Journal #27: Independent Study Final Thoughts

Gonna put in a couple more entries here and then I don't know what this site will turn into. Probably not as many updates, but still the same earth shaking write ups.

I thought I'd write up some thoughts on my independent study, since I feel like this semester I took four of the most unique and differently structured classes I've ever had. This one, though, really let me feel like I put together a lot of the skills I had developed here at CMU to structure and summarize this study.

Our advisors (mostly Burcu A, somewhat Larry C) want to continue to implement this independent study that myself, Joe N, and Greg G designed for the Design and Construction course. This means that they asked ways that we would change the study for next year.

Immediately, I thought of the constant battle with the students in turning in their timecards. The timecards that we designed allowed us to collect the hours students worked with detailed descriptions weekly. Getting students to turn these in turned out to be a serious problem, and I'm sure much data was lost because students would end up turning them in 3 weeks later in some cases. A couple of whole weeks of data were lost at the end because we had to compile and finish our report.

I also wish I would've researched more management methods, as I feel the scope of the study could definitely be broadened. Hopefully next year the students could immediately use what we've researched so they can find new things to apply. And maybe they will have more help to do it. Maybe something with 4-D or 5-D models (time and money are the other dimenstions)? Hopefully the next students are good with CAD.

Also, I wish I had known more about the laser scanning and its applications. As far as I am aware (I wasn't the one in charge of researching and writing up that part of the report) the laser scanning is a tool in finding discrepancies in designed vs. as built (CAD models vs. scanned data), and can anticipate problems in needed materials. For example, we were short on concrete for the first pour, and Burcu explained to us that the laser scan model could have told us exactly how much concrete was necessary.

Either way, I'm anxious to hear Burcu and Larry's comments. I'll finish up the rest of my entries soon.