Monday, March 9, 2020

Reflection

I enjoyed the concepts taught in this class a lot. I took this class because although I am majoring in electrical engineering many of the coops I interviewed with, and the company I am going to work for, Ballinger, do architectural engineering consulting. I wanted to get Revit experience and more familiar with the industry. This class definitely provided that information.
As for Revit's experience goes, I had none before this class. I had used Autocad and similar programs and had heard of Revit but never used it. At Ballinger, I will be looking using Revit to plan the Electrical systems in a building.  Whereas we did nothing like that in this class I am more confident in being able to learn what they need me to know in Revit now that I am familiar with it. I do wish instead of writing a paper for the final project I had decided to do something with Revit, but I did not feel comfortable enough early in the class to take on a bigger project than I could handle.
 One aspect I really enjoyed about this class was the availability of good research articles. I enjoyed reading about the industry and not just one article that everyone had to read but instead I was able to read the articles that I found interesting. Many of the articles I read were about robotics and their relationship with construction and that was something I am interested in. Because of the number of articles in Evernote, I was able to decide my final project topic and easily found sources to use.
The database section of this course seemed long and less specific for intelligent buildings. I definitely learned more about databases and understand how they are useful in designs but I think some of the time could have been used for other topics related to intelligent buildings. I was expecting more architecture incorporated into the class, for example, looking at real designs, sensors, future innovations of intelligent buildings or looking at certain LEED certifications and how intelligent buildings often end up being more efficient and greener.  Again, I definitely learned more about databases but we spent several weeks on it.
Overall, I enjoyed the class. All the guest speakers had good insight and were good public speakers. All the assignments were clear and informative.

I think your point is interesting about how the industry is always changing because it definitely is but we also talked about what is slowing the industry from evolving. Since many niches of the industry are opposed to change the full potential of designs arent always being reached. I think it is important to be on the right side of that push for change.
https://ae-410-510-ay19-20.blogspot.com/2020/03/reflection_8.html


Isabel,
I also struggled the most with the Access assignment but also felt that I was getting the least out of that assignment because it seemed less relevant to intelligent buildings. I am not saying databases are not necessary,  I get how they are applicable to the industry but I think some of that time could have been focused on other aspects of architecture.
https://ae-410-510-ay19-20.blogspot.com/2020/03/b6-course-reflection_7.html

Michael,
You're definitely right that the professor did a great job covering a large amount of material in the quarter. I think regularly asking for feedback is very important for professors to do. Course evaluations are okay but the real-time feedback gives better results since I know when I do course evaluations I can't always remember which parts of the class are good and bad.
https://ae-410-510-ay19-20.blogspot.com/2020/03/course-reflection.html

5 comments:

Madeleine Walker-Elders said...

Jake,

I agree that the database section of this course felt more abstractly related to intelligent buildings than perhaps the other sections did. I think that if there had been more time in the course, or maybe even if the database project was altered slightly, we'd be able to get more of a grasp of HOW databases are used in order to design or operate an intelligent building, and maybe focus less on what databases can do.

Reece Masucci said...

Jake,

Your comment on our multiple guest speakers and how they were able to give us insight about the topics learned in this course used in the real world resonated with me. I think it is always nice to have students talk to Drexel graduates, as that will be us in just a few years. Also, I too believe the incorporation of architecture to the topics of this course could have been beneficial as well. Nice post!

Reece

Dane Bell said...

Madeleine,
I agree with you when you say that you feel behind because I had also never learned about the topics covered in this class. Another thing is that I have close to no affiliation with building systems, this topic came up in my senior design in which I should have implemented more systems. It’s sufficient to say that I almost never think about the architectural side of engineering which appears to be the opposite problem that you have.

Varsha Ajith said...

Jake,

Evernote was an absolutely helpful and a unique addition to the coursework, and I completely agree with you on that having the freedom to research any article we liked made this course much more enjoyable. I think that since this course is pretty general, a lot of students came into it with different expectations and took away vastly different skills and ideas. In that way, I think this will be one of my most enjoyable and informative classes I will take at Drexel.

Brian Huynh said...

Hi Jake,

It is interesting that you are going to work with Revit to design electrical systems. That is what I worked on at my last co-op. I think what we learned in this class about Revit will give you a great foundation for your future job. Although Revit can be a daunting program, it becomes very intuitive after you use it for a while. I am positive you will be able to adopt it easily.