An Example of Green/Intelligent Tools in Use

Liam Hendricken, an AE graduate and now PhD student at Drexel, sent me the following link to the results of a competition in which simulation and analysis of designs was critical in the judging.  I’d expect that you’ll see more and more of this kind of evaluation of designs in future, with the analysis made possible by increasingly capable BIM software.

Design Optimisation Competition

The purpose of the Design Optimisation Competition was to promote awareness of a new breed of optimisation tools which can help with decision making at any stage of the design process. These tools provide powerful techniques for identifying optimal designs that meet potentially conflicting design requirements such as minimising environmental impact while also minimising development costs and at the same time satisfying constraints such as providing minimum levels of occupant comfort and daylighting.

The competition is organsed by the ADOPT research group:

More details on the competition, how it was organised, the rules etc can be found further down the page, but first here are the results.

Huw Roberts’ Presentation

Mr. Roberts sent me the link below to his presentation.

Click below to view this presentation:

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https://www.slideshark.com/Landing.aspx?pi=zGgzu7DwDz85Ksz0&re=1&r=aHV3LnJvYmVydHNAYmVudGxleS5jb20=&intk=562381874

3D Manufacturing + Robotics

Here’s an article from Kurzweilai.net that describes a new patent from iRobot to combine 3D manufacturing and robotics.

Huw Robert–Speaker 1/29/2013

Our speaker tonight, Mr. Huw Roberts, has been involved in all aspects of the built environment for many years.  In fact he and I worked together for a short time in my pre-Drexel life.

Here’s what his Linked-In Bio says:

Currently Bentley’s VP Marketing for our ‘Core’ products and offerings which span the markets we serve. Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Bentley’s mission is to empower its users to leverage information modeling through integrated projects for high-performing intelligent infrastructure. Founded in 1984, Bentley has grown to 3,000 colleagues in 50 countries and over $520 million in annual revenues.

My responsibilities include the marketing of Bentley's flagship MicroStation information modeling environment and ProjectWise family of servers and services for collaboration and work sharing - as well as Bentley Navigator for dynamic feedback and review - our world leading Structural design, analysis & documentation product families, including RAM, STAAD, AutoPIPE, ProStructures, & SACS - products and services for Building Design, Construction and Operations, including our new AECOsim family of products, and our unrivaled SELECT subscription programs.

AI–Long Range Possibilities

For those interested in the longer range issues of Artificial Intelligence you’ll find there are greatly different views held by knowledgeable observers.  At one pole is Ray Kurzweil, recently hired by Google as it’s new “Director of Engineering.”   He believes in the “singularity” and in infinite life for humans.  He has a long history of producing extraordinary devices.

Here’s a short excerpt from an article from  about those who have doubts about Kurzweil’s vision.

“After writing about Ray Kurzweil’s ambitious plan to create a super-intelligent personal assistant in his new job at Google (see “Ray Kurzweil Plans to Create a Mind at Google—and Have it Serve You”), I sent a note to Boris Katz, a researcher in MIT’s Computer Scientist and Artificial Intelligence Lab who’s spent decades trying to give machines the ability to parse the information conveyed through language, to ask him what he makes of the endeavor.

Here’s what Katz has to say about Kurzweil’s new project:

“I certainly agree with Ray that understanding intelligence is a very important project, but I don’t believe that at this point we know enough about how the brain works to be able to build the kind of understanding he says he is interested in into a product.”

Useful BIM Sources

Here are several resources that may be useful when thinking about BIM.  I’d note that the major vendors (Autodesk, Bentley, Graphisoft and others) all host active discussion forums and also extensive resources about their software.

AIA Technology in Architectural Practice Knowledge Community

• They sponsor events and webinars and publish documents.

AECbytes Newsletter

• A one-person newsletter by a Lachmi Khemlani.  She has “a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling.”  I’ve found her articles to be thoughtful and detailed.  Some are available without pay on her site.

Cadalyst – Magazine

• They tend to have broader coverage than AECbytes, ranging in quality, but pretty worthwhile overall from my (spotty) experience.

Green and Intelligent Building

Here’s an article about a building in which the desigers attempt to renovate using both green and intelligent technology.  It might provide some leads for those of you working on this topic for your term project.

“Fraunhofer’s new Boston headquarters will be a deep energy retrofit able to measure the performance of the latest building technologies.

“A 100-year-old building will soon become a proving ground for cutting-edge building technologies.”