B7 - Course Reflection_Voznyak

Participation in the Intelligent Buildings course opened up a new perspective on the potential of building automation technologies in the design, consulting, and  industry. Although many of the technologies are still emerging they are slowly becoming more available and used despite much of the backwards thinking in the construction industry. One of the most interesting things that stuck with me was the use of GPS drones to create orthographic site views that include topographic change. I can foresee this use to become more common in the future as surveyors can quickly map out vast regions that will be built. As well, companies such as Google can use GPS drones to update their large database of satellite imagery to be vastly more accurate. Additionally, learning to create databases in Microsoft Access showed me how easily a large and interconnected database can be created for a multitude of operations. Meanwhile, exploring the Building Information Modeling tool, Autodesk Revit taught me the potential of using automated drafting tools to help represent and analyze my models.

Although, I can not foresee myself using any specific knowledge from this course in my career as a Naval Surface Warfare Officer, I certainly will continue to see the use of more automation within the world's most technologically equipped fighting force. As I do plan to hopefully laterally transfer to the Navy's Civil Engineer Corp, Seabee Battalion, within at least 2 years, there is a potential that I will be directly involved in the acquisition of equipment and requesting of contractors to use certain materials and methods during construction projects. Seeing the incredible potential of robots, automation technology, Building Information Modeling, and databases, I will strive to employ the techniques in economically feasible situations.

It has also been my dream this last year to open up my own design-build firm one day. The company would "flip" and builds custom homes. I can foresee myself and the company employing BIM tools such as Revit that can create and easily display Architectural models to the client. Rendered models and walk-throughs would be highly beneficial to help the designer display their ideas and for the customer to be able to provide feedback.