Home Lockdown Update

So here I am, at home, keeping out of everyone's way. The University is closed, so no travelling back and forward on crowed trains, plus I am saving a shed load of cash, no mid-morning breaks, two or three trips to the coffee machine and that odd chocolate bar mid-afternoon.

But I have never been so busy at home, first, the University may be closed, but only for face to face teaching, we have moved to the cloud and that means holding lectures online, getting students onto the preferred sharing platform, ie Microsofts Teams, and to a very small extent Zoom, plus whats app, text and mobile.

Next, it's the slides I use, most are great for general lecturing but needed to be updated to account for presenting online, so a lot of lecturer notes and individual video's for each slide, plus a complete video of the lecture. I am also sending out mini-blogs organising the lectures and in my case organising the linked lectures related to my module IDD or Integrated Digital Design.

I am also quite busy updating mt slides, I intend to retire at the end of this semester, and want to hand over to my successor a well-formulated and complete module. so lots of thinking, and updating to be done.

Next comes the usual University group meets, Teams is incredible for this, do you notice I have not mentioned Skype, it does not come close to the services Teams offers, and the ease of use.  OK there is a learning curve, but the more you use it, the more you learn and use. The Uni team meets are essential as we venture into this new way of teaching, and the group meets are essential for sharing experiences and lecture methods.

Students are also demanding, and time has to be put aside for one to one meets to help them understand or use the lectures in their module and course work. so I am booking time slots for over 200 students all within the built environment. Then there are research students, who just by there very nature, need a lot of conversations to discuss a paper or theory of a new paper.

Its a long day in front of a screen, and although its once working from home it's also tiring. I spent a long portion of my career, working from home being a tech guy for Dow and I should know how it works, but this is so different.

I am also reviewing my web site Scays.co.uk and updating the layout a little, plus writing notes for up and coming papers, oh and walking my dog Barley. and it's here where I can indulge in my love of blogs. I listen to about a dozen different producers, on a range of topics and walking Barley is my blog time. I have also begun buying my books as Audible files, yes I still order the paper version, but so often I am taking offers to get the Audible file, it's part of my dog walking experience now.

But walking and listening, does not allow the making notes, so I get back and try to make notes, not easy and certainly not the best way, but it makes me rethink a little. Plus I have made Sunday afternoon a time to reflect on these badly written notes and try to correct and update. Kindle does have a great way to highlight a passage and retrieve that text, Audible has a clip feature that I have found so intent to test it out.

I have just finished "The order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli, and have just started "21 Lessons for a 21st Century" by Yuval Noah Harari. It's too late for the Order of Time and I will make use of the clipping in 21 lessons. Both books I have added to the Scays.co.uk web site book list.

Saturday and Sunday, have always been my days for buying the weekends papers. I started doing this in my early teens and never really stopped, except for the times I live abroad and English papers were very expensive. I started clipping articles and adding them to my little blue book, a ring clip binder I used. But now I tend to use an app on my Pixel mobile to scan as a pdf article the item I want to clip, far more efficient way to clip as I save it to my Google Drive and the article is OCR'd so searchable.

So there we have my update on home Lockdown, stay out of the way, and keep up with Uni life. Oh and try and get a Tesco or any other slot for home delivery, almost impossible, so might have to visit the local store.

Today's photo is my loan Brompton I have from the University, so good to get back into the sale, and on such a nice bike, I am now looking for one to buy.

AI - An interview with Alex Garland via Lex Fridman's podcast AI

I watch listen and read about AI with interest, not because I understand it, but more, I need to understand it, simply because I can see how our building will at some point integrate AI into its fundamental running,

So often we design and detail building in the vain hope that the client and subsequent owners will run the building as we envisaged, clean it as we want and occupy it in the way he told us in the brief. But in reality, this is never quite to way, Clients don't understand, or can't afford it, or simply think they know best !!

AI will, if used correctly, run the building as we envisaged, and adapt as life depicts, understand new owners and shout loudly when they abuse the design.

To this end, I listen to a podcast and also read Lex Fridman's articles on the subject, his latest podcast and one I have listened to twice is a conversation he has with Alex Garland, this link takes you to a page with almost every podcast player, choose your poison. But the video is below via YouTube.

Alex Garland is a writer, not a trained scientist or physicist, his claim to fame are plenty, but the three films I like most taken from his work are:

• Ex Machina, 
• Devs, 
• Annihilation

But it's Ex Machina I watch time and time again, each time picking up on how the robot, works and thinks, or how the automation of the dwelling works if you have not seen it, look it up on Netflix, There is so much to see and understand around AI, how complex the algorithms must be to even start to work at the level he imagines.

Apart from the real question of AI, how do we teach this to aspiring construction graduates across the broad spectrum of disciplines found in Architecture? My own thoughts are that we should introduce the subject at the undergraduate level, but concentrate on the construction, materials sequence of operations, teaching an understanding of sharing their work in a manner that allows a complete understanding of the building materials used plus the art of detailing, and introduce this concept of programming gently, simple use of Dynamo or Grasshopper, the use of spreadsheets generated from the model which relies on good sound data input, and leave the more complicated stuff to Masters and above.

Even at undergraduate level, I teach the use of a digital plan, so often this is aimed at understanding the way technology will be used during the construction phase and into the life of the building, perhaps the way AI is used at this later stage is the work at Masters and above.

Augmented Reality almost here

For so long, I have been teaching that Augmented Reality will take over how we draw and overlay the technical parameters of our designs on reality. the technology has its ups and downs, Google glass lead the way, but fell due in part to the lack of foresight in the public, "Magic leap" has tantalised us with hints of what might be, but as yet have failed to deliver. The same goes for so many startups.

