B7 - Course Reflection

AE410: Intelligent buildings taught by Dr. James Mitchell looked at the building industry and how it is changing with technological advancements. Goal of the course was to enable students with an understanding of the impact technologies could have in their professional careers. More specifically class explored Information technology aspects of a buildings life cycle with includes design to demolition. Students learnt about BIM (Building information modelling), Database operations and networks. Class tasked students with reading and discussing scholarly articles with the aid of blog posts as well as taking an in depth look at a specific branch of intelligent buildings by taking on a project or writing a paper.

Personally, the class was a lot different than I imagined, I expected technical outlook on intelligent technologies and how they impact the building i.e. Electrical consumption, implementation and installation. However, I got more than I intended. Class looked at the topic from a broader aspect, by questioning what it means for a building to be intelligent, looking at intelligent technologies before construction started and the possible future of intelligent technologies in the architect, engineer, and contractor industry.

Weekly blogposts were efficient in the sense that each student was not reporting on the exact same topic or was looking at the same topic from a different approach or angle. This allowed us to learn from each other and provided avenues to learn more: We covered more content in this way.. Projects assigned during class duration were well guided by professor. Database and Bookcase projects required preliminary submissions which allowed professor to make comments and give feedback on how to better develop final submission for effective learning process. Submissions also required a writing component to them which required students to report their findings and difficulties. This allowed student reflection for a better learning process and also give course instructor feedback on how to better structure projects for future students taking the class.

Final project required in depth technical research typical of a 400 level engineering class. This charged students with picking a desired topic and seeing it through. A great deal was learnt in this manner and presentation allows students to bounce ideas of each other. In general AE 410 is a really efficient and effective class. Being a Civil engineering the tools picked up from class will definitely come into play in my professional career.

Comments:
Shaden - I like that you enjoyed the futuristic outlook on the AEC industry. i was more fixated on the pre design and pre construction applications. I do liked that we also looked at Artificial intelligence and how it could play in the future, i would previously not have agreed it had any impact on the AEC industry. I to do not think i would have found myself looking at Microsoft access if not for this class.

Cody Johnson - I like that this class has had an impact on your career goals and objectives. I myself briefly considered gearing my career goals to be in line with Building information modeling if i decided to take the general contractor route. Access was also new and eye opening, if not for this class i am not sure i would have explored databases.

Jacob Wahbeh - I like that you pointed out the connotation of the AEC industry to be old without technological advancements. I who i am a member of the industry also in some sense thought this way. This class has more than shown me that that is not the case. It in facts uses technological advancements from pre design to construction.

Anibaba B5: The Use of Databases in Design Firms

A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can be easily accessed, managed and updated by users. Databases are usually arranged in an intuitive manner, accounting for file size, type, function, date created and author. This provides comprehensive information on file and provides ease of navigation. A database is necessary in different industries for various reasons and uses. In a design firm databases are extremely important, it could be said it is almost to run a firm without one. A Design firms uses a database to store files and drawings to be accessed by company employees. Design firms are usually keeping accounts of plans specifications, request for Information and request for quotation documents with email transmittals and meeting records. They are usually arranged per job, this allows multiple personal to work on a project at a time as well as allowing ease of turnover on job. Meaning it is easy for a co-worker to hand over a job to a colleague without too much discontinuity.

Popular Databases used by firms in the area are Microsoft Access, ECMS, ProjectWise, Primavera, and SharePoint. These next level databases go as far as keep records of database use by users. It provides information on when last file was opened or edit by a specific user. They also run back up of files to limit or eliminate loss of file in event of data corruption. These software’s also allow files to be accessed in real time by multiple users, this is essential to collaboration for a design firm. It allows an architect and engineer to discuss a particular plan and make changes together in real time.

Database is a necessity for design firms, regardless of the form it takes. Before the introduction of the electronic databases with advanced features like those I have mentioned. Design firms made use of filling cabinets to store plans and documents. This incorporated larger cabinets for big plans and some sort of letter or color system to keep track of documents.

Keeping and logging information for a design firm is critical. Legal cases may occur in a design firm and a database of records provides information to provide clarity on a particular subject. They are very important.

