Shahin Vassigh

Leveraging Cyber-infrastructure to Transform Building Science Education

One of the most promising applications of computer technology has been in developing in educational games. Advances in technology and cyberspace capacity coupled with emerging research in science education are creating new opportunities to enhance architectural education in the science and technology areas and prepare students for effective collaboration with other stakeholders in the building industry. This paper presents a completed case study and shares research in an ongoing study that addresses the need for innovation and improvement in science and technology education. The authors propose that using advances in digital technology to engage students in interactive learning is a necessary step toward better buildings. Using new technologies to re-think the education of the architect in the relation to integrated practice reinforces the role of architecture in science, technology and mathematics.

Constraint driven model using correlation and collaborative filtering for sustainable building

Sustainable building has emerged as an important topic due to the fact that it can significantly reduce the impact of buildings and their operation on the natural environment and more efficiently utilize resources throughout a buildings life-cycle. When compared with a traditional buildingdesign process, integrated project delivery has proven to be more efficient, and is thus gaining wider acceptance for many sustainable building projects. However, managing design and construction from different disciplines is still challenging. Conflicts among constraints are often not identified at the right design stage, which results in multiple iterations of the design process. In this paper, a novel constrain-driven model that enhances design processes through better management of constraints and thus delivers optimal design solutions with higher energy performance is proposed. Multiple Correspondence Analysis was applied to capture the correlations between different items (parameter-value pairs) and classes (constraints). Meanwhile, it integrated Collaborative Filtering methods and Constraint Satisfaction Problem to train and refine the proposed model. Finally, we have applied our model to a synthetic data sets to demonstrate its performance.

Use of 3D Human-Computer Interaction for Teaching in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction Fields

In this paper, we outline the development of SKOPE VR, a system for immersive interaction within a 3-Dimensional Virtual Reality(VR) Environment designed to teach of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) students. The paper presents the potential capacity of immersive and interactive tools for teaching and will discuss the key challenges for creating 3-D environments with embedded interactivity. Then, the solution proposed in the SKOPE-VR system will be discussed in terms of its rationale and its development process. Finally, some of the advantages of using immersive technologies for teaching future AEC professionals will be discussed.

Complexity of Sustainable and Resilient Building Design and Urban Development

Given the sizable contribution of the building industry to greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing the capacity of the building industry to mitigate climate change is critical. Sustainable design and development strategies can lead to significant reductions in energy consumption as well as minimizing the carbon footprint of buildings. The following paper provides an overview of the complex issues, current design and development processes, and barriers in achieving goals of sustainable and resilient built environments.

Teaching Building Sciences in Immersive Environments: A Prototype Design, Implementation, and Assessment

ABSTRACT Immersive technologies are transforming all aspects of daily life. In educational context, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) offer the promise of experiential learning, where the real world is enhanced with information and graphics or is completely simulated. The project described in this paper, builds on advances of these technologies to develop, implement, and test “Skope,” a prototype immersive learning environment. Skope is designed to facilitate interdisciplinary education of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) students for design and construction of environmentally sustainable buildings. The Skope learning environment is comprised of an AR and a VR visualization tool as well as learning modules that contain interdisciplinary content. Skope is implemented and tested in three interdisciplinary AEC classes. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of student performance in these classes suggest that Skope has a positive impact and increased students’ motivation and understanding of building science principles, ultimately leading to an improvement of learning across domains. In addition, findings of this research indicate that using Skope improves students’ attitude toward collaborative learning.

The Changing Higher Education Research Environment: New Opportunities for Architectural Research

Higher education faces many challenges that are profoundly changing its funding, governance, values, and faculty roles. As universities seek to subsidize the loss of income from state and federal sources, their reliance on sponsored research and private funding is significantly intensifying. To access private sources of revenues, universities are rethinking their research practices, resource allocation, and their approach to hiring and supporting faculty. The following paper examines these challenges and how they may present new opportunities for a broader engagement of architecture faculty in academic research.

