Guillermo F. Salazar

The Role of the 3D Parametric Building Model in the Future Education and Practice of Civil Engineering and Construction

This paper reviews the concept of the Three Dimensional Parametric Building Model (3DPBM) and examines its development and current use in both educational activities and professional practices within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry (AEC). Additionally, the paper assesses 3DPBM’s future role based on actual case studies and lessons learned so far. This study involves the experience of the authors accumulated over the last three years through ongoing research being conducted in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) as well as two construction projects in Massachusetts. Finally, the study stresses the importance of documenting and evaluating how students are integrating the 3DPBM knowledge into their professional practice and, therefore, changing the way Information Technology (IT) is being implemented by some major AEC firms.

The Effects of Construction Knowledge on the Automation of Preliminary Building Design

Guillermo F. Salazar, Assistant Professor Department of Civil Engineering and David C. Brown, Associate Professor Department of Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Research Group Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA. 01609 USA This paper presents an approach to providing an automated decision support system for Preliminary Building Design. It integrates knowledge from different domains, mainly from construction, using Knowledge Based Expert Systems methodology. Given the overall geometric parameters for the building, this approach explicitly incorporates construction knowledge about major building components such as Foundations and Structure, Mechanical and Electrical, Envelope and Roof, and Building Finishings into the early phases of the design decisionmaking process. An example of its use is presented in the preliminary design of a low-rise commercial building. It is implemented on a mainframe computer using the Design Specialist and Plans Language (DSPL) developed by one of the authors.