B7 – Course Reflection – Mark Bancroft

     After taking this course, I have learned a number of things about buildings and intelligent technologies in general.  Before this class, I was unaware of some of the developing technologies and processes in construction.  The videos and articles dealing with robots replacing construction workers was both interesting and a little concerning.  While robots will help the building industry by constructing hopefully more accurate buildings, the backlash from workers will be a major set back.  I had very little knowledge of databases or how they were constructed, but now I have a basic idea of how they work and what softwares are available to create one.  Being able to choose our own topic to research related to intelligent buildings was a good way to get a better understanding of what an intelligent building is by researching something that interested us.  I find that being told to do a research paper on a topic that is assigned can be boring and not very worthwhile.
     I think the biggest thing I have taken away from this class is the importance of learning BIM and other developing technologies.  It's important to stay currently with technologies when it comes to your profession as to not be left behind or replaced by someone who is up to date with the technologies.  It's pretty clear that BIM is going to become an industry standard, so learning the very basics of creating a model in Revit was very helpful.

Comments:
J Schwakoff: I definitely agree that having a class that was more concept based and not as heavily reliant on doing calculations was very refreshing.  

Hamad Al-Sulaiti: I also think that having guest speakers from the industry was very beneficial because it gave us some insight on what's going on in various sectors of the building industry

Pangyan Zhang: Before this class, I also did not quite know what an intelligent building was.  I had a vague idea, but no clear understanding.  After this class, I think I have a clearer understanding of intelligent buildings, but am by no means an expert on the subject.