Integrating Building Information Modeling with Augmented Reality for Interdisciplinary Learning

Augmented Reality provides a way to enhance the classroom experience. In particular, student learning about building systems in the fields of Architecture, Civil, and Mechanical Engineering may improve, if visualization outside the classroom is provided. We propose that AR-SKOPE, an application that integrates Building Information Modelling and Augmented Reality may improve learning. This application allows students to visit specific buildings and investigate their various systems with supplementary information using a phone or tablet. We are currently testing our early prototype to conduct a semester-long study.

What Would Vitruvius Do? Re-thinking Architecture Education for the 21st Century University

In the 1996 AIA (American Institute of Architecture) Convention in Minneapolis, the governing bodies in the education and professionalization of architects in the US (namely, the American Institute of Architecture, American Institute of Architecture Students, National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, National Architecture Accrediting Board and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) released the Boyer Report, subsequently published as Building Community: A New Future for Architecture Education and Practice. The report was named in honor of Ernest Boyer, an educational theorist who also participated in writing the text. Less comprehensive than the canonical texts by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and his interlocutors, it is nonetheless a mirror of our current assumptions about the education of the architect. This paper looks at the epistemology inherited from Vitruvius as it shapes pedagogy up and through the Boyer Report and into the 21st century. Using a method of comparative analysis applied to past and current architecture programs, our argument is that historical divisions between professional or applied knowledge and liberal or theoretical knowledge inherited from the past limit our capacity within architecture education to integrate new strategies for knowledge creation and dissemination. It is concluded that any serious revision of architecture education means a systematic reconsideration of the basis of architecture knowledge. What of the (persistent) Vitruvian model is relevant in our post-modern condition? What do we learn from the image of our profession projected through the lens of the Boyer Report and it is like? In other words, what would Vitruvius do?

Hybrid Technologies for Interdisciplinary Education

Integrated applications using Augmented Reality (AR) and Building Information Modeling (BIM), enhanced by the capacity of handheld devices, are becoming prevalent in the building industry; however their use in learning environments has not been fully explored. Recent research shows that interaction with computer-based tools can enhance learning and collaboration skills. Augmented Reality–the ability to enhance real world observations with computer-generated information– is bringing new dimensions to learning. Combining AR with computer modeling applications and other simulation technologies promises to guide the next generation of computer-based learning environments. This paper describes a learning environment, Ecocon, designed by the integration of AR, BIM, visual simulations, and interactive lessons to support collaborative and interdisciplinary learning for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) fields. Building on theoretical perspectives and advances in the understanding of learning processes, cognition, and development, we describe the pedagogical principles for the design of a prototype tool to enhance AEC interdisciplinary education. The main features of the tool include: 1) using real-world or field contexts for delivering context-aware information and lessons, 2) enriching AR visualization with “intelligence,” so augmented information is responsive to a user’s location, and 3) providing data visualization to support learning.

Sustainable carbon neutral building design: new simulation tools for teaching green buildings

The Building Industry is one of the major consumers of energy. In the United States buildings use 48% of the total energy consumed, significantly impacting national energy demand and contributing to global warming. The vast majority of architectural practice in the U.S. leads to construction of buildings with little concern to sustainability contributing to environmental degradation. However, as the environmental impact of buildings become increasingly recognized, the role of architects and the initial decision making process which determines the resource use and life-cycle of materials, systems, and construction processes, becomes more critical. In order to advance sustainable development and make green building construction the standard rather than the anomaly, the education of the architects must be reconsidered. The traditional American architectural curriculum that is based on a schism between “design” and “technology” is inherently in conflict with the principal of sustainability. Recent research in building design indicates that the most resource efficient, best performing, and environmentally sustainable buildings are designed utilizing “integrated practice,” in which the various disciplines involved in building design work together at the conception of the project to improve overall building performance, reduce GHG’s, and lower the costs for operation and maintenance of buildings. Although large-scale reform of architectural curricula is a complex, ongoing, and difficult debate, producing teaching tools that can simulate integrated design can impact and promote a better understanding of sustainable practice in architecture.