ITcon Vol. 19, pg. 520-533, http://www.itcon.org/2014/30

Development of ecoCampus: a prototype system for sustainable building design education

submitted:September 2014
revised:December 2014
published:December 2014
editor(s):Rezgui Y
authors:Steven K. Ayer, Assistant Professor
Arizona State University
steven.ayer@asu.edu, http://engineering.asu.edu/sebe

John I. Messner, Charles and Elinor Matts Professor of Architectural Engineering The Pennsylvania State University
jmessner@engr.psu.edu, http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/cic/

Chimay J. Anumba, Department Head and Professor of Architectural Engineering The Pennsylvania State University
anumba@engr.psu.edu, http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/faculty/anumba/index.asp
summary:Students in architectural engineering and related disciplines need to develop critical design skills to be successful in their post-collegiate careers. Among these critical skills are the abilities to: create possible design concepts to address a given functional or programming requirement; understand what those concepts will look like in the context of an existing building or project site; and assess the benefits and deficiencies of the design concepts to determine the best possible design strategy. Existing technologies have been used to help students develop these skills through a mobile computer-based prototype, called ecoCampus. This computer application allowed students to: explore sustainable retrofit design possibilities for an existing building; visualize those design possibilities with marker-based augmented reality; and receive tailored performance feedback about the designs through a basic simulation game interface. This paper discusses the general workflow for creating this type of tool and the specific steps that were followed to develop ecoCampus. These steps include: identifying educational objectives; developing a list of functional requirements; developing the workflow for the educational design module; determining the development infrastructure for creating the application; developing the tool; and refining the initial prototype through iteration. This workflow is offered as a process that can successfully lead to a functional prototype as evidenced by the creation of ecoCampus, and can be used by future developers for creating similar technological tools applied to various educational disciplines.
keywords:ecoCampus, simulation game, augmented reality, engineering education
full text: (PDF file, 9.889 MB)
citation:Ayer SK, Messner JI, Anumba CJ (2014). Development of ecoCampus: a prototype system for sustainable building design education, ITcon Vol. 19, pg. 520-533, https://www.itcon.org/2014/30