Greg Kemerer

AE 481W/482 Course Reflection

AE 481 was a big help in getting started on the real bulk of the thesis work done in the spring. While the assignments were a bit tedious, they really forced you to take a closer look at the mechanical and structural systems of your building (if you hadn't already done so). The spring semester more than made up for the lack of academic freedom from the fall semester. I really enjoyed the opportunity to seek out and focus on issues that I didscovered and that I found interesting. That was my favorite part about the thesis experience - being able to look into topics that I personally found. It was also nice to complete analyses on an actual building in construction, similar to analyses that will be done after graduation. While the spring semester was a challenge for me both in and out of school, I still found time to get the bulk of the work done. My advice to 4th year AEs is to not underestimate the amount of time it takes to go from mostly completed analyses to ones that are polished and ready to be presented.

CPEP & Discussion Board Reflection

I initially found the CPEP website a challenge to work with, but after the initial learning curve I now see that it was actually very convenient to edit. It was definitely nice to have a personalized and centralized website to house my reports.

The discussion board is a great resource to get pointed feedback from industry members. While I did not personally make much use of it, it is definitely a way to make new contacts and get quick feedback without having an extensive list of direct contacts.