A2b–Database–Grading Comments

Overall Comment

This assignment went quite well overall, with most of you understanding and appreciating the purpose.  Below I’ve addressed several issues that came up repeatedly

Planning

• Many of you realized the value of what Dr. Song emphasized, the importance of planning your database design in advance.  It’s just like a building – adding an elevator after the fact is MUCH harder than in the design stage.

Using Record ID Fields

• In my comments I referred a number of you to a post I thought I’d made (but now cannot find) about common problems with the first database assignment.  This had to do with the frustration that Access automatically assigns a number to a field that is identified as a “primary key”.  Using a primary key value for a particular record can thus be a problem if you delete it and think you’re recreating it – there’s a new primary key number which is NOT what you had before.  The trick is to not delete and recreate the same record OR do not use primary keys in “drop downs”, but instead use a descriptive field.

How To Enter Records Without Having to Look Up their key field.

• Access provides a method, one of number of “controls”, to produce a dropdown box in a form.  You can then see the value of a descriptive field in the dropdown menu, but Access actually puts the value of its primary key in the field.
• One or two of you experimented with this successfully.

Other Databases

• As I’d hoped, a number of you claimed to be quite interested in using Access further.  You should be aware that “serious” database people tend to sneer at Access (unjustly I’d say).  The fundamental problem is that large databases need to be used by many people simultaneously.  Access is not good at this.  If that’s what you need then you’re into the world of either a web-based database (probably PHP and SQL)  or a commercial product like those from Oracle.  These get more complex than Access quite quickly.
• Several saving graces are:
• the principles you’ve learned using Access still apply
• The SQL language that underlies Access is used throughout the relational database world.
• You can actually connect to large SQL databases using Access.

Term Project Comments

Overall Opinion

With some happy exceptions your work in these term projects did not represent the best of what I think the class is capable. In too many there were a variety of structural problems or a lack of focus on an “intelligent building” issue in any depth.  There was one unfortunate instance of plagiarism and several in which what was submitted bore only a tangential relationship to the topics of the course.  Below are my comments that address some of these issues.

Good

There were several papers that II read with great pleasure because the authors had either addressed the topic of which I was ignorant and related it clearly to the intelligent building concepts, or had taken some aspect of the intelligent building concepts and considered it in detail adding their own experience or projections.

Sad

Too many of you produced reports that had long introductions that outweighed the major substance up the topic. Others put together a number of different topics but in no greater depth than we had considered in class and without any significant additions.

Report Structure

One of the greatest disappointments was that many of you don't seem to fully grasp the ingredients of a good technical paper. Besides the obvious need to use appropriate language and to include citations for any assertions or quotations used there is a fundamental structure that is commonly expected. That structure is, to oversimplify for the sake of exposition:

• Introduction – Usually states the main idea of the paper to prepare the reader for what follows – 10% of length
• Main Body – Background, discussion of the elements of the main idea, description of how the main elements interact, consideration of difficulties with the main idea and possibly future work. – 80% of length
• Conclusion – Restatement of main idea and how it has been “proven” in the main body – 10% of length.

Intelligence and Green

A number of you addressed the topic of Intelligence vs. Green in one form or another.  I would argue that these two concepts are not inherently similar, although intelligence can often be used in service of developing a green building.  As I said to one group (edited):

You have written a paper which certainly meets the expectations of the assignment. What follows is an opinion that I hope you will consider as you move forward.

I would argue that by accepting the definitions of intelligence and green that you use in this paper you have automatically produced more of an overlap than is necessary. In particular there is no inherent reason why intelligence has to be used to produce environmentally friendly results. It can equally well be used to produce drama or luxury or general excess as opposed to environmentally friendly and indeed is used that way today. In that sense it's rather like the computer, a tool that can be used for multiple purposes ranging from enhancing a green lifestyle to killing people using autonomous drones.

Groups for Week-10 Presentations

Here are the groups for the presentations in Week-10. 

I suspect that some project titles will have changed so don’t be worried if that’s the case.  I attempted to put teams with related topics together, but had to balance that with roughly equal numbers.

Group	Projects
M	#1 - integration of Revit and a structural analysis program - Krall #10 - Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis - EPA SWMM Comparison - Alvarado Bastidas #7 - BIM Model of Elementary School of the Future - Houde #8 - Revit project - Wang, Li
N	#13 - Green vs. Intelligent Buildings - Mantua SD - Butler, Haddad, Ng #15 - Green Roofs - Bregande #16 - Green Roofs - Vazquez #2 - Intelligent and/or Green - Carpenter, Gulbenkian
O	#14 - Robotics in Construction - Hindes #3 - Robotics in Construction - Gonzalez, Cifligu, Gonzalez #5 - socio economic impact of the future use of robotics in construction - Meraz
P	#11 - sensor databases in a Building Management System - James #4 - sensors as a progressive way of building interaction with its surroundings  - Lancellotti, Martines, Pauliushchyk #6 - How do sensors availability can affect energy consumption in HVAC systems in buildings? - Ben-David, Morrison
Q	#12 - Equipment for energy efficiency of residences - Barry, Patel, Sawin #18 - Tedesco #9 - Philadelphia Row Home Efficiency Renovations (Green Vs. Intelligent) – Scanlon

Each team should bring paper copies of their presentation in sufficient quantity so that each person in your group can have a copy to follow along.  I suggest printing them out four slides to a page to save paper.