Yet both Google and Apple are poised to offer us the next phase of Augmented life and it looks interesting to the point I might even have to keep my MacBook Pro.

This article on Medium, and if you do not have an account here, get one, they are a major repository of so many interesting articles, but I digress. The article by Novac B, offers a lot of reason why Apple might just pull of another leap in Technology over the efforts of Google, that will, like the iPhone and Mac, send us into raptures and back into the Apple stores.

The article is titled Apple’s Smart Glasses — The Final Piece of the Puzzle is Almost There! and its a thesis of note, looking over the titbits of information currently out there and piecing it together to show just how far along the path Apple really are. So many like to give doom and gloom to Apple, their sales might be falling, but watch this space, they have done it so many times, announcing to the world products that change how we live.

Today's image is the title image from the above article, it so sets the scene

IDD or Intergrated Digital Design

I did not invent the name of this blog it came from previous lecturers at Birmingham City University. But over the last two years of my involvement, I have made it my own, steering first and second-year students along the digital path, now encompassing Architecture, from CAD to the ultimate end of the Smart City, Self-driving cars, the future.

For some its a mind-blowing entrance to a University Degree course, for some, it's well an opening to their future. They seem to soak up the knowledge, some are gamers,  they have a mindset that understands the route ahead.

So far for the last 5 weeks, I have introduced the concept of the digital world, but today I introduced all of the past weeks into the start of the world of CAD, the introduction of Data to the 3D model and its use, as part of what's known as BIM.

It's not an easy route, made harder by the fact that the group is made up of Architectural Technologists, Building Surveyors, Quantity Surveyors,  Planners and Construction managers, all of whom have just a little different use and role in the digital plan.

Oh, and did I say the whole class, some 140 students in the first year are flung together within individual groups, they need to work together, exploring the data and sharing it, much like a real-life practice. or project.

Lectures range from introductions to CAD to understanding the effect of the weather on details, and of course, researching the data needed to understand how materials work as a built structure.

Some of my slides are on Scays.co.uk, but I need to pull together in a coherent page, a project to be done.

Today's photo the little blue dot Voyager photo set up by Carl Sagan, a classic. I just purchased a "T" shirt with a little version of the photo.

Freeman Dyson

I awoke yesterday to be confronted by the news of Freeman Dyson's death. Who you might ask, well he was a Theoretical Physicist, a man who dreamed of things and tried to make it work with very complicated mathematics.

For most it was his episode of Startrek and Picard's discovery of a Dyson Sphere, also staring the last appearance of Scotty.
His daughter, one of many children he leaves, is EstherDyson her book 2.1 is required reading. on Computer Science and the internet, I have an old copy I purchased on my travels through an airport.

The Guardian has an excellent obituary of Freeman, his life and Family, his awards and papers. Although searching on Google Scholar has many of his papers. If like me you can access many of them they are excellent reading, well mostly, a couple are full of complex maths I can't begin to follow.

My Brompton Travels

As a boy, I used to bike everywhere, the distance was no object, but as I started work, the joy of this activity fell by the wayside, a car began to take the lead and I travelled all over Europe for business. But now as I enter retirement, biking is taking my interest again, and one cycle, in particular, a Brompton, I have one on loan, just to see if this is not just a fad, well I am pleased to say its not. So I am looking for my own, new or secondhand.

I have a few trips planned, but it's going to have to be a summer expedition, I have tried cycling in the wet and its not fun, so Fairweather cycling it is.

But why a Brompton, well it's simple, I intend to use trains as part of my travels, it's folding nature allows easy access and no problems, My first trip will be on the train to London and a meeting on the Euston road, then on to the Kings Cross area to look at the Google building, and I hope a small report.

I use a Pixel phone, so along with my Brompton, a  handlebar holder, to use the maps app, together with  I hope time-lapse photography.

My fourth Career move

Its that time of my life when I suddenly realise its all over, 50 years working and I am seriously considering that final move to retirement. I had dinner with a friend last night and although he retired 20 years ago, he is busier than ever.

Will that be for me, I wonder. I take a look at what's available, I could go as a consultant and earn a little, but that means forming a company again, accounts and insurance, and that is just not appealing. No that's not the right route for me. Can I start writing, Mmmmm now this seems to be more like what I want, a little writing each morning sound good, but what do I write about, old work-related subjects or something completely new, or perhaps a side of my business life that I have never delved into?

This last thought has me thinking, and the more I dwell on the subject the more I think, this just might be for me. I have my Scays web site and I wonder if this is the tool for expanding this new area.

Scays.co.uk, was and still is my site for my lectures, this might prove a basis for all I want to do, expand my thoughts out of the normal lectures into something a little bit more out of the box, so to speak.

Scays has for the last few years been a place where students, ex and present, can find the slides I use at my University lectures on construction, themed around the role of the Architectural Technologist.

Expanding it into this new area is beginning to excite me, and might just be the fourth career move I have been looking for.

So where to start, well this blog seems the right beginning, a place where I can explore my thoughts, develop themes and work up ideas, that I can migrate over to scays.

In recent years I have developed an interest in photography, mostly about the places I have travelled to, but a little on photos to back up my slides, I have placed some of these on Flickr, so search scays to see my collection, or follow the link. I intend to enhance the collection with more from my Google Photo repository.

So here it is, retirement and my fourth career, oh did I mention travel, part of my writing will be travel, and yes I intend to travel widely. Mostly by trains, and including cruising. But some airlines will be inevitable.

Today's photo is of the monolith in Hudson Yard, it's not just the buildings or the truly stunning Architecture, but the construction itself being situated over the station and railway tracks. More on this later, but for now just one of my many photos of the complex.