Thomas Sisson Comment: I like how you started with a description of structured query language; it gives clear understanding of how SQL works. It is also great that you provide information on the technology that was used prior to SQL. The compare and contrast between structured query language database versus Codasyl database allows reader to further understand the technology.

Carlos Hillinger Comment: I appreciate the enthusiasm in your post. It is good that you already have a perspective of databases and can relay the knowledge. I like that you mention how they function, however it would have been preferred if you also discussed its applications. There is little mention of how we use these databases or who primarily makes use of them.

Sensors and Controls for HVAC Systems

Group Members: Shuyuan Zhang & Shaden Dahroug

The following project was selected to research based on the interest and knowledge of the importance of HVAC systems within a building since it’s one of the main contributing factors of energy consumption within a building, whether during the summer or winter season or even spring since an HVAC system is required all year around to maintain the building’s condition to achieve comfort of occupants within a building, while maintaining indoor air quality. As sensors may be used to increase energy efficiency, it’s also important for maintenance of the required indoor condition as non-efficient sensors may lead a building to overheat or overcool, leading occupants of the building to feel uncomfortable and that may impact their productivity within a work environment.

Sensors and controls for HVAC systems is believed to be an important aspect of an intelligent buildings, because of its technological features that doesn’t require manual control from humans in order to maintain its requirements, where it’s control is achieved through sensors that only require implementing the program of the sensors with the building requirements to do its job of maintaining the buildings indoor air condition for occupant’s comfort.

The research will be focused on how sensors collect data for an HVAC system, and how the equipment or system process the data to control the indoor air conditions. In addition to exploring the advantage and disadvantage of each sensor to determine which would be the most relevant for an intelligent building to achieve maximum comfort of occupants and energy efficiency. In addition to determining what effects the performance of a given sensor.

The following sensors listed below are the sensor that will be researched for this project, while other parameters that will be put into consideration for the following project will be trying to understand the initial and maintenance cost of the following sensors as those are influential factors for an owner when selecting most component within a building.

o   Carbon-dioxide emission sensor

o   Occupancy sensor (movement)

o   Radiation sensor (heat)

o   Traditional temperature / humidity sensor

A model will also be created for research purposes to determine the relevance of our findings for the research, and that will be achieved through using eQuest for energy analysis to have a closer look at which sensor may truly be more energy efficient compared to the other sensors selected for research.  

The process of determining the relevance of our findings for the project will be a challenge as eQuest may not be enough for this evaluation, and that may lead to requiring database expertise in order to create a database to determine the relevance of the findings of the project.

Comments:

B4 - Term Project Description

Dung Tran,

A life on mars sounds interesting, and your project is very interesting but it leads me thinking how many spaceships and trips will this require for building one place “let’s say a house” and what are the environmental impacts of those spaceship as they leave earth and go into space, and since automated construction will definitely increase the traffic in space, I wonder if that will have an impact on the environment in space. I would also like to comment about your problem statement it shows that you have thoroughly thought the challenges that may come with your project.

Best of Luck on your project.

Anibaba - Project Description Blog Post

Malik Anibab,

I find the scope of your project interesting because it questions whether a building can be green and intelligent or just intelligent or just green. Probably increasing a building’s intelligence may be increasing a building’s energy consumption in some sort of way, but there is probably methods of using plants for energy production, where a building feeds energy of itself.

The following links below are articles about the BIQ building which is located in Hamburg, Germany. The building is interesting because it has double skin to make the building green, where the second skin is made out of a bioreactor. Thought of sharing since this may be helpful with your research.

Best of Luck on your project.

http://algadisk.eu/biq-first-building-in-the-world-with-bioreactor-facade/

https://www.iba-hamburg.de/en/themes-projects/the-building-exhibition-within-the-building-exhibition/smart-material-houses/biq/projekt/biq.html

 

Term Project Description

Zac Arnold,

It’s intelligent of you and Mark to take advantage of the project and choose Revit as a project to increase your familiarity with its use and try to determine its flaws through experimenting it yourselves which is an important thing to do, because you only get better by practicing using the software more and more. In addition, how you considered the scope of construction business as whole when it comes to general contractors, subcontractors, owners, etc.  

Best of Luck on your project.