The plan in class is the following:

1. Each group will present to each other – using either a laptop you bring or the paper copies
2. Each group will choose one project to present to the entire class, with the other group members being prepared to explain why it was selected.
3. The selected Team will present to the entire class using their PowerPoint – 8 minutes max
4. The class will vote for extra credit for the “best” project in the following categories
   1. Most intriguing presentation
   2. Most technically competent
   3. Best use of “intelligent” technology

Final Database Assignment - Variety

Question:

The grading criteria for the final database assignment says we must address at least two building systems with comments on similarities and differences between them. My database is currently of all the green buildings in Philadelphia, with keys to the manufacturers and architects. I am a bit confused on what this requirement is asking for and how to incorporate it into my database, could you please clarify?

Response

Anyone in a similar situation should interpret this requirement as requiring variety in the entries in their database.  In this case that might mean both institutional, commercial, industrial building types.

FYI – the grading criteria stem from when I required sensor types.  I hadn’t thought through this issue.

Sensors Blog–Grading Comments

This week was a particularly successful one.  You covered a wide range of sensors and addressed the physical principles behind most of them quite well. What follows are some specific comments:

• A few of you recognized explicitly that what is actually measured in most cases is NOT the variable of interest, instead it typically an effect of that variable that lends itself to measurement – typically electrical, but not always.
• One aspect that almost no one addressed was the response time of the various sensors.  Some of them (e.g. many humidity sensors) can take many seconds or even minutes to generate a reading, whereas other can have response times of milliseconds or even less.
• Accuracy and repeatability were important aspects that appeared in a few of your posts, as was the longevity.  Associated with longevity is the idea of sensor “drift” over time, requiring recalibration of instruments that must be precise.

Term Project Drafts–Comments

I’ve just completed reading the drafts of the term projects/papers that you submitted.  There was a great range of length from two who turned in nothing to a lengthy document with full citations in many areas.  Some were still outlines in format and others were nearly finished documents.  As such there is nothing to say that applies to everyone.  Here are some comments that apply to at least several of the projects.

Numbers

Engineers love numbers because they quantify and make it easy to compare things as well as judge capacity, cost, consistency, strength etc.  Far too many of you left your numbers on the computer and not in what you wrote.  An engineering topic deserves engineering support.

Citations

If you make an assertion that something is true that isn’t common sense or textbook material in a required course then you’re expected to cite the source so the reader can check it for themselves and make their own judgment of its validity.  Too many of you ignored this requirement.

Overly Long Introductions

A number of you wrote long introductions that were out of proportion to the main topic of the paper, several times causing truncation of the most important part.  Watch for balance in the paper.  I’d argue the introduction should be no more than 10-20% of the total.

Cohesiveness

Several of the papers were clearly composed by group members who hadn’t agreed on an effective division of labor.  The papers read as though they were by different authors on different topics.  The paper should read like the work of one person pursing a logic progression through their material.

Week-6 Blog Posts–Grading Comments

The level of posts this week was high, making them generally a pleasure to read.  Thanks.  Here are some specific comments.

• Object Oriented Databases (OODBS) was the toughest category this week.  Wkipedia has a pretty good description of them.  What makes them unique and important is probably best understood in the section of that article headed ODBMS Characteristics and also in the section Comparison with RDBMSs
• Several of you came ups with interesting applications of DBs including one for integrating Geotech data from multiple firms (this should sound quite similar to COBie)
• Several of you forgot to turn in the URL to BbLearn.  I found them and gave only a 5-point deduction, but make no promises to do so in future.
• Many of you only cited one other student’s work.  I was lenient this week because of the generally high quality, but will not be so lenient in future.

B4–Blog Posts on Term Projects

I was very impressed with the quality overall of this week’s blog posts.  In many cases I learned more about your term projects from the posts than I did from reading the outlines.

Intelligent Building Definition

A number of you commented on the confusing array of definitions of an “Intelligent Building” in the literature and industry more generally.  While I have no problem with your disputing what follows I suggest that you consider how I defined it during the first week of class.

¨Intelligence requires the use of adaptive computer technology.

¨“Intelligence” may exist in any system or phase of the building process.

¨We may thus talk of

• Intelligent Building Industry
• Intelligent Building Design
• Intelligent Building Construction (including renovation)
• Intelligent Building Operation
• We may also subdivide by systems – structure, HVAC etc.”

 

Sensors

A number of you are working with sensors in one manner or another. 

