Wicker - Course Reflection

AE410 has exposed me to many technologies and ideas that will become increasingly prevalent in my field of work in the coming years. As a college graduate it is important to make yourself as valuable as possible in an attempt to land that first post-grad job. Being able to introduce new and innovative ways to complete tasks to any workplace is one of the best ways to do just that. In engineering design, computer programs have become the standard tool for all projects. Even the most basic projects require multiple users to be able to use various program so being able to learn a new program quickly will be valuable as they continue to evolve.

I enjoyed learning how to use Revit and Access the most in this class. These are two programs I had little experience with but the instructional videos gave me enough knowledge to be able to work with them and start figuring out more complex features on my own. Learning Revit has also helped me at work since we receive architectural drawings for project all the time. Being able to identify building outlines, facades, and overhangs helps to give everyone involved in the projects a good idea of the overall goal. While I am not sure if I can use BIM technologies at my current job I can surely incorporate them into my senior design project. Experimenting with new programs will help us to create a unique project that solves common problems in innovative ways.

The weekly blog posts helped me to research and learn more about topics that I wouldn’t regularly read about. It also created talking points for communicating with other people in the class. The only improvements I could suggest for the class would be to have more assignment similar to the Revit one. I know it would be difficult, but if there could be multiple mini assignments that each utilize a demo version of a new program that would be a great way to learn about new software. Overall it was a good experience and I am glad I choose to take this class.

Responses:

Maita,

I also signed up for AE410 because it was a professional elective that fit my schedule and much like you I ended up really enjoying the class. It really put into prospective just how many different technologies exist and how they are evolving to solve modern problems. Just knowing that these technologies are out there gives us an advantage but having a basic understanding of some of them (BIM, Revit, Access) will be very useful going forward.

Wahbeh,

I also found this class interesting.  The connections drawn between technology and various professional fields were fun to learn about. I also plan to try an incorporate some of these technologies into my future projects.

Johnson,

I didn’t appreciate the freedom that we were given for the final project until after reading your post. Few classes allow you to choose your topic and even fewer allow you to explore that topic in any way you want. It made it easy to find something that we were interested in which always makes these types of projects more interesting. I also agree that the ability to continue to adapt to changing technologies will be increasingly important in the future.