From physical to digital in structural engineering classrooms using digital fabrication

In this paper, a set of digital artifacts related to simple examples of structural engineering are presented. The artifacts are real‐time applications and visualizations of typical problems students from the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) schools are acquainted with. The real‐time nature of the examples allow a high level of interaction between humans and the classic visualization of results, namely, bending and shear force diagrams, internal stresses distributions, and contour plots. These artifacts may provide in AEC a twofold educational target: (i) for users, to provide visual understanding in real time of typical problems that must be understood in classic lectures of structural engineering; (ii) for developers, to provide meaningful applications of applied digital fabrication using sensors, microcontrollers, and GUI's and their potential in the development of tools related to Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and the Internet of Things (IoT) among students of the AEC sector.

[1]  Jae Young Lee,et al.  Finite element implementation for computer‐aided education of structural mechanics: Frame analysis , 2014, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ..

[2]  Miguel A. Prada,et al.  A LOW-COST OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE IN CONTROL EDUCATION. CASE STUDY: ARDUINO-FEEDBACK MS-150 , 2015 .

[3]  Fabio Gramazio,et al.  Complex concrete structures: Merging existing casting techniques with digital fabrication , 2015, Comput. Aided Des..

[4]  Stephen Fox,et al.  Third Wave Do-It-Yourself (DIY): Potential for prosumption, innovation, and entrepreneurship by local populations in regions without industrial manufacturing infrastructure , 2014 .

[5]  Fabio Gramazio,et al.  Robotic timber construction — Expanding additive fabrication to new dimensions , 2016 .

[6]  Janet C. Read,et al.  Digital fabrication in education: Expanding the research towards design and reflective practices , 2015, Int. J. Child Comput. Interact..

[7]  Anastasios G. Sextos,et al.  A matlab‐based educational tool for the seismic design of flexibly supported RC buildings , 2014, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ..

[8]  Karen Kensek.  Integration of Environmental Sensors with BIM: Case studies using Arduino, Dynamo, and the Revit API , 2014 .

[9]  Fabio Gramazio,et al.  Material ecology , 2012 .

[10]  Joseph M. Gattas,et al.  Design and digital fabrication of folded sandwich structures , 2016 .

[11]  Joshua M. Pearce.  Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs , 2013 .

[12]  Sergio Oller,et al.  Numerical Validation of the Incremental Launching Method of a Steel Bridge Through a Small-Scale Experimental Study , 2016, Experimental Techniques.

[13]  Cipriano Galindo,et al.  A LEGO Mindstorms NXT approach for teaching at Data Acquisition, Control Systems Engineering and Real-Time Systems undergraduate courses , 2012, Comput. Educ..

[14]  Tim Collins,et al.  Final‐year projects using open source OpenEEG , 2016, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ..

[15]  B. F. Spencer,et al.  Java‐powered virtual laboratories for earthquake engineering education , 2005, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ..

[16]  Hojjat Adeli,et al.  Web‐based tutor for interactive design of connections in steel buildings , 2012, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ..

[17]  Thierry Rayna,et al.  From rapid prototyping to home fabrication: How 3D printing is changing business model innovation , 2016 .

[18]  Ehab Ellobody,et al.  3D Visualization of Structures Using Finite-Element Analysis in Teaching , 2012 .

[19]  Rachel Charlotte Smith,et al.  Design thinking for digital fabrication in education , 2015, Int. J. Child Comput. Interact..

[20]  G. M.,et al.  A Treatise on the Mathematical Theory of Elasticity , 1906, Nature.

[21]  Giacomo Innocenti,et al.  Lego‐bike: A challenging robotic lab project to illustrate rapid prototyping in the mindstorms/simulink integrated platform , 2015, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ..

[22]  Jae Young Lee.  Interactive simulation of finite element equation processing for educational purposes , 2015, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ..

[23]  Miroslav Fikar,et al.  ArPi Lab: A Low-Cost Remote Laboratory for Control Education , 2014 .

[24]  Sergio Oller,et al.  Designing experiments using digital fabrication in structural dynamics , 2017 .

[25]  Paulo Blikstein,et al.  Digital Fabrication and Making' in Education: The Democratization of Invention , 2013 .

[26]  Juan Antonio Hernández Tamames,et al.  An embedded system course using JavaME and android , 2015, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ..

[27]  University of California-Davis,et al.  The Promise of the Maker Movement for Education , 2017 .

[28]  Patrick Paultre,et al.  LAS: A programming language and development environment for learning matrix structural analysis , 2016, Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ..

[29]  Harald Unterweger.  Simple Structural Models for the Education of Structural Engineers at Graz University , 2005 .