• I suggest, as I did in class, that it’s important to distinguish between the sensors and the software/hardware that makes use of the sensor data. 
• It is particularly useful to understand what the sensor is actually measuring (e.g. change in resistance for a strain gauge) to understand its properties and limitations.

 

Sources

Even when describing your term projects there are almost certainly outside sources that you have (or will) investigated that are relevant to your project.  It’s important to identify them.

A1 Grading–Revit–Comments

Here are my comments on the Revit assignment, A1.

• Overall people did a good job. 
• Some were cautious and only undertook the “novice” assignment even though they’ve worked on the same assignment before.  I’d say they didn’t get the full benefit of the effort.
• A number were quite short and sloppy in the writing - a

 

Difference between Revit and AutoCad

I commented to several students undertaking the “novice” version of the assignment:

I'm not sure that you fully understand the difference between Autocad. a drafting program that fundamentally just makes lines, and Revit, a program that truly models the building as an object that has properties that one can work with (e.g. engineering analysis, schedules, etc).

OR

It's not clear to me that you comprehend how fundamentally different the two programs are.  Revit creates a model that can stand in for the real building in simulations.  Autocad is just a creator of drawings, with no "knowledge" of the object it's creating.

Creating the Bookcase Family

• Many of you appropriately noted the differences in the tutorial instructions from today’s reality.  Authodesk should have done better.
• Understanding the importance of the reference planes (they’re normally used for defining dimension parameters) was a key learning issue for most of you.

P2 - Project Outlines–Grading Comments

I was glad to see that most of you have put serious thought into your projects.  What follows are some comments that I made to individuals that may be relevant to many of you.

Research and Citations

Almost all of your projects are ones that others have attempted/addressed in some manner.  Be sure to perform a reasonable literature search so that you can cite their experience and then compare it to your own.  I suggest that you use, as a minimum:

• Google Search – the obvious starting point for most people
• Google Scholar – it searches the scholarly literature, including patents

 

BIM Projects for Senior Design

Several of you are undertaking projects that enhance your senior design project.  It’s extremely important to be clear how what you’re doing goes beyond what you would have done for Senior Design normally.  By doing so you will be able to compare the results of using these techniques to what you would have achieved without them.

I’d note that these days AE students are using Revit by default in Senior Design.  It’s no longer sufficient to compare a Revit model to what you would have produced with a 2D Autocad or similar program.

 

INTELLIGENT vs. GREEN

Comparing Intelligent Buildings to Green buildings is worthwhile.  It’s important, though, to be sure that you fully explain what you mean by “intelligent” and how it’s used.  One of the best, but not required, ways is to focus on a particular building example and perform the necessary calculations/simulations in order to have meaningful results.

 

BEWARE VAGUE GENERALITIES

As I said in class, I’m looking for projects that use the engineering tools that you’ve learned in your university education.  If the document could equally well have been written by a high school senior after reading a Wikipedia article it won’t do well.  This means thinking critically about the components, operating criteria, realistic costs, boundary conditions, energy requirements etc.

Often a good way to ensure you’ve worked at the necessary level is to apply your general thesis to a particular example, performing necessary calculations and simulations to draw conclusions.

Week-3 Blog Grading Comments

Reading your posts this week was enjoyable and informative.  Almost all of you were thoughtful and appropriately incorporated (and learned from, I believe) the work of your classmates.

As might be expected there were several themes that stood out to this reader:

• The issue of interoperability is clearly one that is far from solved – and is important
• The interaction between all the stakeholders in the building process is increasing and coming earlier in the design process thanks to the tool.
• Question:  Are there stakeholders not yet regularly included?  Code Officials; Users; Maintenance People; Tenants; Fire Safety; Insurance?
• The use of BIM is now concentrated in the design and construction phase, but will probably have major benefits throughout the life of a building.
• Cost, capitalization, investment and other financial measures are extremely important.
• Legal issues haven’t yet become prominent, but may well in future.
• There was only one indirect comment on the age of this edition of BIM Handbook.  Six years is a long time in the BIM world.  Some of what was appropriate in 2007 is no longer true in 2013.

 

Grading Mechanics

• Three of you still did not submit to BbLearn and thus lost 5 points this time (I searched them out despite my threat not to do so).
• Don’t forget to cite your sources, including the assigned book.
• A few people were either rushed or careless and lost points on grammar and/or length.

Commenting on Other People’s Blog Posts

Question

“Do you want us to comment in our own about someone's else or as an actual comment on theirs?
I'm a little concern because yesterday when I did my blog at night only 3 people had submitted a post and non where of my group.
Please if you could clear this I would appreciate it.”

 

Response

What matters is that I have some evidence that you’ve looked at other people’s posts and thought about what they said.  Any of the following would do:

• Incorporate comments in your own blog – e.g. does someone else’s complement or contradict what you say.
• Add comments on their posts.  If you do this please say that you’ve done so in what you submit to BbLearn and include the URL of those posts.
• Come back to the blog nearer class time and write another post of your own commenting on what you’ve read of other’s work.  Be sure to add this URL to your BbLearn submission if you do so.