time and money.

In going about the design process, BIM gives the owner the ability to observe and comment on the ongoing work of the design team without leaving his office. This replaces the tedious process of having to meet with the design team and requesting the plans and drawings. Aside from avoiding the inconvenience, introducing BIM allows the owners to make early changes if they detect abnormality rather than having propagations of an error that would be more likely to get neglected when using traditional way of managing a project.

With all the features BIM has to offer, owners can get more accurate estimates in the early stages of the design. By keeping up with the changes to the design in real time, the team will be constantly updating the program for the owner and contractor to work with. Furthermore, BIM can reveal details like light fixtures as well as their energy usage and similar future modifications. This is another example where convenience can come a long way in contributing to both the performance as well as the efficiency of the project.

BIM can also be used as a foundation for good space management, because facility managers can reduce vacancy and achieve major reductions in real estate expenses based on the information they get from the models. They can also contribute to economical retrofits of the building as having 3-dimensional aspects of the building can reduce the complexity of the building renovations and consequently reducing the cost.

Some building design professionals are introducing data on life expectancy and replacement costs on BIM models in an effort to help facility managers and owners figure out weather it would be worth investing more in some materials based on a better payback over the life of the building. I expect this type of technology to be revolutionary as most project managers are willing to invest more in initial cost if they can guarantee that it would be a better investment for them on the long run after factoring in the maintenance cost of the building. Given how much this can enhance the lifecycle management of buildings, I see that BIM will have an even brighter future.

References:

Eastman, Charles M. BIM Handbook : A Guide To Building Information Modeling For Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers And Contractors. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2017.

“The Benefits of Lifecycle BIM for Facility Management.” FM Systems. N.p., 27 July 2016. Web. 24 Jan. 2017.

< https://fmsystems.com/blog/the-benefits-of-lifecycle-bim-for-facility-management/  >

Comments:

Samuel Kim: I found your post quite enjoyable to read, the part I liked most about it was when you put the huge spike in BIM models in perspective. The numbers you provided were astonishing, knowing that number of BIM files in the Aconex collaboration profile experienced a 2700% increase shows how far BIM has come and will hopefully go even further in the years to come.

Ray Powell: I think the part you included about BIM was important, because in spite of all the advantages this tool offers, it is important to know that not everyone can intuitively learn to work with it. In some cases, outside help may be required to get the current staff acquainted with the modern technology in BIM and along with that, I see a new job opportunity for people who can pass on this skill to other employees and in effect make them more valuable to their respective companies.

Taryn Francischetti: The family concept you introduced was a very practical tool to be used in BIM, I like the fact that it is so convenient and is capable of fitting multiple objects together. This can significantly aid in facilitating the design process and saves time and effort. I was also surprised to learn that Revit has mechanical, energy and environmental components that contribute to the overall quality of the design.

B2 -Group D - Week 2 – Samuel Kim

B2: BIM for Architects and Engineers

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is a shared digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of any built project including buildings, bridges, roads, etc. The BIM was first practiced in 1970s and 1980s as Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) and Boundary Representation (BREP). These applications allowed to create, combine, and intersect primitive shapes to represent architecture as penetrations and subtractions. Now, there are more advanced BIM applications like Revit, ArchiCAD, Digital Project, and CodeBook that can do much more than CSG or BREP.

There are many benefits of using BIM in the construction industry. They benefit engineers and architects by allowing virtual walk through of construction models, explore structural components and details, and identify any potential design, construction or operational issues. Unlike 2D CAD drawings, if you make a revision in an element of a 3D BIM model, all of the views and details in the model automatically updates accordingly. This feature saves time and eliminates possibilities of errors. BIM also allows to effectively collaborate a design with all parties such as design professionals, suppliers, contractors and clients. With all of these benefits, utilization of BIM with construction projects became crucial to engineers and architects.

BIM is quickly spreading globally. The use of BIM in the construction and engineering industry has significantly increased over the past few years. The number of BIM files stored on the Aconex collaboration platform (The largest online project collaboration platform) in 2009 was fewer than 10,000 models. However, the number of BIM files increased to 270,000 models in 2013 which is a 2700% increase. Even the size of average BIM file had changed. In 2009, average BIM model was around 30MB and it has almost doubled to 54MB in 2013.

BIM is a fairly new subject for me at this time of my career in construction. With this blogger writing, I found out how much BIM is imperative to construction projects. I suspect that BIM will further advance and widely be used globally in the future. This insight really encourages me to study BIM to develop my career.

 

Resources:

http://www.archdaily.com/302490/a-brief-history-of-bim

https://goulddesigninc.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/6-powerful-advantages-of-bim/

https://www.aconex.com/what-is-BIM

Comments:

Andy Dinh

The financial benefit of BIM is well described in your post. I suspect that this is one of most concerned areas for construction companies but somehow I wasn’t able to think of it while I was writing my blog post. By utilizing BIM, building materials can be more accurately measured and counted therefore decreasing time to plan out a project and increasing the efficiency of planning for the project. This plays a huge role to save time and money.

