B1 Group D Post

Topic: Future

HVAC

HVAC (heating, ventilation and air condition) is the technology of indoor and vehicular environmental comfort. Its main purposes is to help maintain good indoor air quality.

According to the study of Grenville K. Yuill and his colleagues, air leakage is generally the most significant factor in small-building energy assumption, and this problem will increase the cost of operation. Since buildings in the future should be sustainable, the cost must be eliminated.

Personally speaking, HVAC is very important to an intelligent building. Since the structure are fixed, once the building is constructed, there are limited ways to improve the building’s performance by changing the structure. Therefore, innovation of HVAC system is more feasible to make the building more “intelligent”. By improving the system, the interior environment could become better which will make people more comfortable. On the other hand, more efficient HVAC systems helps decrease energy consumption, and this will make the building more sustainable. Thus, future study about HVAC system is essential to intelligent buildings.

Sensor

At presents, sensors have been wildly applied in buildings. They are important tools for collecting data from the building. After integrating the data from the sensors, engineers are able to make better decision which could help increase efficiency in future constructions.

In real applications, researchers analyzed the sensor-integrated nailing for building construction. To complete the analysis, they conducted several tests on structures. After integrating the experimental data, they summarized that this technology can be applied to increase the productivity of construction.

In my opinion, applying sensors in and after construction is essential. Sensors are able to provide data which directly reflects building’s states, and this will help engineer better analysis what they are doing. In this case, they can always adjust their decision, so their work will become more efficient. On the other hand, after the building are constructed, the existing sensors in the building will continue provide data which reflects buildings’ situation. In terms of that, architects and engineers can use the data to improve their design for the future.

AI

AI, artificial intelligence is “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”. (McCarthy, 1995) When talking about AI, people often think about robots, driverless car and space ship. Also, because of Sci-Fi movies, many people will think about the war between human and robots. For civil engineering, current application of AI is more focusing on analysis. For example, engineers are able to use AI techniques to generate construction plans. As the development of AI techniques, it is now feasible for project planning because AI is able to handle the uncertainty involved in the content project plans. Also it can store and use knowledge which is important for detail construction operations. Finally, after all the analytic works are done, they are able to clear graphical results to users. Due to technological limitation, there are few AI robots which can help complete construction. However, as time goes by, human will definitely invent those robots.

A few days ago, I read the article “Superintelligence” by Nick Bostrom. In his paper, he mentioned the risk of AI. There is one sentence that really shocked me: “Superintelligence would be the last invention biological man would ever need to make, since, by definition, it would be much better at inventing than we are.” If what we invent are more intelligent than us, then human beings will be taken controlled by the “new species”. Therefore, like Elon Musk, the ECO of Tesla Motors said, we need to be careful with AI.

Database

Database is extremely important for construction. In the part of sensor, I illustrated how engineers used sensors to evaluate the building. Data is the response from the applied sensors. Without the data, engineer won’t be able to analyze anything. In addition, by using database, researchers are able to adjust current construction specifications. For example, some researchers collected data from low-rise steel frame. Then they generated the model and started analyzing. After all the works were done, they found that “inherent in the ASCE 7 Standard wind loads are inconsistencies with respect to risk that can be significantly reduced by using database-assisted design procedures”. (Jang, 2002)

In my opinion, using database in construction has become a common sense to engineers. By applying that, they are able to analyze their work and adjust the decision for the future.

Future

For the future construction of intelligent building, I think it is important to apply all the techniques above. HVAC system is one of the major part of a building, its innovation will significantly increase the level of intelligence. Sensors have been used in many high-tech buildings, they help both construction and maintenance, and they also provides data for future needs. As the development of AI, we can expect that robots help us build the entire building, since their works are accurate and efficient. Finally, everything that is relevant to analysis must rely on database. By using database, engineers are able to make better decision.

Comment:

Comment to Mark

I agree that AI's placing humans in the work force will become a problem. Since AI are more efficient than human, it requires much less work force to complete the same task. Therefore more people will become unemployed.

Comment to Derek

I like the concept of machine learning. By mining the current data, machine might be able to analyze something that we could never discovery. By using what the machine have found, engineers are able to make better decision.

Comment to Jonathan

I agree that current technology highly relies on database. The subtopics that our group have been assigned are all relevant to database. By using database, HVAC system are able to perform better. Also, sensors are generating data and integrating it into database. Finally, AI needs database to make its own judgement. 

Reference

Yuill, G.K., Rioux, J.A., and Flanders, S.N.. “Impact of Changes to Building Airtightness on HVAC Costs.” ASCE Library. <http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%291076-0431%281997%293%3A4%28164%29> (Jan 13, 2015)

Miller. M.L. and Bernold, L.E.. “Sensor-Integrated Nailing for Building Constrction.” ASCE Library. <http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9364%281991%29117%3A2%28213%29> (Jan 13, 2015)

Levitt, R.E., Kartam, N.A., Kunz, J.C.. “Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Generating Construction Project Plans.” ASCE Library. <http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9364%281988%29114%3A3%28329%29> (Jan 13, 2015)

Nick, B.. “Superinteligence.” Nick Bostrom’s Home Page. <http://www.nickbostrom.com/views/superintelligence.pdf> (Jan 13, 2015)

Jang, S., Lu, L., Sadek, F. and Simiu, E.. “Database-Assisted Wind Load Capacity Estimates for Low-Rise Steel Frames.” ASCE Library. <http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9445%282002%29128%3A12%281594%29> (Jan 13, 2015)