Carlos Hillinger - Introduction

Carlos Hillinger
Drexel University

I am a Junior student at Drexel University currently enrolled in the Dual Degree Program of the Engineering School, specifically in the Civil and Architectural Engineering Program. I am focusing my studies in Digital Building, which is the obvious reason for choosing AE-410 (Intelligent Buildings) as the first professional elective of my career.

I have been interested in construction all my life, thanks to the fact that you are working on something that you can physically see growing in front of you. It is clear to me how technology is transforming every industry, from Amazon changing the way people shop, to computers changing the way we do everything (learn, read, teach, etc.). In my opinion, technology will end up also shaping up the construction industry in well-developed countries.

I believe that coming from an undeveloped country, I can clearly see the advantages of using technology in the construction industry, which is why I am so interested in learning how to use intelligent system to improve the way we build, reducing costs and risk while increasing the quality of the end product. It is also of my interest to see how we can implement building technologies on undeveloped countries to improve quality of life in them.

I expect this class to give me the tools and knowledge to better understand how to use software tools and intelligent systems in the construction industry, and other applications that we might discover along the way.

I found interesting the Evernote post on "The Year in Robots". It is a very clear example on how intelligent systems are shaping our every day lives. It is one of my interested to find out how we can use robots not only to improve lives that are already fine, but to improve lives that do need to be improved.

I would define Intelligent Building as a concept used to describe the variety of systems and robots used to improve construction and reduce its costs. By improving construction I mean improving the quality of the buildings and reducing the time to build.

Allison Abad's Introduction

Background
I'm a Senior Architectural and Civil Engineering major with a concentration in Digital Building. I started my education here at Drexel as an Architectural engineering major. The major driving force behind my reason to pursue this major was because I was always fascinated with buildings as a kid. I grew up wanting to be an architect, and then discovered architectural engineering. In the future, I hope to blend my passion for the environment and my background in engineering to help foster more conscious design of buildings.

Expectations
My expectations for this class is to learn about how different technologies such as BIM, sensors, and databases can be combined to design an intelligent building.

Evernote
https://www.wired.com/2015/03/plan-build-skyscraper-doesnt-cast-shadow/
The most interesting article that I found while looking through Evernote was one that described the design of a skyscraper that cast no shadow. The building was designed so that light reflecting onto the building would bounce off and diffuse onto the pavement below, creating a light filled patio space for pedestrians. I found this to be an interesting way to create a more inviting public space.

What is Intelligent Buildings? 
I believe the term "intelligent building" means a building that uses multiple different technologies to be environmentally friendly and more efficient. Efficiency can be in terms of cost and construction or post construction.

Common Topic Labels (Tags) for the Course

Below are topics that we'll address in the course.  This post creates them as labels.  

Please use these labels when creating your own posts to help people find topics that interest them.  You can add your own as well when creating a post.

TOPIC/Label/Tag

• 3D Printing
• AI
• BIM
• Building
• Civil
• Computer
• Database
• Design
• Electrical
• Environmental
• Future
• Hardware
• HVAC
• Intelligent Building
• Network
• Robotics
• Sensor
• Software
• Structures
• System
• Term Project