 

Peter Dannemann

I liked how you stressed the owner’s interaction with the project using BIM. As you mentioned in your post, using BIM helps to do economic analysis and risk management more clearly and effectively. It will help to increase the owner’s understanding of the project, which can increase owner’s input to the project and satisfy both provider and the owner. I also thought that BIM hand book shows some useful information about BIM. It brings together most of the information about BIM, it’s history, and its potential use.

 

Maria Raggousis

Being able to use sane file across different applications allows to engineers and architects work more efficiently. For example, when I was making a 3D model for my structural design course, it was very helpful to convert my existing sketch up model to a CAD 3D model. This saved a ton of time. As you mentioned that interoperability is extremely important from the architect to all of the engineering departments, I also think that interoperability plays an crucial role in the construction industry.

Week 2 - Term project topic

Team member: Samuel Kim, Joe Dressel


We decided to do the BIM for the term project. We want to integrate our work with the senior design project which is modeling a pilot plant in the Drexel campus for research purpose. Foundation and Structure component of the building, HVAC, Hydraulic piping, floor pan, furniture in the projected building and etc. will be modeled using one of BIM software(possibly Revit). The term paper will also include what problems we went into, how we over came those problems, other potential uses of the BIM and more.

Assignment B1, Group D

B1 - Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning, reasoning, and self-correction. AI has taken a big step in various areas in this society over the few years. Motor vehicle can self-drive with integration of various sensors and sophisticated programing. And Voice-commanded personal assistants like Siri and Alexa can help you from finding out today’s weather, playing a favorite music, and even ordering a pizza.

AI is practiced and advancing in the construction industry as well. The Autonomous surveying drone is one example. User defines the boundary of scan area for the drone then drone autonomously flies out of the box creating waypoints for flights. It produces an as-built d3 models of the construction site each day. The scan allows user to measure 2D and 3D objects in the specified area. The data collected with the drone allows to observe the construction progress and count materials used for the construction. One of the most advantageous of AI integration on the construction methodology is use of expert systems that can intelligently provide suggested designs and assist in reviewing and verify designs utilizing past 50 years of design samples. It offer engineers a large set of knowledge that would otherwise be unavailable to them. This AI integration benefits especially in safety stand point.

AI is still in its elementary stage. Tesla had a few incidents with its autonomous driving technology and a crime fighting robot created by the platform Knightscope crashed into a child in a mall and injured the child. Also, Google’s AlphaGo was beaten in game four of a five-round series of the game Go by human player. However any new technology must be revised to be perfected. Currently in the construction industry, AI on jobsites is limited but it is growing, particularly with applications involving machine vision for surveying and analyzing materials and structures. Experts estimate 30 plus years from now to get closer to AI’s perfection according to iReviews. In the future, AI’s advance will significantly improve quality of human lives.

Resources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertadams/2017/01/10/10-powerful-examples-of-artificial-intelligence-in-use-today/#62430d7f1ae6

http://www.conexpoconagg.com/news/august-2016/artificial-intelligence-in-the-construction-indust/

Chaudhari, Joseph

The idea of integrating AI to a call center is interesting to me. It will reduce the cost of running customer service department of a company and it can also make communication smoother and efficient. However I also see downside of the idea like increased number of jobless people. When I call a company like Bestbuy to process a refund, I must answer series of questions to be directed to the correct person. If the process can be shortened with a smarter voice recognition that can understands exactly what I need, it will be a great help to the customers and the company.

Ray Powell

Use of intelligent function on a HVA systems could definitely improve quality of life in homes. Especially the idea of using sensors to measure humidity level and air quality to start the humidifier/dehumidifier and air purifier seems a great idea. This AI integrated technology seems it can be available to us soon in the future. However, like how most AI technology is, it can be much more expensive than traditional HAVC system because it comprises several different systems. But I also feel that several years after the introduction of the product, it can be revised and improved so that it is readily available to many consumers.

Rachel Frank

I agree that the new way of receiving data contributes important role for intelligent systems. Now the voice recognition is available with computers and phones so we are able to more conveniently make calls, browse internet, order products, and send messages to friends.

Group D - Week 1 Thoughts

Using intelligent buildings will be common in the future, but it is difficult to implement into current uses. Sensors, networks, and artificial intelligence can be used to adapt and improve building health.  Artificial intelligence will be applied within the building, manufacturing processes, and manufacturing to create a better built environment. Utilizing robotics and artificial intelligence will reduce construction workers, reducing chance of injury with very detailed accuracy and precision. Applying these systems can have high upfront costs, but often generate lower usage or maintenance costs.  It is also difficult to begin using many of these methods due to social groups and labor unions.    

Names Placeholder Post for Labels, Tags

This post creates the first half of the last names of everyone as a label/tag in the class as of 1/4/2017.  I have to add in several posts because it’s limited by Blogger.