Benjamin Douglass

Reflection

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due, in the first place, to Dr. Boothby and Dr. Lepage of the Architectural Engineering department for answering my many questions and helping me out of many perceived dead ends. Thanks are also due to Cynthia Milinichik, my peer, who obtained the first set of plans and gave them to me when I hadn’t obtained a building of my own, to John Logue of Hensel-Phelps Construction, the construction manager of the Towers Crescent Building F project, who provided me with updated plans and with useful information about the project, and to Joe Uchno of SK&A Consulting Structural Engineers, the structural engineer who answered a large number of my questions about the design.

AE 481W/482 Course Reflection

The Senior Thesis project helped me to develop the skills which I will need as a design professional. First, it required me to go ad fontes and develop familiarity with the actual building codes and design specifications, the legal documents to whose provisions I will be held responsible as an engineer. It was not enough to rely on my textbooks. Next, this project gave me the opportunity to develop competency in structural modeling in ETABS. I learned especially to appreciate the value of simplification in building workable models. Moreover, my experiences with 2-dimensional modeling in the fall semester and 3-dimensional modeling in the spring semester gave me an appreciation for the time-saving potential of 3-dimensional techniques. The skills I developed in this area will be extremely valuable as I enter the design industry. Third, Senior Thesis provided me with my first in-depth experience with post-tensioned design, a system which I will encounter frequently in my career in the Washington, D.C. area. This required me to learn RAM Concept and develop a conceptual understanding of the post-tensioned design process. Next, Senior Thesis required me to draw on wide areas of the knowledge I have gained over the past 5 years. I was glad to be able to integrate some of the techniques, which previously I have only applied to small problems, into a larger project. Finally, this project provided me with an important lesson in the value of time management.

CPEP Reflection

The website has been helpful in organizing the materials which I have produced over the course of the past year. It has also given potential employers an easy means of reviewing examples of my technical work, which has been helpful during interviews.

The discussion boards were a valuable resource to have on hand during the course of this project. The responses of the design professionals were always clear, to the point, and highly informative.