AE-390 Fall 2010

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

A7 Grader’s Comments

1. Teams across both classes did not do much better on Assignment 7 than previous assignments, however, there is a sense that students know what key issues to identify and figures to check and are able to offer alternatives, given a scenario.

2. Justification of systems choices was often lacking in detail, although the detailing of the numbers and characteristics of the systems was often done well.

3. Many teams forgot to consider parking, vehicular circulation and the movement of materials.

4. Access points and egress points were often left out of the architectural analysis.

5. Some teams did brilliantly annotating diagrams and explaining them, while others just included a series of images of the various given sheets, which were often illegible and did not clarify much.

6. System Interactions was a section on which many teams could have expanded.

7. The different sections were put together and presented more uniformly than previous assignments.

8. Most teams still have a problem with citing images properly and forget to do so often.

9. Most teams attempted the extra credit section in Professor Mitchell’s section.

10. All of the students attempted the extra credit in Professor DaSaro’s section.

11. Some teams STILL forget to include their website identification information (names, dates, group number, assignment number, etc).

12. Overall there was a greater balance between text and graphics.

13. A few teams had blank pages (no information on them!). The grader opened the websites in three different web browsers in an attempt to locate the hidden information. In some instances, just the questions were provided, with no answers, or prompts from one student to the team member who was supposed to complete the section. Team-co-ordination ultimately suffered in a week where several other assignments were due.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Load Calcs Required?

Question

“I noticed in previous terms that students performed HVAC load calcs for Assignment 7. Do I have to do this even though heating and cooling loads are called in the BOD?”

Response

Performing load calcs is not required, but it would definitely be nice to check whether you believe the numbers given make sense.  An eQuest model is a nice way to run this kind of check.

Jim Mitchell

Monday, November 29, 2010

ISB Building Photos by Adams Rackes

Adams provided me the following link his photos of the ISB.  Feel free to use them for your websites, but give him credit.

Google Picasa ISB Images.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Grade Calc Updated (again 11/27/2010)

I updated the Calculated Grade to include A6 when the grades were uploaded in the early evening.

Jim Mitchell

A6 Grader’s Comments

1. Teams across both classes did not much better on Assignment 6 than they did on Assignment 5.

2. The different sections were put together and presented more uniformly than was done for Assignment 5.

3. Most teams still have a problem with citing images properly and forget to do so often.

4. Many teams did not consider the appropriateness of the relevant HVAC systems with regard to their given building type.

5. Most teams could have explained the logic of their matrix in more detail.

6. Some teams would have done better to address issues like –

a. Does the owner need to see all the engineer rankings? Could it create a bias?

b. Would it be feasible to let the owner choose the maximum setting for all criteria?

c. How would a criteria matrix handle worst-case scenarios of an overzealous or an indifferent owner.

7. Many teams did not address the questions asked for the Energy Analysis section and rarely commented substantially on how the analysis could be used to help with decision process or aid with the accuracy of the criteria matrix.

8. Most teams attempted the extra credit section in Professor Mitchell’s section.

9. All of the students attempted the extra credit in Professor DaSaro’s section.

10. Some teams STILL forget to include their website identification information (names, dates, group number, assignment number, etc).

11. Overall there was a greater balance between text and graphics.

Calculated Grade Update

The VistaBB grade calculation column has been updated.  It’s now based on:

  • A1 – A5
  • A2-A6 Teamwork

Jim Mitchell

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Plagiarism Instance

I’m sorry to report that there was an instance of clear plagiarism on the assignment A5.  The individual received a zero for the assignment and was reported to the judicial affairs board.  The teammates received a 5% penalty for not being aware of their teammate’s work (it could be much more severe than that in industry).

Please be very careful to put quotation marks around other people’s words and to cite the source of a quotation (or paraphrase) very near the instance.  Putting a general page of references at the end is not sufficient.